"I kept on writing and illustrating, for this is what I did well because I loved it."

"I would just watch the animals, and their stories would roll out when I wrote."

"Doing interesting things and then writing about them is the best way to become a good writer."

- Jean Craighead George

“The tundra was even more beautiful—a glistening gold, and its shadows were purple and blue. Lemon-yellow clouds sailed a green sky and every wind-tossed sedge was a silver thread. “Oh,” she whispered in awe, and stopped where she was to view the painted earth.” -Jean Craighead George, Julie of the Wolves

The primary purpose of descriptive writing is to describe a person, place or thing in such a way that a picture is formed in the reader's mind. Capturing an event through descriptive writing involves paying close attention to the details by using all of your five senses.

Characteristics of descriptive writing:

1. Good descriptive writing includes many vivid sensory details that paint a picture and appeals to all of the reader's senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste when appropriate. Descriptive writing may also paint pictures of the feelings the person, place or thing invokes in the writer. In the video section below, watch a teacher use a Five Senses Graphic Organizer as a planning strategy for descriptive writing.

2. Good descriptive writing often makes use of figurative language such as analogies, similes and metaphors to help paint the picture in the reader's mind.

3. Good descriptive writing uses precise language. General adjectives, nouns, and passive verbs do not have a place in good descriptive writing. Use specific adjectives and nouns and strong action verbs to give life to the picture you are painting in the reader's mind.

4. Good descriptive writing is organized. Some ways to organize descriptive writing include: chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of importance. When describing a person, you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that person thinks, feels and acts.

All of this sounds familiar right?

Because you've been learning how to improve your writing skills since, like, first grade, and all through elementary school. It is SUCH a worthwhile skill though. And Magical really.

Scenes that include some of these can help focus your story. So how can you achieve this effectively? By remembering that you are telling the story, not actually being a part of it. Your reader is the one who will become part of it; they’ve purchased a ticket for your particular roller coaster ride and they want to experience everything you have to offer and enjoy every moment.

Probably one of the best ways any writer can achieve this is through the use of the senses. In real life we perceive the world with our senses; we smell, we touch, we taste, we hear and we see, but so too must your reader. They want to feel and touch and taste and see your fictional world.

Descriptions that incorporate sensory stimulation help the reader to transport themselves from real life to your character’s story. This is where the power of a writer’s observation and imagination mix with amazing results.

Description creates a vivid picture for the reader, it allows them to open a gateway to your story and imagine themselves within your fictional world.

Description is what makes an ordinary story a great story.

Some of the earliest evidence of stories comes from the cave drawings in Lascaux and Chavaux, France. The drawings, which date as far back as 30,000 years ago, depict animals, humans, and other objects. Some of them appear to represent visual stories.

What is the power of story telling?

It gives us an opportunity to learn from another person's experience and it can shape, strengthen or challenge our opinions and values. When a story catches our attention and engages us, we are more likely to absorb the message and meaning within it than if the same message was presented simply in facts and figures.

‘Stories are the way we understand and make sense

of the world we find ourselves in.’

When someone tells us their own personal story, we catch a glimpse of a view of the world that may be slightly or radically different from our own. When we see the world as they see it, or walk in their shoes, the experience can inspire empathy within them.

This aspect of storytelling – presenting a different perspective of the world – is important when it comes to connecting with each other. It gives us an opportunity to learn from another person’s experience and it can shape, strengthen or challenge our opinions and values. When a story catches our attention and engages us, we are more likely to absorb the message and meaning within it than if the same message was presented simply in facts and figures.

Cultures are shaped by the range of stories to which they give rise. Some of these have a special role in shaping the self-understanding of those who tell them. We call them master-narratives. They are about large, ongoing groups of people: the tribe, the nation, the civilization. They hold the group together horizontally across space and vertically across time, giving it a shared identity handed on across the generations.

