Telling A Story – 4 Tips To Great Storytelling
Interested in telling a story? Here are the 4 best storytelling techniques that will make you a better storyteller and writer.
Let’s chat about telling a story in the best way possible.
Whenever someone wants to tell you a story there’s a good chance your ears will instantly prick up because you are intrigued.
That’s because storytelling is one of the most memorable kinds of communication.
A good old-fashioned story – whether it is through hieroglyphics, parables, fairy tales, or fables is the deepest way to connect the mind to the soul.
People have been telling stories since the beginning of time.
In fact, storytelling is a cherished tradition and an entertaining and effective way to convey information about almost any subject.
Telling A Story
Seriously – walk in any classroom and chances are the best teachers are the ones who are educating their students with stories.
Walk into a major corporation and you’ll find the CEOs who express their thoughts, opinions, and facts to their employees with stories are the ones that garner the most attention and respect.
Wherever you go, storytelling is a powerful means of communication, when it is done well.
Telling A Story
So, why Should We Tell Stories?
It’s been discovered that each of us has a desire, and perhaps even a need, to tell and hear stories. As kids, our favorite part of bedtime was most likely snuggling in bed with a parent and listening to a story or two.
By sharing stories with others, and indulging in their stories, we learn to understand one another at a much deeper level.
A message is usually interwoven into the story and this story creates a common level of understanding. It’s easier via a story to put yourself out there and connect you to others.
We come together as a community of individuals when we share our experiences and via stories we can both appreciate the differences and similarities we share.
Did you know that you can convey your thoughts, feelings, and experiences through stories?
This is an option always available to you.
By doing so, you are eloquently expressing the things you value, the customs you take part in, and the wisdom you’ve acquired in life all via stories.
Telling A Story
Have you ever felt that you had something special to share but you didn’t know how to do it? Or maybe you wished you could grab people’s attention and keep them listening to you but you didn’t know how?
The cool thing is you can do this via stories. And you’ll be happy to know that there are many stories within you, just waiting to be told.
By becoming a better storyteller, you can overcome feelings of isolation or feeling misunderstood and develop a stronger connection with others.
Telling A Story
4 Steps to Becoming a Great Storyteller
Even if you’ve never told a story in your life, you can become a great storyteller!
With a little effort and practice, your storytelling skills will improve and people will be drawn to what you have to say.
Here are 4 important techniques you can use to tell great stories:
Telling A Story
1 – Ensure that your presence is known.
Before you can tell a great story, you need to have the attention of your audience, whether it’s a small group of friends or a large crowd.
If you have their attention, you’re halfway there!
After that you want to speak clearly and deliberately with an upright posture and confident demeanor.
Self-confidence plays a massive role in making your presence known. If you lack the confidence to step outside of your comfort zone and be confident, you’ll have a hard time trusting that you have something special to share with your audience.
Telling A Story
2 – Connect with and engage your audience.
So now that you have their attention and you are feeling confident, it is time to connect with your audience.
Connecting with your audience on an emotional level is important.
If you’re able to do this – make your listeners FEEL SOMETHING, FEEL A RAW EMOTION while listening to your story, you’ll draw in their interest and your story won’t fall on deaf ears.
This means understanding who they are, what they desire, why they’re there, and how to speak to them.
Talk and relate to your audience on their level.
A good storyteller isn’t condescending or egotistical, nor should you let your wavering self-confidence make you feel timid. Your audience isn’t above or beneath you – they are EQUAL.
Remember we’re all human and we’re all equal, so eliminate any negative perceptions or mental barriers from your mind. There’s nothing to be scared of. Be open to sharing your story.
Telling A Story
3 – Interact with your audience.
If you are sharing your story with a big crowd, audience involvement is a simple technique that famous speakers use when sharing stories. You can ask questions, set up activities, or have someone share their experiences.
This keeps your audience tuned in because they become part of the story.
- Humor can help you engage and interact with an audience but don’t force it. It needs to feel natural. Forcing humor into a story where it doesn’t belong is awkward for both the storyteller and the audience.
Telling A Story
4 – Teach something.
In the end, your audience wants to learn something.
They don’t want to simply learn about you; they want to learn something they can apply in their own lives.
So do your best to structure your story so there’s both a situation and a solution or moral to it.
That way the listener has something to take away from the experience and apply it to their life.
For a story to stay in their mind, there needs to be a deeper meaning associated with the story that the audience can identify with.
All in all, you can gain the full attention of your audience with a story, especially when you connect with them on an emotional level.
Opening yourself up and being vulnerable is the perfect way to connect with others, who see themselves in your story.
So, don’t be afraid to share your heartfelt stories.
It just may be the thing that makes someone else have the lightbulb moment they need in life.
Until next time, dream big my friend xx
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I’m Frances Vidakovic – a mindset & action coach for quietly ambitious women who want to stop overthinking and finally take aligned action. I help women achieve their goals and follow through on what matters, without sacrificing their sanity or soul.