I've written frequently
on these pages about the value of stories as a context-rich means of
persuasion and knowledge-sharing. And I've written about the structure
of good stories. But despite my knowledge and respect for the medium,
I've learned that I'm not yet a consistently good story-teller.
The
two most obvious differences between my successful and unsuccessful
story-telling experiences are (1) the amount of practice I get telling
the story (the more practice, and the more re-tellings, the better the
story gets), and (2) the veracity of the story (true stories from my
personal experience work well, stories of other people's experiences and future state vision stories have been largely unsuccessful).
So I've done a bit of research and, building on the two lessons above, developed this list of 10 steps to better story-telling:
- Practice and hone the story:
You need to be able to tell the story from memory, without even looking
at notes, if you want to keep the audience's full attention. This is
hard work and takes a lot of time, but it's essential, and worth it.
- Tell your own story, and keep it truthful:
It's much easier to tell a story credibly if you have experienced it
first-hand. But if it is someone else's story, say so up front, provide
some context about the person whose story it is, and make sure it rings
true (i.e. that it's plausible) because if the audience is dubious
about any elements of the story and know it isn't your first-hand
experience, they will tend to discount its veracity. And future state
stories tend to be either utopian (everything is perfect) or dystopian
(everything is horrific), and therefore invite the audience to create a
less extreme 'anti-story' (and reject yours). This is all about trust,
and how you establish it with your audience.
- Suit the story and pace to the audience:
It's important that the audience relate to the protagonist of the
story, and also that the story have enough detail to be engaging, yet
leave enough 'space' in the story so that listeners can fill those
spaces in with their own personal context and 'make it their own'.
Stories for adults should generally be longer than those for children,
but taking too long will make your audience restless, and rushing to
the conclusion will leave them unsatisfied. The metaphor to making love
is inescapable. And if you have a mixed audience, aim it at the younger
listeners or those most likely to be moved by the story, and let their response infect the rest of the audience.
- Convey your own sense of amusement from the story: Your enthusiasm and empathy for the story and its characters will be infectious. So will your lack of enthusiasm and empathy. Good stories are entertaining, and if your audience senses that you don't find it entertaining, they won't expect to either.
- Use imagery to transport your audience:
The details of the story should all be sensory, not analytical. You
want your audience to see, feel, hear, smell, taste and touch what the
protagonist does. You don't want them to envision a PowerPoint slide
with bullets.
- Understand that stories are creations, not re-creations or performances:
Every listener will create their own internal 'version' of your story.
You will annoy them if you try to make the story too precise, recreate
the details too exactly, 'correcting' the story they are creating as
they listen. And if you over-perform (ham it up), the focus shifts,
inappropriately, from the story to you, the storyteller. You are just a vehicle for the story.
- Accommodate differing listening styles:
The majority of most audiences will be watching you during the story,
and you must make eye-contact with them, and not be overly stiff, to
keep their attention. But some people in the crowd will, once they know
a story is being told, look away or even close their eyes because this
helps them better imagine the story. So don't rely on props or body
language, and don't get flustered if this latter group doesn't look at
you -- it doesn't mean they aren't listening, they're just listening their way.
- Make sure it makes sense: The
function of a story is to help people learn and understand something
better than they did before. Even gossip stories have this objective.
But no matter how artful the presentation, if the story doesn't 'make
sense' to the listener, the moral -- the thing you want them to learn
and understand -- will be missed. It's precisely like telling a joke in
such a mangled way that the audience doesn't 'get' the punch line. This
is absolutely fatal. Try out the story on someone before you tell it to
a crowd, to make sure it makes sense.
- Study the structure of great stories: Any good story can be made even better by using structures, like the fable, that have been proved to work well in millions of stories in the past. I highly recommend the knowledgebase
(requires free registration) of Dave Snowden's Cynefin Institute (Dave
also teaches courses in this) for studying storytelling in greater
detail.
- Don't forget surprise:
Good stories are dramatic, and the easiest and most compelling way to
add drama to a story is to reveal something unexpected. Not something
out of left field, a deus ex machina,
but something that introduces surprise while at the same time being
plausible, so the audience mentally goes back to try to think whether
this surprise was predictable or not. It has to be plausible, but also
has to be something that the audience wasn't anticipating. Hard to do,
dynamite impact when you do it well. Surprise makes the story
memorable, and contagious.
Illustration from the award-winning children's book The Salamander Room
written by Anne Mazer and illustrated by Steve Johnson |
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
