Author: Tim Ralphs

  • Audience comments from Dreamfired Storynights

    I’ve just had back the audience feedback from the telling I gave at Dreamfired Storynights. I told From the Odd, which I’m quite proud of as a collection. (One day I’ll tell you the story of how that show came to be written.) Anyway, I don’t have an easy way of thanking the listeners for…

  • The Skeletal Village, (2/3)

    One of the things I want to do here, on this site, is talk openly about the practice and craft of storytelling. I am at that stage in my development where I’m shedding the mantle of being a young storyteller, of being an emergent artist, and looking to stand amongst my peers in my own…

  • Daniel Morden discusses the art of storytelling

    Good clip of Daniel Morden and Sarah Moody! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqTRBPKPVBs&feature=autofb “It’s a sort of cinema of the mind.” Gorgeous stuff! And he’s a very fine gentleman as well.

  • One hundred sestinas

    Sarah Thomasin is writing a hundred sestinas in a hundred days. It’s no mean feat! You can read the progress here.

  • Being paid to tell stories, 2009-2010

    I have a day job. It’s an in-the-office, 9-5, pay-the-rent, J-O-B job. (Thanks to Dovie Thomasin for drawing that distinction!) And, like so many people right now, my position has been classified as “at risk” and I may be facing unemployment in the next few months. It’s not a particularly surprising situation, I don’t think…

  • The Allegorical Village, (1/3)

    I feel very strongly that storytellers need to be ambassadors, pioneers. It is such a niche practice that most people in this country do not know what storytelling is. They imagine it’s reading or that it’s something for children. I’ve seen people, exposed to storytelling for the first time as adults, who find the experience…

  • anyway.

    Vincent Baker has had a massive impact on how I think about narrative, structure, conflict, escalation, resolution and all manner of other vital aspects of story. He’s an RPG designer, and hopefully I’ll be chatting more about roleplay gaming and collaborative storytelling here in the future. In the mean time, you can check out Vincent’s…

  • The Story Forge

    “The tongue is like a red headed match. We strike it, “Ta-Dah-Dy” on the rough roof of the mouth and with that spark we light a flame. And then? Then the lungs are bellows and these words melt in the crucible of the ear, cold-black, red-warm, white-hot and we forge dreams.” Upcoming events and details…

  • Sage Tyrtle telling at the MothUP, Toronto

    This is worth seeing,  it’s Sage Tyrtle telling live at MothUP, a satellite to the longer established The Moth. I worked with Sage pretty closely on the editing and delivery of this piece, and I’ll probably end up using it as an example in a slightly longer post on contracts with the audience. However, while the site…

  • Lancaster Lit Fest

    I performed The Court of The Queen of Claywood Flats as part of Lancaster Lit Fest on Wednesday of this week. Their blog carried a transcript of a sort of radio press release I gave earlier in the day. The link is here. I’m quite happy with how it sounds! It was a great night,…

  • Under construction

    Eventually, Tim’s “The Room Behind the Bookcase” will be situated here, with storytelling podcasts, essays and reviews. Until then, you can hear some of Tim’s early recordings at: http://roombehindthebookcase.blogspot.com/