Storytelling is not what I do for a living - it is how I do all that I do while I am living.
The real difference between telling what happened and telling a story about what happened is that instead of being a victim of our past, we become master of it.
With the possible exception of God during the writing of the Bible, every writer in history has needed an editor. So do you.
I didn't learn stories, I just absorbed them.
Anyone who edits their own copy has a fool for an editor.
I discovered that in a story I could safely dream any dream, hope any hope, go anywhere I pleased any time I pleased, fight any foe, win or lose, live or die. My stories created a safe experimental learning place.