We are actually wired to change our stories. We embellish, we diminish, we combine memories, and sometimes we create memories that never happened. And we do this, according to the work of Frederic Bartlett and several other memory researchers after him, in an attempt to “smooth out” the memory in order to make it fit in the existing network of stories that comprise our sense of reality - our version of what is so. This is why we remember things to suit our situation: we’ve smoothed the memories out to confirm that our reality is exactly that - real. We’ve used this memory to make all the more clear that what is so IS SO. Things that don’t make sense to us, or aren’t consistent with our other stories, get edited out.

I don’t always know how to do the right thing. I can, however, quickly assess how to do the next right thing. The next right thing is what to do right now - in this moment, in this situation. And the next right thing for me is to use the privileges I enjoy to help others. This, in my opinion, is the ultimate privilege. And I enjoy that privilege as often as I can.

This story, “Clear What To Do” shows that we can know the next right thing through paying attention and reading the room.

I tell stories about the children I have helped raise. I use descriptions. I give them titles and labels as if these things are true and I know who they are. I can get stuck in those stories. But what is so powerful about being a storyteller is that I am given the regular opportunity to step out of the stories I tell and see them as that: stories. This then gives me the opportunity to become curious. This is the real message here: the most powerful storytelling and parenting tool I have is curiosity.

This is a story from another podcast we created for adults called Horsemen which is about the Apocalypse or “unveiling”, which began on August 23, 2017. This was super fun to create and a very interesting series of stories that belongs on this podcast because it is about how stories can be misused to manipulate people. The narrative centers around a storyteller who becomes a researcher who then creates a clinic where stories can heal people with real diseases and terminal conditions. The reason why this person could be considered a “bad guy” is because he practices a dangerous kind of storytelling - the kind where the storyteller doesn’t listen. Really listen.

Conscious Intentional Storytelling is a skill we all have, but few of us are conscious or intentional about it. We tell stories all day long without recognizing their impact, both on the listener and on ourselves. It truly is the foundation of our relationships and when we struggle, when we feel the rifts, it is storytelling that can help us restore the connection we seek.

The trick is to believe that this is true and then be willing to try it out.

The thesis of theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow’s book Subliminal, is that the “new unconscious” rules our behavior. People will make major decisions based on the stories they’ve collected even when those decisions are clearly not in their self-interest. They stay in their ideological lane even when it hurts them.

This doesn’t sound very hopeful, does it?

But it does line up with our experience. We can’t understand how people can behave and think the way they do. It amazes us and we judge them.

This is the official sneak peek of the third and final collection of the Dory Horde stories published for Sparkle Stories. This is the first episode of the twenty story collection that will continue on the Sparkle Stories platform in May.

David has produced nearly 1500 stories for Sparkle Stories and in this episode of the How to Story podcast, he talks a bit about the “story foraging” tool that is behind his productivity and prolific ability to write stories, articles, lessons and essays at a fast pace. It all has to do with how he listens and takes cues from his environment. The Dory Horde story series is testament to the story foraging process.

“Ballad of the Bards” is ultimately a story about how the incredible power of storytelling can be used, and is often used, to entrench oneself in old unhelpful dynamics. These two storytellers - a troubadour and a minstrel - have learned to despise each other by compounding the same old stories over and over. Ultimately the breakthrough happens through circumstance and the brave willingness to pay attention. It is only then that a kind of miracle can take place: they choose a different story.

This is something we all understand and suffer from. We repeat old stories and shackle ourselves to resentment and a blind desire to be right. We choose “right” over happy and thus sink deeper and deeper into unhealthy practices. The aim of this episode is to demonstrate a way out. To listen, to see, and then to choose something new.

“Strength When You Need it Most” is part of a larger collection of stories produced to explore a powerful personality typing system called the Enneagram. David co-created this story with his teaching partner Meredith Markow who has been trained in the Enneagram through www.enneagraminstitute.com.

Though David does introduce the Enneagram and in particular the Type 8, he focuses on a storytelling life hack central to the How to Story process: seeing our audience as they are, rather than how you want them to be, or fear them to be. The storytelling tool in this episode is how to respond.

The story “The Elephant in the Tavern” explores the idea that most of what people “say” is actually unsaid, and it claims that we are actually broadcasting precisely what we wish to keep secret: what we don’t want to say. So if this is actually happening, how do we conduct ourselves? How do we have a measure of control over what we are actually communicating to others all day long?

The How to Story approach is to simply know that you are doing this, and start to pay attention like a storyteller.

Welcome to the How to Story podcast where David Sewell McCann, the storyteller behind Sparkle Stories audio stories and the How to Story school, looks at a particular storytelling or story listening skill or tool within the context of an audio story.

Each episode David teaches how to be more intentional with your storytelling and how to pay attention like a storyteller, by using one of his stories to unpack and demonstrate a particular skill.