As a teenager, I remember sitting around a campfire while someone from the group told a ghost story. By the time the story was finished, I was so frightened, I didn't want to move. The thought of walking back to my cabin through the dark forest was terrifying.
In the article The Irish Fireside as a Fiction Workshop, novelist Frank Delaney uses Irish oral
storytelling as the greatest teacher of writing. The tradition of oral storytelling was practiced at Irish firesides for millennia. There are three lessons that
he feels can be learned from this.
Lesson one: Dance
with the language. The Irish storytellers were “drunk with words” as they
painted detailed pictures with their tales.
Lesson two: Work
your material. Embellish, embellish, embellish. Don’t be afraid to extend your
writing with “back story,” giving your characters a long ancestry.
Lesson three: Believe
your story. “Even if it’s far-out fantasy fiction, behave as though it were
journalism.”
I like Delaney's ideas. Picture your story being told at the fireside by a roving
Irish storyteller, mesmerizing his listeners as he makes fiction seem like a
true tale that he has experienced. Read your writing aloud. Is it convincing to
you and others?
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