Generally my most active month for general storytelling gigs seems to be
October and of course ghost stories. Not surprising October is my fav month. I
am a big ghost fan. Ever since I was a kid I relished the monster movies and
stories everything from books like ‘Something Wicked this Way Comes’ to movies
like Frankenstein. Even as a kid I wrote ghost / monster tales all the time.
The trick for me is to find new stories
to tell or new ways to tell old stories which admittedly can get tough some
times. In fact sometimes it takes years for me to develop a story. A good
example of that would be my tale of The Erl King. Based on the poem by Johann
Wolfgang Von Goethe written in the 17th century.
To give you an idea of how a story could
develop let me take you through the basic outlay of my Version of the Erl King.
I first told the tale in October of 2011 at the TSA Denton ghost Story concert for
adults. This used to take place a the Denton County Court House which is an awesome
location for telling ghost stories.
The Story did not come together till only
weeks before the ghost story concert. The idea for the story first started back
in 2007 when my wife and I vacationed in Oregon on the coast in a little town
called Manzanita. The seed of an idea started in a little hidden copse that we
found while making a stop along the beach.
I
began trying to find ways of employing that copse into a story. In the process
of doing research I discovered the poem the Erl King by Goethe. I tried taking
the Erl King and fitting him into the idea of the copse but could not make it
work. In fact I wrote several short stories trying to incorporate the concept
but failed miserably. Finally I had to let it sit and stew. A technique I have
learned years ago when I get blocked. Just let her lie and wait it out.
I
really can’t explain how these things happen, they just do. I could never lay a
finger on a moment and say this is where it happened. But somewhere along the
line an idea sparked somewhere in the depths of this devious little mind of
mine. I fed it fuel and it grew. The seed of the idea was to create my own
back ground story for the poem to be placed within. Something that would fit
together. I took in consideration what the poem was based on or how the Erl
King worked. What his motivations were and what he needed. Then what kind of
human background story might fit into that time period. I played with several
ideas, orphans were common in that time period who were abandoned and
mistreated. So at first my mind went there but then a better story grew out of
that.
I needed to focus on a child who should had been loved and was not for
all the wrong reasons. A human interest story that made sense. A story that
could work with the structure of the poem and that present day folk could relate to. It took a few writings and brain
bashings but the story took shape. I chose to tell it at that specific concert
because it was a deep story and brutal.
It required an adult audience and a perfect setting. It was a perfect
night, location and my timing and presentation was spot on. Can’t beat the
perfect location. All the work I had poured into this story and presentation of
it paid off. I consider the Erl King to
be one of my best stories but it took nearly four years for it to gel.
In the beginning good ghost stories rolled of my pen like running water. These
days it is a bit tougher but when they come they are generally pretty good. There is one story that I recently wrote that
I have yet to perform and probably will have several opportunities to tell at
one or several of the gigs where I will be performing this October. I titled it ‘The Devils Tree.’ This is a boy
hood tale that should give folk the hibbie jibbies, especially the kids. It is
a version of the Hiding Seek story concept. Those kind of stories never
end well. Plus I have rewritten
or re-conceived some of my older tales and might be cutting a couple of those
loose during Halloween as well. I am hoping to get another chance to tell the
Legend of Sleepy Hollow as I did last year at a Fort Worth Middle School at
their PTA meeting. That was lots of fun
and went over quite well. Of course private audiences are welcome to call on me
also. I can only dream of the havoc I
could cause amongst a bunch of teenagers at a private party. It would be so sweet.
If
you would like to catch me locally ( Fort Worth Area) I will be at Nash Farm on
October 26 with the Tarrant Area Guild of Storytellers from 7 to 9pm. This is a
free event and all are welcome. The Nash farm is an old family farm that has
been brought back to life and now is a working farm in the middle of Town.
I will also be performing on Halloween Night
at the Fort Worth Downtown Library with DeeCee Cornish telling ghost Stories. I
believe that event starts at 8pm. That
should be lots of fun. DeeCee is an awesome teller and loads of fun.
I will also be performing several out of
town gigs one as far south as Diboll Texas at their local library. That should be
fun.
Hope all are well and keep safe.
Gary Whitaker the Storyman
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