Post #138 September 17 2018

“Audiobooks and the Oral Traditions of Storytelling”

Before there was writing, there were stories.  Storytelling began with an oral tradition thousands of years ago, even before the written word.  Wikipedia says this about the beginnings of storytelling:

“Early storytelling probably originated in simple chants. People sang chants as they worked at grinding corn or sharpening tools. Our early ancestors created myths to explain natural occurrences. They assigned superhuman qualities to ordinary people, thus originating the hero tale.

“Early storytelling combined stories, poetry, music, and dance. Those who excelled at storytelling became entertainers, educators, cultural advisors, and historians for the community. Through storytellers, the history of a culture was handed down from generation to generation.

“The importance of stories and storytellers throughout human history can be seen in the respect afforded to professional storytellers.

“The 9th century fictional storyteller Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights, who saves herself from execution by telling tales, is one example illustrating the value placed on storytelling in days of old. Centuries before Scheherazade, the power of storytelling is reflected by Vyasa at the beginning of the Indian epic Mahabharata. Vyasa says, "If you listen carefully, at the end you'll be someone else."

In recent months, my online publisher Smashwords has begun to offer authors a new feature, the chance to upload audio files toward creating a new market for their works as audiobooks.  This has intrigued me enough to look back into the oral beginnings of storytelling for insights.  In fact, the rapid growth of audiobooks has rekindled my interest in old-time radio, including such favorites as the 70s’ CBS Radio Mystery Theater…a kind of theater of the mind.

It seems like the human voice is perfect for telling stories, something that writers of the printed word seem to have forgotten.

What can we learn about storytelling from the oral traditions of our ancestors?

1. The human voice can have a strong impact on a story.  As writers of the printed word, we don’t (or didn’t before audiobooks) have this medium available to us.  But there is such a thing as narrative voice.  Whether your story is told with the immediacy of 1^st person (offering a single individual’s perspective…the narrator) or from 3^rd person, which provides a broader omniscient perspective, narrative voice defines how the story is told and received by the audience.  Your choice as a writer depends on what kind of story you have.  In my novel Final Victory, I used the old technique of a story within a story.  The narrator tells the story in first person, within a greater frame of 3^rd person.  The inside story is also 3^rd person, but we know as readers that it’s really being told by a narrator.
2. Choose words with emotional power.  Recall that storytelling probably began as chants or even songs while people worked in the fields.  The words chanted or sung would be selected to resonate with the audience, and be easy to remember, perhaps even rhyming.  Originally storytelling was a communal experience, emphasizing words and techniques that psychically bonded the tribe, clan or community.  Writers of the written word should make the same choices.  Now with audiobooks, we can go back to the simple power of the spoken word, providing writers and authors with new possibilities. 
3. Rhythm, meter, cadence and pacing are important.  You can see this clearly in songs and chants today.  It’s likely that songs were our first stories.  Words were chosen for their ability to aid in memorizing and recall.  Sometimes, audiences even responded in refrains, like the responsive reading we see in many churches today.  While audiobook authors don’t really have this option (since listening to audiobooks isn’t necessarily a communal experience), the same word and pacing choices can be applied, now that audio gives us back the power of the spoken word.
4. Early stories were stripped down to their essentials.  This was necessary to keep everybody focused on the storyline and to aid the storyteller in recalling and repeating the story.  Certain narrative plots have endured for thousands of years: a hero is involved in a chase, a hero must slay a monster, or save a damsel in distress.  Complications build to some kind of climax.  The hero’s plight looks grim but he triumphs in the end, through cunning, guile, strength, etc. and is changed or grows or learns something about himself in the process.

 

Some things never change.  Now audiobooks give writers a vehicle to go back to some of the earliest traditions and practices of storytelling and recapture the power that captivated so many of our ancestors.

I’m planning on giving it a try and converting some of my own works to audio as soon as I can get the equipment together.

The next post to The Word Shed comes on September 24, 2018

See you then.

Phil B.