Hello anyone and everyone!
I suppose now is a good time to introduce myself and my idea. My name is Darcy and I am a storyteller. I have been since I was a little girl, immersed in whichever book I could get my hands on, be it a novel or an encyclopedia. Yes, I read those. In grade school I was horrible at summarizing, due to the fact that I felt it quite necessary to never leave anything out of a story. As I got older I started to write some of my stories down, but they never quite sounded the same. I struggled with what kind of audience I would be writing for and I seemed unable to actually finish any of my ideas.
One day I began a sort of job, (although I hesitate to call it that because I enjoyed it so much...and I didn't get paid...) babysitting for some little girls. When I began, many years ago, there were two girls, aged one and a half and 3. These days there are four girls in the family (with another on the way!) and the one and a half year old will turn eight this fall, so there's a time scale for you. Through the years I spent with them, there was one question I got more than any other: "Darcy, will you tell us a story?" So I did.
Years and years later I have told more princess stories than I can count, and I still firmly believe that every tale should begin with once upon a time and end with happily ever after. Well...figuratively. In my storytelling years I've also learned that little boys will make irritated faces when they have to sit through princess stories, and so I began to add in adventure, sword fights, and *gasp* plot twists in my children's tales!
But then I stopped with my job. The family moved, I went to college, and I didn't tell stories anymore. Oh, I told them to myself, but there was no audience to listen to me and my ramblings. No chorus of voices to grin as I said "Once upon a time", cover their eyes when I described the villainous monsters, even though they couldn't actually see them, and no one to join in with the final line of "And they all lived...happily ever after." I had no one to listen and so I shut away the characters and kept them quiet in my head. Until recently.
I was attempting to go to college this fall, when everything went south. Several money, work, and scheduling conflicts later...I wasn't doing much with my semester. God definitely shut those doors and I was left wondering what to do with my time. Then I had an idea. I would get back to my writing - my storytelling - but not just in any particular way. You see, most of the stories I used to tell happened at bedtime. Some were short, sweet narratives; some were three night long epics. I even had a couple of week long adventure fables! Bedtime stories were my forte and my favorite.
And so I decided to tell my stories. The only question was...well...how? My audience was far away or full of grown-ups, and I'm still far too busy to seek out children every night. Besides, that just sounds really creepy. Anyway this is what I came up with, right here. I'm going to write up my stories and post them here for YOU to read to YOUR children, should you so choose. Bear with me while I figure out my formatting, but eventually I hope for them to be either printable or very easy to read online.
There is a condition, however, for these whimsical fantasies of mine. I'll write them as I would say them, with maybe a little bit of editing/embellishment. BUT they are meant to be read aloud, with funny voices, facial expressions, and possible hand puppets or illustrations. I've never personally used hand puppets, but I feel like they would be a welcome addition nonetheless. Either way, bedtime stories are wonderful tools to give sweet dreams and to take childrens' minds off of the fact that it's actually bedtime.
So I present to you my blog - Bedtime Stories. I hope to hear feedback, I hope to hear reviews, and because I've never actually put my own writing out into the public before...I hope to not have nightmares myself. This said, read on and enjoy! And if you don't enjoy, I'll put you in my next story as the villain. Who gets defeated. And eaten by a dragon.
Happy storytelling!
