I consider myself a storyteller. This is something I learned from my great-grandmother who is now deceased. She told her stories in the tradition of a griot. And because she could barely read or write, much of what she knew was conveyed orally. Her voice was powerful, however, it was not in the timber of her voice, or in the way she shook and gesticulated while she told her stories that gripped me, it was the way in which she so seamlessly moved from one form of storytelling to the other.
For example, at one point (while telling her story), she would be reciting poetry, then she would segue into prose, and in between all of that was the singing she would infuse in her narrations.
And while she could never put a word to paper, what I learned from her is that, in conveying ones thoughts, it is important to engage the audience. To build a world, and weave it in a way that is captivating.
She did not have readers, she had listeners. But despite that she made me know that even if you are teling a story to a million people, you should make each one of that million feel as if he/she is the only one you are narrating your piece to.