The Story Basket | Special Guest Susan Brochu

Today, March 20, is World Storytelling Day. Today we celebrate the art of storytelling. While the tradition of this day focuses on oral storytelling, we're honoring the spirit of the day: sharing our stories, no matter what form that takes. We're excited to have our special guest, community member Susan Brochu, sharing her fun and inspirational method for tracking her stories.

Hello everyone! I’m happy to be here today to share how I keep track of the important stories I want to tell. I see stories all the time: in photos, in nature, in music, in quotes, in my daily life. So many things can spark a story idea for me. When inspiration strikes, I tend to jot down notes on whatever is handy and so I end up with scraps of paper all over the place.

A couple of years ago I started a Story Basket to help me keep track of all those little bits of paper, and I recently updated it to make it even more organized. I use an extra basket that I happened to have but any container, like a storage box or shoebox, would work just as well.

I use the story sparks cards from Ali’s Story Kits to hold the ideas I have for using those kits. If I have any photos or Story Kit components that I know I want to include with those stories, I’ll add them behind the cards so that everything is together when I’m ready to work.

I file the story sparks cards alphabetically in the basket, attaching a little post-it with the story theme written on it to make searching for a particular theme a little easier.

If there’s a little piece of chipboard or a small item I want to save for a story, I slip it into a small plastic bag and staple it to an index card so it doesn’t get lost.

If I have a story that doesn’t correspond to any kit, I just write the notes onto an index card, add a post-it with a brief description, and file it in the front of the basket.

The end result is a basket filled with lots of stories ready to be told!

We hope you enjoyed Susan's post and found something to inspire your own storytelling. Make sure to find Susan on Instagram here.