Finding the surefire story
By Diane Forrest
In the August 2007 issue of Cottage Life magazine, we told you how to plan a sizzling cottage campfire. In an exclusive to cottagelife.com, Diane Forest shares her tips for finding a great campfire tale that suits your storytelling style.
There are
certain classic tales most of us have heard – The Golden Arm, The Hook, The Ghostly Hitchhiker.
One of my favourites is a shaggy dog story about a family that acquires a cute little pet called a Rary that grows so big it’s eating them out of house and home. They try every way they can think of to get rid of it, without success, and eventually decide to throw it over a cliff. But at the very edge of the cliff, they discover they can’t go through with it because, “It’s a long way to tip a Rary.” Ideally, this story goes on for about 15 minutes and you will be thrown in the lake at the end.
If you’d prefer to remain dry, there are many sources of excellent tales.
Your instincts may be to tell something quick, but “Jokes and little anecdotes are sometimes the hardest,” says Dan Yashinsky, founder of the Toronto Festival of Storytelling. First of all, if you don’t get the punchline right, the story will fall flat. Secondly, “The whole point of storytelling is to get lost in the story. Sometimes it’s easier for listeners to give themselves to long stories.”
Good stories may be difficult to come up with on the spot. But if you’re willing to do a little
preparation, they’re easy to find at the library, online, or on your own bookshelves. Jack Pearse, of Camp
Tawingo, and Yashinsky suggest
• Collections of stories, legends, myths, and folktales
• Your favourite stories from childhood
• Local history
• Favourite family stories
• Urban legends (“Google ‘urban legend’ and you’ve got three hours of campfire stories,” says Yashinsky.)
Essentially, any story that has enough suspense that people want to know what happens next will work.
And remember that in telling your tale, you have aesthetics, history, and basic human behaviour on your side. “Human beings have sat at the storytelling fire for thousands and thousands of years,” says Yashinsky. “So when you take your place by the fire, you’re part of a long tradition that’s never been broken.”
Click here for a campfire story by Dan Yashinsky.
Want s'more? Click here for a great adult twist on the campfire classic treat.
