Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories

by Loren Niemi, Elizabeth Ellis

Winner of the Storytelling World Award A difficult story is any story whose content makes it challenging to tell or difficult to hear. Told for the wrong reasons, it can be as painful for the listener as for the teller. However, as we know from literature and media, Sophie's Choice to The Sixth Sense, told properly, a difficult story can powerfully alter not only he who tells it, but those who hear it. How can we tell the stories of wickedness and loss, sorrow and grief? How do we respectfully engage our audience and get to the core of a story's meaning? Niemi and Ellis begin with the assumption that it is essential and beneficial to tell difficult stories. Stopping our ears or stilling our tongues will not make tragedy go away; rather, the first step in ending suffering is to name it for what it is.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 2001

About the author

Loren Niemi began as a child fibber but soon decided that he was less interested in telling lies than in improving the truth.

He is an innovative storyteller creating, coaching/directing, performing, teaching and writing about stories that matter for audiences of all ages in urban and rural settings. It has been said that Loren tells the life he lives with immediacy, poetic imagery and insight.

He is a published author and poet. His publications include: What Haunts Us (MoonFire Publishing) is a collection of non-traditional “ghost” stories and WINNER OF the 2020 Midwest Book Award for "Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Horror / Paranomal" fiction. Other publications include the poetry chapbook, Coyote Flies Coach, the award winning The New Book of Plots and its companion Point of View and the Emotional Arc of Stories (both Parkhurst Brothers Publishers) which he co-authored with Nancy Donoval – both of which are focused on the structuring of oral and written narratives.

He is also co-authored with Elizabeth Ellis the critically acclaimed, Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories on the value and necessity of stories that are hard to hear and harder to tell.

Reviews

[Jeff Bobin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to tell difficult stories effectively you should read this volume. Filled with short stories to illustrate how to communicate a message using that which is difficult to tell and many times to hear, you will learn many tips.

There is great information on the process of considering the feelings of the storyteller and those that hear them. You will also see how sometimes the way a story gets told gets in the way of the message being communicated.

If you are a storyteller, a professional or maybe in the midst of family and friends and want to learn how to tell those stories that take us to difficult places, then this is worth the read.

[Cindy Nanney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read for a class and just did not enjoy the content. A lot of the stories I thought the style of storytelling was was not suited to be used as sermon illustrations