This is the Story Project: Collect, Record, and Archive stories told by various people. Get them on video, or audio, of them telling a story. Right now I am collecting the stories on my Flip camera.
This was something I wrote a while back when I still wanted to publish the stories in a book. It was too be an introduction to the book, and also I could go back and remind my self of my goal. Right now my aim is to get video of the people telling the stories themselves, and publish them on the internet, but I will present the introduction I wrote for the book here in its original form.
The idea behind this entered my mind when I was in middle school. I realized how much of what I do revolved around stories. We read them, study them, analyze them, write them. All of this is during school; Almost all of my classes revolve around stories -- English and Social Studies in particular, but every class contained stories, even math (that may have just been my teacher).
But stories exist on more then just an education side. They are social. The oral story, the oldest form of the story, is arguably the most popular. Even if people do not realize it, they tell stories all of the time. Stories are most often only a few sentences long. A popular website, FMyLife.com allows users to submit their anecdotes and stories of day-to-day crap. They are hilarious. Other websites like OneScentence and PostSecret also allow submission on what is, in essence, a story. (PostSecret has plenty exceptions, but you get the idea). If you start paying attention, you can catch yourself telling people stories all the time. Whenever you talk about what you did last night, or how bad that test was, you are telling a story. Congratulations! You are a storyteller!
Stories are a cultures attempt at self preservation. They are memories. Preservation. Archiving. A lot of what I want to do with this story project is for the sake of not losing stories. Even fictional stories paint a picture of a real culture, or mindset, or situation. Some story may occur in space, but it’s message is about sanity and self realization. OK, Lets stick to nonfiction for the time being. Stories are a form of communication. You can tell someone you are doing ‘fine’, or you can tell them what you did in your day as a way to communicate how your day went. You want someone else to know how something went? Tell a story. Want to entertain someone? Tell them a story. Show them a story. Let them play a story. What are many video games but playable stories? Stories are the meat of a culture. The less stories there are, the less culture there is. Or at least less evidence of a culture. Stories influence. They bring people to realization and understanding. Stories teach. They teach morals and they teach guidance and they teach you how stuff works. The bible is a collection of stories.
I noticed stories from a young age, having the revelation in middle school, and I would always save my favorites, and re tell them. A lot involved “A friend”, but more often they could only be told well in First Person. So I would start the story with a censor, explaining it wasn’t mine, but rather a friends, and I am telling it in first person for the sake of the story. After a while, my friends understood this, so when they asked me to Tell them a story (or usually, that story -- wanting to re-hear a specific one), I would just pick one out of my bank and tell it. Other people, who did not understand the ownership, would overhear them and I became a curious entity, a not-so-unpeculiar person with a massive amount of fantastic stories. Some friends got mad that I ‘stole’ their story. When I realized what was happening, I stopped telling stories that were not mine (I always felt bad for ‘stealing’ them anyway). I only tell other peoples stories with permission now. Anyway, The stories here are (probably) presented in First Person, as they were told in first person. I give credit unless the person doesn’t wants credit. The tellers know they are being recorded, and that the recordings may be published in text or audio. I may do minor editing for clarity/understanding purposes. Some of the stories are mine. Sometimes I record without them knowing, then ask them if I can publish the story. (They can listen to it, choose to have bits [names] edited and changed). This way the person tells the story without worrying about the recorder, which I quickly noticed discerned people. Stage fright maybe, or the stress of having the story they are telling be ‘The Official Version’. Anyway, everyone involved knows about the stories, and I have not stolen any. In fact, a few fantastic ones I was not allowed to publish. Darn.
I need to thank again everyone who has told me stories, whether or not they made it into this book. Selecting specific stories to publish is hard, but in the the spreading of stories is all worth it.
Some of the stories do not have names, If so, they are referred to by the chapter, or story number.
I need a synonym to story, because I have typed that word way too many times in this introduction.