Oral storytelling is telling a story through voice and gestures. The oral tradition can take many forms, including epic poems, chants, rhymes, songs, and more. Not all of these stories are historically accurate or even true. Truth is less important than providing cultural cohesion. It can encompass myths, legends, fables, religion, prayers, proverbs, and instructions.

Every culture has its stories. Written or Oral they shape us and impact our literacy; they convey values, beliefs, attitudes, and social norms which, in turn, shape our perceptions of reality.

Nathan Ausubel writes "I was immersed in Jewish song and story just as soon as I became aware of the world around me. Years later I discovered that the lore of my people had entered into my bloodstream, as it were, and had become a part of the cultural reality of my life. Who has not had this experience? Melodies sung in childhood and stories and saying we heard time and again from the lips of our parents (or elders) are never really erased from our memory."

It's a beautiful way to put it no? I feel like this is something that many people can relate to in regards to their own culture.

Storytelling is universal and is as ancient as humankind. Before there was writing, there was storytelling. It occurs in every culture and from every age. It exists (and existed) to entertain, to inform, and to promulgate cultural traditions and values.

Narrative is central to the construction of meaning, and meaning is what makes the human condition human.

Storytelling is as old as culture and imperative to it. Many (I would argue all) societies have long-established storytelling traditions. The stories, and performances thereof, function to entertain as well as educate.

Here are just a few examples... Tip of the iceberg really. Explore further on your own. The stories of the world will not disappoint.

This is an embarrassing broad-sweeping categorization here. Considering that before European contact there were between 140 to 160 different Indigenous American tribes speaking more than 200 dialects, highlighting them all would be impossible. We have chosen just a few to feature here. But if you want to learn more about some of these tribes try this link. It's a start anyway.

https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/native-american-cultures#:~:text=Before%20European%20contact%2C%20the%20temperate,spoke%20more%20than%20200%20dialects.

The Native American culture is known for its rich oral tradition. Instead of using a written language to document their history, these indigenous people simply relied on their verbal language to share their history, customs, rituals and legends through vivid narratives.

These powerful tales are often told by the tribal elders to the younger generations. They relate their tribal history and they also entertain and preserve their culture.

Traditional storytelling is a significant way of expressing Indigenous knowledge, culture, and oral traditions. Traditional storytelling privileges holistic interconnected- ness, collaboration, reciprocity, spirituality, and humility; more importantly, it impacts positively on practice

To give just one example, the Choctaw have an oral storytelling tradition going back generations. Their stories were intended to preserve the tribe’s history and educate the young. For example, the Choctaw oral tradition includes two creation stories: One relates to migration from the west and another to creation from a mound. In addition, the oral tradition includes history as well as life lessons or moral teachings. Many of the Choctaw traditional tales employ animal characters to teach such lessons in a humorous vein.

Mayan people inhabited the Yucatán Peninsula several thousand years before 16th-century Spanish conquistadores arrived to lay waste. Their mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The myths of the Pre-Hispanic era have to be reconstructed from iconography. Other parts of Mayan oral tradition (such as animal tales, folk tales, and many moralizing stories

The Mayans, and their language, and their stories, “didn’t vanish, as many people think.

In Maya narrative, the origin of many natural and cultural phenomena is set out, often with the moral aim of defining the ritual relationship between humankind and its environment. In such a way, one finds explanations about the origin of the heavenly bodies (Sun and Moon, but also Venus, the Pleiades, the Milky Way); the mountain landscape; clouds, rain, thunder and lightning; wild and tame animals; the colors of the maize; diseases and their curative herbs; agricultural instruments; the steam bath, etc.

“One of the most valuable lessons that we can glean from ..Mayan literature is an attitude of viewing the world as a living being,” he said. “It has energy. It has vibration. So everything, absolutely everything, is alive and needs to be duly respected.”

From the 1920s to the early 1950s, Japanese sweet sellers and storytellers travelled by bicycle from town to town, village to village, drawing large, young audiences. Kamishibai would secure their butai – a wooden structure, half picture frame, half theatre stage – to the back of their bicycle, and would use wooden clappers (hyoshigi) to beckon their young spectators.

