A career in storytelling

“People who are really interested in human beings and really interested in life make good storytellers.”

Donald Smith, director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, describes the key skills of storytellers, a newly-developed qualification for storytelling, and what kinds of careers storytellers can have.
 

See Donald tell stories here:

The Quarrelling Neighbours
The Pedlar of Swaffham

Video Transcription

Donald Smith: "I've worked as a literary researcher, and I've worked in small-scale theatre, literary theatre, beginning as a stage manager and then directing and writing and producing. But the storytelling renaissance, if you like, has been my main concern and activity for about the last decade."

Creative Choicesº: "What are the key skills of a storyteller?"

Donald Smith: "I think there are three things going on simultaneously. One is, a storyteller is a kind of editor on the hoof. They have to be able to shape the story, to revise the story, to reinterpret the story in a way that's going to be engaging and appealing to the immediate audience. So that's the second skill, then -- they have to be good communicators, presenters. But thirdly, the good storyteller is also somebody who can read response, who can harness response, who can engage that response and take it further, as some sort of further creative activity or play or investigation or process. So it's those three things."

Creative Choicesº: "Are there any qualifications for storytelling?"

Donald Smith: "This year, we're [The Scottish Storytelling Centre] launching a new professional development unit qualification in storytelling, in partnership with Newbattle Abbey College. The qualification is particularly pitched at people who are developing storytelling within a specific professional area, whether that's natural interpretation or museums or education or health care or whatever. And it will be really stretching people to think about the relationship between their storytelling approaches and those specific professional contexts."

Creative Choicesº: "Can storytelling be a full-time career?"

Donald Smith: "There are people who are making their complete living as storytellers. I think most of them would be doing a certain amount of training workshops alongside their performance work. I think also that they would do a lot with schools, probably, which is very much a kind of bread and butter, schools and libraries. But I think there are also many other people who have storytelling skills as part of a range of things that they are doing and engaged in, and I think in some ways that actually works quite well."

Creative Choicesº: "What type of person makes a good storyteller?"

Donald Smith: "People who are really interested in human beings and really interested in life make good storytellers -- almost a character/personality thing rather than a professional background thing, because actually the variety of people who get involved is astonishing."