| We all tell and listen to stories. Telling a story that captivates and moves an audience, however, has some other considerations.
Often people say to me, I don’t have a story to tell…
In storytelling programs, I invite people to do an exercise titled ‘I could tell you about…’ then in pairs and in rapid fire, so you can’t think too deeply about it, over 1 minute you take turns in answering what you could tell the other person about – your family, your job, a hobby, a trip you took, etc. Then you choose one of the topics your partner shared and ask the person to tell you a story about your job for instance. And there you have it, a story. You share the stories and as you do other stories are triggered in your listener’s mind that’s because stories beget stories. Our lives are made of stories.
Here are some simple prompts to find a story –
· An experience that changed you
· The first time you…
· Events that inspired emotions (anger, sadness, joy, relief)
· Small and tender stories with nature or animals
· Story of today, this week’s story, this year’s story
One easy way to shape your experience.
In essence stories are experiences with a frame around the experience and generally shaped in a beginning, middle and end format.
Or this is another way to frame a story.
Situation – Conflict – Resolution.
The Situation (beginning) is where we hear the details of time, environment (both physical and emotional) and the persons involved (characters)
The Conflict (middle) is the change point – in a story something changes.
The resolution (end) is how we, and others are changed by the conflict, usually emotionally, but sometimes in other ways.
Deepening your story
A useful way to get more from a story is ask someone to listen and prompt you to elaborate more on:
- The detail (give me more detail about…? Good to bring in the senses (sight, hearing, feeling, space, colours etc)
- Advance action (what happens next?)
- Emotion (what are you and others feeling?)
Another way to get a deeper insight into the impact of your story on others is to ask a listener what they think the essence of your story is – i.e. About getting over failure or self-belief.
Storytelling presence
So much of communication happens outside of the actual words you speak. Things to consider when telling your story is your physical presence – movement and gesture, facial expression, energy. Also, your voice and sound carry a lot of resonance and feelings. Be aware of pace and pauses and bringing the different voices of characters in the story alive with a variety of sounds. We often say show don’t tell when storytelling – show how you feel, what you see, smell. |
