Tale telling

TALE  TELLING

When transcribing a tape, you are spending hours with the speakers, 

and as many hours with the material being transcribed.

You owe it to the speaker and to the material

and to yourself

to get the stories into shape.

AND  HOW  DO  YOU  DO  THAT?

           NOT like this:      

                               NOR like this:

But more like this:

In a social group, of friends or relatives.

Tell a story from your transcription, some part you remember, in your own words and the best you can manage.

Notice how your story is received - is it boring?  without humour?  are your listeners falling asleep?

OR

Is someone interested (they don't all have to be excited!)

AND, MOST IMPORTANT

Are there any children present?  Did you hold their attention?  Ask them "Did you like my story?"

Feedback is what you need - good feedback:  praise or damnation

Feedback like this:

Or like this:

       

Some days feedback will be good, other days not so much!

But keep at it - try it again.  You'll get better at it.

And after a good telling, you will feel like this:

Or like this:

And you will have deserved to feel like that!

The second time of telling you will notice how you have improved.  Practice makes perfect!

Telling is FUN!

After telling a story over and over, improving as you go, the story becomes alive!

GIVE  IT  A  GO!

YOU WILL THEN BE INTERESTED IN THE NEXT BLOG:

on

W R I T I N G  Y O U R  S T O R I E S

As always,  thanks for reading along.

Tape Recording?

TAPE  RECORDING  ?  ?  ?

WHY  ?  ?  ?

Partly because when I started researching, that was all I had.  

A tape recorder:

 I started everything, all research, in the 1990s.  This machine was all there was!

There are many advantages, still applicable today:

1.  This is CHEAP!  Only costs are AA batteries and the cassette tapes.

2.  Can be done anywhere, far from the desktop computer.

3.  More comfortable for the speaker.  No intrusive notepad, no lit-up screen of an i-pod.

4.  So portable.  The most important item in my carry-on luggage ALWAYS is my trusty tape recorder:

This is my recorder-and-tapes-bag which I have carried on maybe 30 trips across the Atlantic.

#37 and # 38 are two catalogued tapes, which I hoped to work on transcribing during the trip

Underneath would be the blank tapes I might need to record a relative who might be moved to recount some family stories!

 

I ran into troubles when security in airports was tightened.

 

Officials began to say:  "Prove to us this IS a tape recorder"

 

SO - now, before travelling, I insert a tape recording of "The Messiah"!  When challenged, I press "play" and at full volume, out comes "Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!" and everyone nearby jumps in surprise, and then smiles with pleasure!  Handel would be pleased, I'm hoping.

 

One time when this happened, up came Jean Chretien, a former Prime Minister of Canada.  He said, "Play some more!"  I did.  Then I announced to the mesmerized security officials, "This is one of our most beloved Prime Ministers."  Everyone around said, "We know!  We love him, too." 

 

 Jean Chretien

 

I'm not too sure what happened to the security right then, but I said quietly, "Thank you, recorder."  I asked and got an autograph from Jean Chretien - another record.            

 

A little bit of magic in the zoo of an airport.

 

The point about all of this is that there would have been no record for me without a tape recorder. I have stood at doorways of cottages in the wilds of Ireland, with my tape recorder going, but hanging like a camera from my wrist.  I record for facts and phrasing.  I am meticulous about not quoting without permission, and about showing transcribed material to speakers.  I insist on their editing and feeling comfortable about what they said.

BUT

 I now have hundreds of tape cassettes.

WHAT TO DO?

 

Some of my hundreds of tapes

 

All I can say, to you and to myself, is:  DISCIPLINE! 

I try, every day, to transcribe some part of a tape so that it can be read in the future.  I struggle to catalogue each tape, so it can be found with its precious treasure on-board, if needed.

I know tapes do not have long lives.  My husband, a physicist, used to advise storage in metal boxes to reduce magnetic deterioration.

I race against time - time running out for me and time running out for the tapes.

I wonder will I and my tapes win the race?

 

Thank you for joining in the big read - again.  

 

Next time: let's explore what to do with tape transcriptions when they're made