Oh gosh. My first blog post. What a wealth of inevitability there is behind that. I suppose I should start with what Wandering Stories is. And what better way to do that than by telling my first story.
I've been a performer all my life. From making my drawing of Superman fly around my primary school teacher, to prancing about on stage dressed in a huge heavy panda onesie, I've loved to act and to tell stories. I'm telling you this, not as a boast but so you can understand my motivation. A performer is nothing without an audience, and like very other performer out there, this dependence has given me a desperate desire to be unique, to stand out, to create audiences. However, a storyteller is nothing without his story, so add to that mix a burning want to create a story wherever I go and you have, well, me.
In May 2016, I went to Disney World and like many punters before me, I bought an autograph book. Not for myself, but for a friend who loved Disney. I was determined to get all the autographs. I would be so good at autograph-getting. Then, the niggling kicked in, scratching at the back of my neck and whispering 'but everyone does that. Everyone gets all the autographs. That's not different.'
And so, more to scratch that itch than anything else, I decided not only to get the autographs of all the characters; Mickey's scrawl and Rapunzel's elegant hand and Ariel's bubble-heavy signature and all. Instead, I would get everybody's autograph - cast members, photographers, rubbish pickers, line attendants, security guards, monorail drivers, concierges... everybody's.
There. That was suitably different. Take that, scratchy voice.
But as I went around, I was greeted (most, not all of the time) by smiles, incredulity, beams of surprise. "What? You want MY autograph?" "Oh my God that's so cool!" "I've never had that!" "You made my day!" "No, you have a good day!" People love to be unique, and while I couldn't give everyone a different page of my book, I could at least make them feel spotlighted and appreciated.
And from that idea, via a roundabout desire to listen to people in a way that was abnormal, and therefore persistent in the memory, was born Wandering Stories. A project where I just, simply and plainly, meet people and learn about them. Coupled with that desire is my belief that stories are what define us, they reveal our inspirations and our ambitions, they show what sticks in our memories and what we think about.
Wow, this blog post rambled way more than I expected it to. Let's put that aside and deal with what's going on.
I'm aiming to travel (read; hitch-hike) around Scotland and Northern England in the autumn, starting the first part of Wandering Stories, meeting people and learning their stories. Right now, all I'm equipped with is some rudimentary kit - a small tent, a rucksack and a noble ginger beard - so I'll be working to collect more equipment over the next couple of months.
Until I leave, this blog post will be dedicated to my preparations, my test runs (hitch-hiking around the area) and working out where, roughly, I'll be going. I'm a great believer in Tolkien's 'not all those who wander are lost' saying and I'll be mostly travelling by the seat of my pants, but some planning is required I suppose.
If you've reached this far, I applaud you! I have a Facebook Page where you can see the less blog-worthy elements of my preparations, and where you can message me (you can contact me here too) with any suggestions, insults, advice, questions, or pictures of famous pretty people you want.
-Toby
PS. Oh wait, of course! Three Thousand Words is a project I'm working on as well, where I take any writing prompts you send me and write them into a short story. Head to the About page to learn more!
I've been a performer all my life. From making my drawing of Superman fly around my primary school teacher, to prancing about on stage dressed in a huge heavy panda onesie, I've loved to act and to tell stories. I'm telling you this, not as a boast but so you can understand my motivation. A performer is nothing without an audience, and like very other performer out there, this dependence has given me a desperate desire to be unique, to stand out, to create audiences. However, a storyteller is nothing without his story, so add to that mix a burning want to create a story wherever I go and you have, well, me.
In May 2016, I went to Disney World and like many punters before me, I bought an autograph book. Not for myself, but for a friend who loved Disney. I was determined to get all the autographs. I would be so good at autograph-getting. Then, the niggling kicked in, scratching at the back of my neck and whispering 'but everyone does that. Everyone gets all the autographs. That's not different.'
And so, more to scratch that itch than anything else, I decided not only to get the autographs of all the characters; Mickey's scrawl and Rapunzel's elegant hand and Ariel's bubble-heavy signature and all. Instead, I would get everybody's autograph - cast members, photographers, rubbish pickers, line attendants, security guards, monorail drivers, concierges... everybody's.
There. That was suitably different. Take that, scratchy voice.
But as I went around, I was greeted (most, not all of the time) by smiles, incredulity, beams of surprise. "What? You want MY autograph?" "Oh my God that's so cool!" "I've never had that!" "You made my day!" "No, you have a good day!" People love to be unique, and while I couldn't give everyone a different page of my book, I could at least make them feel spotlighted and appreciated.
And from that idea, via a roundabout desire to listen to people in a way that was abnormal, and therefore persistent in the memory, was born Wandering Stories. A project where I just, simply and plainly, meet people and learn about them. Coupled with that desire is my belief that stories are what define us, they reveal our inspirations and our ambitions, they show what sticks in our memories and what we think about.
Wow, this blog post rambled way more than I expected it to. Let's put that aside and deal with what's going on.
I'm aiming to travel (read; hitch-hike) around Scotland and Northern England in the autumn, starting the first part of Wandering Stories, meeting people and learning their stories. Right now, all I'm equipped with is some rudimentary kit - a small tent, a rucksack and a noble ginger beard - so I'll be working to collect more equipment over the next couple of months.
Until I leave, this blog post will be dedicated to my preparations, my test runs (hitch-hiking around the area) and working out where, roughly, I'll be going. I'm a great believer in Tolkien's 'not all those who wander are lost' saying and I'll be mostly travelling by the seat of my pants, but some planning is required I suppose.
If you've reached this far, I applaud you! I have a Facebook Page where you can see the less blog-worthy elements of my preparations, and where you can message me (you can contact me here too) with any suggestions, insults, advice, questions, or pictures of famous pretty people you want.
-Toby
PS. Oh wait, of course! Three Thousand Words is a project I'm working on as well, where I take any writing prompts you send me and write them into a short story. Head to the About page to learn more!