How to find and tell your story

For some people, “visual storytelling” means photographs. For others, it means film or video. An epic movie such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy may spring to mind — and few would disagree with that as a fine example of visual storytelling.

In journalism writing classes, students learn: “Show, don’t tell.” When we provide a visual, that maxim carries even more weight. The less text or audio that an image needs to be understood, the better it is.

Some photojournalists think it’s best to let photos stand alone. Some like to publish their portfolios with no captions at all. This is a pet peeve of mine: I want to know more. I always want to know who, when, and where. Always! For me this is part of authentication, which is part of what makes it journalism and not interpretive art. A photo without a caption is not journalism.

One of my favorite activities with my children is telling bedtime stories. It’s a fun time for us to connect and use our imaginations together. It’s also a way to help my children build their own storytelling skills.

If you’re new to bedtime story telling, I’ve got some tricks to help keep your stories on track and make them interactive by giving your kids the opportunity to tell them with you.

My background is in improv comedy where I made up a lot of stories on the spot. One of the tools I’ve used to teach storytelling to improv students is the Story Spine and it works great for bedtime stories. The Story Spine was created by Kenn Adams in his book How to Improvise a Full Length Play.