How good are you at storytelling?
“Stories stick to your brain.” – Tim Denning
There’s great power in storytelling, but few of us have learned the art. We tell stories every day, but who among us calls themselves a “storyteller?”
Says Lisa Christen of forbes.com: “Telling a story is something we’ve done daily for most of our lives, and it focuses on conveying facts.
"Storytelling is about making an emotionally compelling, memorable, and relevant narrative that ties those facts together in an interesting way. Storytelling is meant to give meaning to the audience, revealing to them a new perspective and giving them the drive to think or act in a new way.”
THE POWER OF STORYTELLING
Beyond simply entertaining an audience – even if that audience is a single person – storytelling holds remarkable power to inspire change and influence human behavior. As Madeline Miles of betterup.com explains, "Storytelling has long been a tool to help affect change. It’s an art and a science to create connections between human beings."
Notes Vanessa Boris on harvardbusiness.org: “What makes storytelling so effective for learning? For starters, storytelling forges connections among people and between people and ideas.… Good stories can contain multiple meanings, so they’re surprisingly economical in conveying complex ideas in graspable ways.”
Further, adds Boris, “Research confirms that well-designed stories are the most effective vehicle for exerting influence.” Boris cites research by psychologist Jerome Bruner, who found that “facts are 20 times more likely to be remembered if they’re part of a story.”
TWO OF MY FAVORITE TIPS
Tip No. 1: “Turn the story into music,” says Tim Denning, who cites Gary Provost’s notion that stories “should have a rhythm” the way music does, by varying speed and volume.
Tip No. 2: "Starting your story in the middle,” says Christian, and Nick Morgan of publicworks.com quite agrees: “(You should) begin as late as possible in your story – but no later. Stories should begin at the maximum point of interest before the climax or crisis. Put the hero and villain at the cliff’s edge, have them teetering on it, then fill in any necessary back story. So many storytellers start too early in their stories, and the audience gets restless before the stakes get high enough.”
TRAITS OF A MASTER STORYTELLER
“Authenticity is a hallmark of great storytellers,” says Miles. “They share their own experiences and emotions openly… and they touch on universal truths.”
Notes Christian: “Think of your story as a gift to others,” and “make it personal.”
Two more tips from Morgan: “Too much detail is a story killer,” and “don’t tell it chronologically.” One more from Denning: “Strategically withhold information,” explaining that “to become one of the best storytellers in the world, you must focus on the story’s structure and strategically release dopamine to the audience.”
WHAT MAKES STORIES INTERESTING?
Morgan’s profound insight: “All the states of mind that most of us prefer to avoid in our real lives are what make stories interesting.”
Touche.