The start of a new year and another exciting date on the Apollo Creative calendar, National Storytelling Week (NSW) which takes place from January 30th till February 6th. In its 16th year NSW is taking place around the UK in schools, theaters, museums, hospitals and many other venues. Everybody, no matter how old or young you are, is actively encouraged to take part in this celebration of storytelling.

In this blog post the team at Apollo Creative give their opinions on their favourite book and author.

We’ve also put together a handy guide to what the story telling masters at Pixar have to say about crafting an iconic engaging story.

If you’re looking for an event near you that is doing something story based then head over to the society for storytelling website, link here: http://www.sfs.org.uk/events to check out all of the different events happening up and down the country.

Events are all over the UK with London and Sheffield being the must visit cities for people who are interested in authors, books and storytelling!

Our Favourite Stories

Around the Apollo Creative office Ben, Casey, Jack and Tim talked a little bit about their favourite storytellers and books:

Ben – Product Specialist

Favourite Author: Roald Dahl

Favourite book: Fantastic Mr Fox

“I like the underlying darkness and sinister-ness of all of Roald Dahl’s books, in particular Fantastic Mr Fox. This makes the story, for me, likable for adults as well as children. Creating likable animal characters I find is always hard to convey in a story but Roald Dahl is brilliant at doing this and for me makes him my favourite story teller!”

Lose yourelf in a good story and let your imagination run free

Casey – Sales Administrator

Favourite Author: J.K Rowling

Favourite book: Harry Potter (“All of them!”)

“I’m really into fantasy stuff, so Harry Potter ticks all the right boxes. The way J.K Rowling creates the magical world Hogwarts is a great example of really good storytelling. Both the books and films are one of my favourite series and I’m looking forward to what she brings out next.”

Jack – Marketing & Media

Favourite Author – George Orwell

Favourite book: Animal Farm

“Reading a book by George Orwell fills you with fascinating imagery on anything from dystopian future worlds, to a farm run by animals! Animal Farm is perhaps my favourite book of his as the storytelling takes a very complex political ideology and turns it into a children’s like story. The way you become connected with the characters is a fine example of the storytelling power George Orwell has. Simple, yet very effective. ”

Jack reading stories to children at forest school

Jack reading stories to children at The Forest School

Tim – Product Designer

Favourite Author: Terry Pratchett

Favourite book: Mort

“I really like Germanic folk tales/lore because a lot of traditional stories such as those created by Disney derive from these fables. Grimm fairy tales are a great example of great Folklore. Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors and I like the way his own world views are distorted into fantasy. In a way the author (Terry Pratchett) becomes a character in his own novels, driving the vehicle for engaging storytelling.”

Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling

We’ve put together a handy guide that explains the rules of storytelling as told from the genius’s at Pixar. These ‘rules’ are taken from a series of tweets by former Pixar story artist Emma Coats (https://twitter.com/lawnrocket)

Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling

 

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