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Professional Storytelling...
...getting paid to tell stories
while workcamping and RV traveling.
Are You the King of
Storytelling Around the Campfire? Put Your Talents to Use as a
Professional RVing Storyteller.
The career of storyteller
fits nicely with working while RVing. Some of the best known tellers started out by traveling from town to town. There are some who
still let libraries and schools know that they will be in their area and
get gigs that way.
As with all skilled professionals, professional storytellers make telling stories to an audience
appear easy and fun. Perhaps you have attended a storytelling festival or concert and thought,
"I could do that. I love telling stories!" Perhaps you already tell stories as a parent, scout leader,
teacher, librarian, speaker, or business leader and are wondering how to take your storytelling
to a professional level. Perhaps you didn’t realize that there are professional storytellers
making an excellent living doing what they do and loving every minute of it.
Storytelling has experienced a rebirth and resurgence during the past
35 to 40 years. Professional storytellers are in demand. There are professional storytellers performing all over the world on stages, in
schools, at libraries, and at important events. It takes a lot more, however, than just loving to tell stories. It takes talent, discipline,
uniqueness, preparation, tenacity, creativity, and integrity. Even though a
good storyteller is always welcomed, a professional storyteller must also
approach storytelling as a business if he or she wants to make a living.
Chris King, a professional storyteller, wrote a book, How to Get Started as a Professional Storyteller,
that provides a realistic picture of what you can expect, shares the experiences of currently successful professional storytellers, tells you what you
need to know, offers insider tips on how to become successful, and provides a step-by-step plan
to get you started.
Click to order
How to Get Started as a Professional Storyteller.
What It's Like to
Be a Professional Storyteller
by Chris King
It is impossible to describe a typical, professional storyteller. Storytellers appear in all
guises — a wide range of ages, shapes, sizes, and from different cultures and ethnic
backgrounds. They tell stories to all age groups from pre-school to senior citizens, with
families in between. Storytellers tell (not read) a variety of stories from parables, to
traditional folk and fairy tales, to urban tales, to personal stories, to original stories, to
business stories. Storytellers have as many styles of telling as there are kinds of stories.
There are traditional storytellers who remain seated with minimal movement, using only their
words and voice to transmit the story. There are storytellers who add movement, facial
expressions, music, mime, percussion, props, and costumes to enhance their stories.
Professional storytellers are in demand. Because storytelling has experienced a rebirth
and resurgence during the past 35 to 40 years, there are professional storytellers
performing all over the world on stages, in schools, at libraries, and at important events. It
takes a lot more, however, than just loving to tell stories to become a professional
storyteller. It takes talent, discipline, uniqueness, preparation, tenacity, creativity, and
integrity. Even though a good storyteller is always welcomed, a professional storyteller
must also approach storytelling as a business if he or she wants to make a living.
What this means is that the successful, professional storyteller has worked and
continues to work on developing his/her unique style of telling. It also means that,
as with many of the performing arts, the professional storyteller is, typically, not under
contract to a single employer, but sells his or her “gigs” to many groups, organizations, and
individual clients. Therefore, a good portion of the professional storyteller’s time is used
marketing his or her talents — much more in the beginning until word-of-mouth kicks in.
Because professional storytellers come to storytelling in different ways, they also fit
into a variety of career paths. Some tell part time on weekends and evenings while
holding down another full or part time career. Some are teachers or librarians who tell as
part of their employment and then professionally on their own during their vacations. Some
couple their professional storytelling with writing — often related to their storytelling and
stories. Some are full time storytellers who tell in their own region, while some travel the
country and the world. Many professional storytellers started as part time professional
storytellers and found the career to be so rewarding and so much fun, they eventually
went full time.
What is a typical schedule for a professional storyteller? Storyteller Dianne de Las
Casas from Harvey, Louisiana (one of the three professional storytellers I interviewed for
the book) answered, “Like any self-employed, professional storyteller, my days, weeks and
months vary. I typically perform 150-200 shows per year. Most of my performances are in
the field of education — at schools and libraries. In the summer, I tour Louisiana libraries
and when I do, I am only home on the weekends. I spend a lot of time on the road and in
motels.
"On a performance day, I pack my car the night before (I have a lot of equipment — a
professional sound system, wireless microphone, speaker stands, a backdrop, and props). In
the morning, I make sure to note my mileage in my mileage book. I arrive at my
performance site about 45 minutes to one hour beforehand to set up. Two performances at
one site usually take up half a day if it's local. Two performances at two different sites will
take up a whole day due to travel, setting up, and breaking down.
"When I am in my office, I return calls, check and respond to email, do paperwork,
research, market new clients, create, and rehearse. I am pretty organized so I keep a
calendar where I write all of my engagements and my to-do list. I check my to-do list every
day and check off items that have been accomplished.
"My typical day is not typical. It varies from day to day and it is part of what makes the
storytelling profession so exciting and appealing to me."
If you think you would like to become a professional storyteller, order the
book, How
to Get Started as a Professional Storyteller. It will provide a realistic picture of what you can
expect, share the experiences of currently successful professional storytellers, tell you
what you need to know, offer insider tips on how to become successful, and provide a
step-by-step plan to get you started. And, be sure to let me know how you like it.
Click
to Order How
to Get Started as a Professional Storyteller.
Related Links:
Storytelling Power
-- all sorts of information by and for storytellers.
www.storytellingpower.com
An alternative to volunteer
work camping. Working RVers earn money while RVing.
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