This year, 2019, will mark the 19^th anniversary of the Annual National Story Telling Week. It is celebrated every year from 26^th January to 2^nd February, with an additional four days before and after the week called as ‘Coat Tails’. National Storytelling Week takes place in storytelling clubs, cafes, theatres, museums, schools, churches, hospitals, spoken word venues, and care homes.

Storytelling- An Ancient Tradition

Creativity and imagination are nature’s gift and the desire to communicate and share your imagination has always been there. Storytelling is one of the earliest mediums for orally communicating our, dreams, aspirations, feelings and imaginations. Storytelling is one of the most creative arts with the greatest of power to influence.

"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it." --Hannah Arendt

There was a time when the art of storytelling was very popular and storytellers were appreciated on large. The legends and folktales are all the gifts from the storytelling traditions.

Historically storytelling was a great tool for mass communication, socialisation and family bonding. It was a medium to create influence politically, and a gift to preach and educate. Storytelling was also used as a tool for propaganda.

"Great stories happen to those who can tell them." --Ira Glas

Although not as popular in current times, the art of storytelling still prevails in different forms. In modern culture, storytelling has provided a foundation for novels, TV serials, movies and a lot of disciplines of media and mass communication.

National Story Telling Week - History

Once a year, in January, a week is dedicated to celebrate the art of storytelling. In National storytelling week, hundreds of events are organised and thousands of people participate in it. There are many local and national level events which can also be a great source for networking.

In 2001 ‘The National Storytelling Week’ was started. The Society for Storytelling promotes the old tradition of storytelling. To this end, they help organise the National Storytelling Week in the region. The SFS work with people around the region to promote efforts of keeping the tradition of narration and storytelling alive. SFS has also designed very rich resources for arranging storytelling events and organising storytelling clubs, which are available online here.

"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." --Robert McKee

Events for National Story Telling Week engages the audience from all age groups, with a variety of tastes for folk tales and legends, dragons and fairies, serpents and spiders, robots and aliens, monsters and murders and every fibre of imagination from excellent fibres.

Austin Macauley and National Story Telling Week

The National Storytelling Week is perfect for keeping the spirit of books alive in modern times. As a publishing house, Austin Macauley has been working on promoting storytellers from the UK and around the globe. For more than a decade we have delivered numerous stories to the worldwide story lovers.

Austin Macauley celebrates the art of storytelling and imagination of storytellers which work like magic to transport the audience into another world. Austin Macauley offers storytellers from around the globe a platform to share with others, the alternative realities they create. We applaud the power of storytelling to inspire, influence and persuade.

This year Austin Macauley will be running some very interesting storytelling competitions through our social media so stay tuned. This is to revive the love of storytelling in the new generation and appreciate the talent of young storytellers.

"There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place." --J.K. Rowling

If you have a story to tell, make it heard! If you know someone who loves to tell stories and love doing it, provide them with a platform. To educate the new generation about the magic of books and enchanting art of storytelling and organise an event at your locality! Find a suitable place, like a school, a book store, library or maybe a café make a call of action and you have made a fair share in the literary world of storytelling.

We have also asked some of our colleagues to tell us how they feel about storytelling. We are pleased to share their views in the following section.

Why is National Storytelling Week important?

Janine from our marketing department explores the importance: A Tradition that binds us all

Reading it the greatest adventure of them all. Your imagination knows no bounds, it can take you to faraway places, you can live through amazing characters and learn through the experience of others.  Storytelling is intrinsic to all cultures, throughout the history of humanity. Before we had books, oral stories were handed down from one generation to the next. From great explorers bringing back tales of exotic places, myths and legends, to families passing down stories from their ancestors. Good storytellers have always been well respected and revered. Over the generations, storytelling has evolved into written stories, films, social media, cooperate branding and even used to make us cry at adverts. It is a practice that binds humanity across race, religion, age and gender. One that deserves to be celebrated and enjoyed. 

Over the past 27 years, The Society Story Telling has campaigned for the promotion of oral storytelling. Between the 26^th January – 2nd February 2019, we celebrate this great tradition during National Story Telling Week across many schools, libraries, venues, theatres, clubs, hospitals and care homes. Not only is it a time to discover great stories published in books, but also to explore the great stories that live inside of all of us.

Family Bonding

Spending time reading to children and swapping family stories is a way to bond and feel connected. Young children can hear and pick up information much faster than they can read. Reading stories aloud from a book, or creating them together, is a great way to increase language skills, vocabulary, creative thinking and imagination. These are all skills that are necessary for success in life. Establishing these routines with your children will help them achieve better results in school, develop their general knowledge, improve social and cultural awareness and improve their career prospects in a rapidly changing world.

Leaving a Legacy

Until recently, publishing a book was not an easy task. With many great writers finding it difficult to share their stories with the world. Many authors just want the opportunity to leave a legacy, to share their life’s story with their family and ancestors, as previous generations did before. Oral storytelling is not reliable as ‘facts’ are often misremembered through the years of retelling. Having a book to pass down is a great way to preserve the truth as seen from your perspective at the time.

Get Involved

Undoubtedly, there will be many events in your local area that we encourage you to get involved with: library events, school events, theatre shows etc. However, you can also host your own celebration with family, neighbours and friends. Taking time to tell stories from the past, remembering those who are no longer with us and times that made us laugh, will provide moments of nostalgia and inspire the creation of new memories for the future. We would like to conclude with the saying of Austin Macauley’s International Publishing Director on National Storytelling Week 2019.

Director, Jade Robertson explores what she likes about NSW:

National Storytelling Week is something important to our authors and the community, that’s why we like to involve schools and other organisations to join in the celebration and promote storytelling around the world! With it being the 19^th year of NSW, we plan to do as much as we can to raise awareness of how fun and educational reading can be to all ages.

Alex from our editorial department explores what makes a great story:

Is it original? Is it something you yourself have never read before? Does the passion you have for your work shine through in the text? If the answer to all of these is yes, then you are well on the way to having created a Good Story.

The characters: Whether these be heroes, villains or an uncertain combination of the two, your characters must be relatable and intriguing. Above all, the reader must care about what happens to them!

The setting: Whether it’s fantasy, historical fiction or true crime, do your research and set the scene. Make it easy for the reader to visualise the events. They’ll have confidence in your narrative voice, and will trust you to tell them the story properly. On that note…..

The language: Don’t be afraid to be bold! Use words you might not use on a daily basis, startle the reader and make them think about just what it is they are reading. Your book is a work of art, and you should never feel as if you are being too ambitious. Make sure the language suits the type of book you’re writing, but don’t let yourself be constrained by feeling too pretentious!

Above all, what makes a good story is an ambition, perseverance and passion. The writing journey is never simple, but the end result is worth it.