Throughout human history almost until our present era, most people didn't read or write. They learned about their culture's beliefs, and what was expected of them as children and what would be expected of them once they became men and women from the stories they heard. Storytelling was not only a main teaching tool; it was a main source of entertainment. I believe our evolution as a species may have been connected to our being a creature who has an ability to tell and listen to fairly complex stories. One might hypothesize that the storyteller's influence was integral to the evolution of the various cultures. Perhaps this propensity is why children are and have always been captivated when a storyteller enjoys sharing the drama inherent in a good short fairy tale, myth or story.

I know, for myself, I've always loved making up stories and have always had a passion for short fairy tales and myths. Often at night, when I was a child, I invented tales to entertain my younger brother and allay our fears of being left alone in the dark. When my own children were young, I created numerous songs and stories for them and for my daycare children. Now that I have a granddaughter who loves stories and always asks me to tell her a new one, I have a new reason for creating and telling short fairy tales and stories.

When the storyteller enjoys sharing the drama inherent in a good story, children are captivated. Even though short fairy tales should be easy for a child to follow without growing restless, their attention will be lost if the one telling the story is unskilled and uninteresting speaker. Storytelling is an ancient art. While not everyone can be a great storyteller, anymore then everyone can be a great painter or musician they can nevertheless increase their skills. With practice most people can even become fairly good at telling stories.

Following my daughter's suggestion, I've recently produced a children's website so that my granddaughter and numerous other children can either download the stories for reading, or listen to the recorded short fairy tales on line and draw pictures or read along with the voice recording of the original stories.

I feel very grateful to my husband for his assistance and expertise as a recording engineer. While I read my stories, he recorded them and together we analyzed the recorded versions. Once we listened to the recording, especially my earliest attempts, I found that the stories needed to be re-recorded. In the mirror of the recording process I was able to see what vocal choices worked and which didn't sound as good. The process of analyzing my recorded voice taught me a tremendous amount about becoming a better storyteller.

I learned when and to what degree my voice needed to be altered to express the various characters in a story. I learned the importance of modulating it's pitch and volume so that it was both more musical and more dramatically expressive. I realized that increasing the excitement in my voice in some parts, having shorter pauses, speaking faster, or slower in places and even whispering all added interest. I also realized I needed to lower my voice for one or another of my characters so they didn't sound squeaky. Although you may not have a recording engineer's help, I highly recommend recording your self as you read or tell a short story or fairy tale. When you've finished the recording, ask a relative or a friend listen to it with you. That second opinion can really help.

Finally, when bringing your stories out to share them in person with either individual children or a classroom full, there is one additional important technique you'll want to develop.

I found when telling stories to children, that it was essential to overcome my innate shyness. Through fully immersing myself in the story, I was able to ignore the critical inner voice and enter fully and unselfconsciously, into the characters. Becoming one with the story, I became one with my audience.

And so, I learned to brave the dive into the river of a story, where swimming on its current I was warmed and transformed.