Caregivers learn the benefits of creative non-fiction in several structured rounds of story-telling and story-listening. In each round, participants shape a personal experience into the time-limited form of a two-minute story, and learn to tell it engagingly to one sympathetic listener. For example:
- a story about someone trying to do something, finding our attempts interrupted, and struggling to bring about a resolution.
- a story about the gaps between the values and meaning we hold on the inside, and our actual behaviors and actions on the outside.
- a story that restores our sense of self and our place in a larger world.
Participants build a story in pieces. They begin with a good line, a memorable image, a graphic description. They practice shaping a struggle or a character sketch into something with a narrative arc. Using story-building techniques, such as exaggeration, repetition and contrast, they craft their experiences into something worthy of an audience.
Benefiting from the simple and powerful act of listening, and structured feedback from their listeners, caregivers learn to drop details, and focus on the good lines. They tell a good story, winningly, in a very short time -- stories that evoke a nod of recognition (“Gosh, that’s so true!”), a smile or even a laugh.
Session leaders -- experienced caregivers who are practiced storytellers -- tell their stories, and participants listen for the ways in which these stories illustrate the three simple principles on which the workshop structure rests:
1. You have two minutes.
2. Go for the punchline.
Leave out the details.
- a story about someone trying to do something, finding our attempts interrupted, and struggling to bring about a resolution.
- a story about the gaps between the values and meaning we hold on the inside, and our actual behaviors and actions on the outside.
- a story that restores our sense of self and our place in a larger world.
Participants build a story in pieces. They begin with a good line, a memorable image, a graphic description. They practice shaping a struggle or a character sketch into something with a narrative arc. Using story-building techniques, such as exaggeration, repetition and contrast, they craft their experiences into something worthy of an audience.
Benefiting from the simple and powerful act of listening, and structured feedback from their listeners, caregivers learn to drop details, and focus on the good lines. They tell a good story, winningly, in a very short time -- stories that evoke a nod of recognition (“Gosh, that’s so true!”), a smile or even a laugh.
Session leaders -- experienced caregivers who are practiced storytellers -- tell their stories, and participants listen for the ways in which these stories illustrate the three simple principles on which the workshop structure rests:
1. You have two minutes.
2. Go for the punchline.
Leave out the details.
For the Moderator
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For the Caregiver
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