I’m doing research on an upcoming blog post about storytelling tools but this video deserves a post of its own. Honolulu Civil Beat let a number of people share their story about personal relationships with mental illness. Mariko Chang is the Major Gifts Manager at Honolulu Civil Beat and shared her own story about her mother’s struggle with mental illness back in 2019. All she’s doing is telling what it felt like to have her mother robbed from her through schizophrenia. By sharing of herself, Chang is saying ‘All the Things I could not say’ and in this simple video clip you see the true power of storytelling. Watch:
The takeaway here for other storytellers and bardists is this: don’t overthink your writing, feel it. What are the things you couldn’t say? A storyteller’s power comes from saying ‘all the things I could not say.’ Everyone has a story inside them, struggling to get out. If you want to be a great storyteller, start by writing down those things you couldn’t say and finding a way to share them. That’s what I’m doing with my stories, and the rest of my life’s journey. I’ll talk more about this later, but wanted you to have access to this, too.