Page:Stories and story-telling (1915).djvu/72

 give the story perspective the story-teller employs grouping, pause, rate, pitch, and inflection. Space permits of nothing more than this mere enumeration of these means and of pointing out a very limited use of one or two. Beginners often err in grouping. In the story of "The Frog Prince," for example, they will say "there was a king," making this a more or less complete and leading idea, instead of "there was a king who had beautiful daughters;" at this point, moreover, by use of the complete falling inflection they destroy the subordinate relation of this idea to the succeeding one, "but the youngest was the most beautiful." Untrained speakers and badly trained readers overuse the falling inflection. Story-tellers will find it helpful to practice the sustained, or "forward pointing," voice. It is necessary to the proper building out of units of thought. The story-teller should "make," for example, the word picture with the voice, bit by bit, much as the painter does the line and color picture with the brush, each added detail going toward the whole.

Mastery of pause is important. In ordinary communication the story-teller, as does everyone else, uses pause a hundred times a day, but he is inclined at first to overlook its part in story-telling. He should learn to pause to make clear not only the