Once everyone was settled, the kamishibai man would start telling a story – pulling each of his numbered storyboards from the side, and sliding it at the back of the stack, one after the other.

On the front of the boards were illustrations for the audience to enjoy, whereas on the back of the previous storyboard was the corresponding passage, which the storyteller would read aloud.

The peoples of sub-Saharan Africa have strong storytelling traditions. In many parts of Africa, after dinner, the village congregates around a central fire to listen to the storyteller. As in other cultures, the role of the storyteller is to entertain and educate.

Long part of western African culture are the griots: storytellers, troubadours, and counsellors to kings. They performed the functions of storyteller, genealogist, historian, ambassador, and more. Some of the most famous stories from western Africa are those of Anansi, the trickster spider.

The griots were traditionally hereditary, a profession or office passed from one generation to the next. There were also griot schools, where more formal training could be had.

Ireland has one of the richest folklore traditions in the world.

The tradition of storytelling is almost as ancient as Ireland itself. It is infused with the soul of the country to this day. This is primarily due to the fact that the Celtic culture in Ireland has been maintained for more than 2,000 years.

A storytelling tradition that endures: 'Irish people have always been in love with words' Over the past century, the artform of storytelling has served many functions in Ireland - entertainment, communication, and the maintenance of memory and historical record that escaped the privilege of more formal preservation

The seanchai were the traditional Irish keepers of story. They would travel from village to village, reciting ancient lore and tales of wisdom. They told the old myths as well as local news and happenings. Prominent in the Irish oral tradition are tales of kings and heroes.

Today, storytelling and interest in storytelling appears to be making a comeback. As one Irish storyteller put it: “It’s a need for connection … I think storytelling nurtures connections with people in real life.”

For over 1,000 years’ professional storytellers have been established figures in the marketplaces and bazaars of China. Their art had a big impact on the daily life of the Chinese townspeople, serving as the ‘university’ of ordinary people—the place where culture and knowledge were communicated in an entertaining and simple way.

Traditionally storytelling took place at the temple fairs, in entertainment areas and booths, in teahouses and wine shops. On festive occasions, a storyteller might be invited to perform in the private homes of the upper classes and even at the court. Storytellers of poorer standing performed in the countryside.

Professional storytelling is a highly specialized art and the artists have to go through many years of training from childhood. Usually, storytelling was a family enterprise and the master would teach one or several of his own sons or male relatives (after the 1930s also daughters) to continue his art, but it was also a common practice to accept disciples from outside the family.

The general themes of the stories fell into five different categories: history, adventure, comedy, stories about Three Kingdoms and stories about Five Dynasties. Storytelling was said to serve the purpose of telling about the present and contemplating the past, good words to enlighten the world.

Lynsea Montanari is the Museum Educator Associate at the Tomaquag Museum. Lynsea’s passion for education shines through within her artwork. She is a Narragansett artist whose focus is on being an authentic indigenous person in the 21st century. She runs her own small business, Loving Sea Creations, creating Eastern woodland design on contemporary items and has participated in art shows throughout Southern New England. She is currently attending College Unbound pursuing a degree in organizational leadership and change and has aspirations to rise within the education department at Tomaquag.

"She just brings color and light into everyone's world that she encounters. "

Marc Levitt is a storyteller from Wakefield, RI and New York City. Mr. Marc Levitt is so good at telling stories, that he has even won awards for his gift. Besides being a storyteller, he is also an educator, writer, tv and radio host, filmmaker, and land use activist.

He travels to international schools and teaches kids about the art of tellin/g a good story. Marc have worked in schools nationally and Internationally offering assembly programs of memoirs and original folkloric stories as well as workshops in writing, violence prevention, storytelling, school culture and for International schools, Third Culture Stories (www.ThirdCultureStories.com). He has given workshops and keynote talks at education conferences throughout the world.

Additionally, He has written three published books about education.