Variations on Storycrafting: Thomas the Rhymer
Part 2: Getting to Know Thomas the Rhymer
by Marie Winger

ow do I work up a story for telling? Interesting question. I never thought to quantify my process before. So where do I begin?

That’s the easiest part. Whenever a story catches my attention I go look for as many versions of it as I can find. That is assuming the story comes from a traditional source, which most of mine do. By reading several versions of the same tale I get a feel for the essential elements of the tale, those things that make it the story it is. Finding versions of the story from different countries or cultures illuminates what each sees as the core elements. For Thomas the Rhymer I found only two versions and they are both Scottish. Guess this is a Scottish story or actually a ballad since I found the music for it as well.

Once I’ve gathered all my versions and digested them I may outline the plot to see what the core elements are. With Thomas this isn’t necessary since I don’t have multiple versions. From the outline I will pull those elements I find most compelling, those that seem essential to me to preserve the central meaning of the story, central for me meaning anyway.

This is where I start to look for that one image that will be my ticket into the heart of the story. This is hard to put into words. This image is the representation for me of the heart of the story or at least that thing that resonates most strongly within me. This image will illuminate the emotional core of the story and give my telling a direction and shape. Sometimes I am working on the story for quite a while before I get this image. Recently, I was working on Mr. Fox for an upcoming theater piece. I really wanted this story in the show, but I just wasn’t happy with the way it was developing. One day I saw the hand, the one Mr. Fox cuts off, that lands in Mary’s lap, that is proof of his deeds. I saw that hand in a glass box sitting by Mary’s bed. She kept it. And I knew where the story was going. Yet the minute I read "Clever Kate", about her appearing before the king in her outlandish attire to satisfy all his conditions I clearly saw a young woman on roller blades, wearing a thong bikini, chewing gum, and holding a huge bunch of helium filled balloons. There was my core image. After finding 11 versions of that tale, it took me some time to get the story tellable, but that updated Kate was my guiding light. I am a visual learner and having a clear picture in my head to guide me is very important.

I wasn’t getting anywhere with Thomas until I read how he retreated to the family’s tower after he returned from the world of Faerie. Then I saw Thomas before, as a dandy with a golden tongue. A fine enough musician who could use his music and his flattering ways to get to any woman, or get what he wanted from any man. A smooth talker who didn’t have to work hard for what he wanted. Off he goes to Faerie where he cannot use his flattery and he is given a terrible gift. The man who once used his music and his golden tongue to get whatever he wanted can now speak only the truth. And his music is now truly brilliant. And if asked, he can see the truth of things to come, prophesy. It is easier for him to speak in rhyme, to blunt the truth. It is easier for him to play his harp and sing his songs that to try to converse. It is easier still to hide from the world and not have to tell the truth or see into someone’s future. I saw him still a young man sitting alone in that tower, haunted by his new "talents." Now I had some vision for the story. It was time to give it voice.

I didn’t see Thomas telling his story himself. I think he told it once to his grandfather and those of the household and then never spoke of it again. Thomas almost never speaks anymore. Besides I’m a woman and this is a man’s story. So who could tell this tale? Why not a woman of his grandfather’s household? One who was just too young to catch his attention before he went to Faerie, but one who longed to be noticed. She would see the difference in him and understand the torment he was feeling.

So now I know where I’m going with the tale or maybe it’s more where the tale is taking me. I can see the path and know my traveling companions. This is where the work begins. I never write out my stories, but I do make sort of plot outlines. I may note a particularly fine phrase or an important detail. Blocking out the story into sections sometimes makes it easier to learn and can show redundancies or unnecessary sections. All my stories start out with way more in them than the listeners really needs to hear. But those things I edit out are still part of the story for me, the back-story. They inform and color what the listener does hear.

Finding just the perfect first line of the story is crucial for me as well. This will sometimes come as partner to that core image I spoke of earlier. For instance with my adaptation of Mr. Fox the first line is, "No one ever really understood why I kept the thing." That line sets the tone for the piece, peaks the audience’s interest and "introduces" my core image. For Clever Kate the first line is, "There was once a king who liked to keep his finger on the pulse of his people." The "once" lets the audience know this will be a sort-of fairy tale. The phrase, "to keep his finger on the pulse of his people," tells them it won’t be exactly traditional in tone and setting. For Thomas I think the first line will be something like, " After seven years in Faerie you’d think Thomas would be hungry for the company of others, but it’s his parting gifts that keep him in that tower." You know Thomas isn’t telling the tale. You know he has been to Faerie and returned and you wonder what these gifts could be.

Then comes the search for rest of the story. The telling and the telling and the retelling until tongue has burned away all that is unnecessary. I am blessed with gifted coaching partners who do not tire of hearing my work (at least they never admit to it). Other pairs of ears, other minds and hearts are great help in polishing the rough surface of a new story.

One day you decide the story is ready. You are ready. The time has come to tell the tale for real. Each story I tell is gift I give to the listeners hoping they will open it and find some truth there. It isn’t always a big truth. Enjoyment is a gift enough. It certainly isn’t always my truth. But isn’t that why we do this thing, storytelling.

—posted February 2002

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