Exclusive Excerpt from Story Rugs and their Storytellers
Book Club Exclusive!
Excerpt from Story Rugs and Their Storytellers
Chapter 5: Making a Story Rug by Paulette Hackman
Pick up your copy of Story Rugs and Their Storytellers here!
Finding Your Story
Long before I was hooked (oh, please allow me!), I was a feature write and, in later years, a teacher. For the former, I went out in search of stories or wrote up those that came to me. As an instructor, I taught composition and magazine writing to college students and—my personal favorite—memoir workshops to seniors. I loved hearing stories at the senior center, some of which came on scraps of paper to be told to the group. The point wasn't to produce polished writing but to sort out stories that had some shape and drama—stories that had personal meaning or that changed something afterward.
However, the majority of individuals in both groups had trouble finding a good story to sustain interest—their interest and that of others. If a story doesn't resonate with you, it won't be fun (or interesting or rewarding) to tell it, either. To get to the good stuff, you need to do a little poking around.
Here are a couple of exercises to help you move the process along. These exercises are designed to be relaxing. Just one of them may unlock a few memories for you—perhaps even a chain of recollections. And then you have a foundation on which to design your story rug.
Exercise #1: The Timeline
Divide your life into three or four parts for the sake of convenience. It could be Childhood, Teen and College Years, Family Years, Empty Nest; or it could be delineated by milestones such as Birth, Graduation, First Job, Wedding. Next choose three to five important events from each part you've included. You could include people who influenced you at a particular stage or major events and transitions. Have you noticed that certain parts (events or episodes) are more vivid than others? Have you rediscovered a funny anecdote? An everyday treasure? A ritual of importance? An experience of great warmth? Any or all of the feelings generated by this exercise can provide energy, imagination, and sustenance for a story rug project.
A woman I'll call Ruth told the memoir group that she was so fond of the timeline exercise that she decided to keep it going. To this end, she'd pinned up a timeline all around her kitchen walls and had already added more of her life stories to it. I wish I could see it.
Like Ruth, leave your timeline around while your ideas gestate for a while longer. Use this timeline as an organizing tool; or if you like what comes of it, use it as a way to tell your story.
Exercise #2: This Old House
Draw floor plans of the house you most loved in youth. Don't fuss too much. The point is to recreate a place of mind, heart, and spirit in the form of a floor plan. Fill in as much detail as possible. once you are done, identify the places that have special meaning to you. Spend some time daydreaming about that place. In your mind's eye, approach that house from a distance, walk into it, and choose a room or place to go into. What comes into your mind? Maybe it's an ordinary Sunday in childhood with relatives coming over, your mom at the stove, and your dad raking autumn leaves before they get there. Uh-oh, here come Aunt Sis and Uncle Bud bringing the dreaded olive loaf for lunch!
Once given new life by your imagination and your memory, draw some vignettes depicting these scenes. Don't get hung up on the drawings; they can be drawn as cells like cartoons. A good drawing reference I found (by accident) are kids' cartoons on TV or streaming on the computer. You can watch The Flintstones or Curious George and freeze a frame that shows a couch or a set of pots and pans, anything that may have eluded your sketching skills.
