Some of the best conversationalists are also some of the best storytellers and it's no coincidence. Everyone loves a good story.
Start by reading: How to Become a Great Conversational Storyteller
In my last storytelling post, I wrote about four different ways to improve your conversational storytelling skills. Here’s a quick reminder:
- Recognize what stories you already tell and write them down.
- Make sure they have a beginning, middle and end.
- Make sure your stories are emotional/experiential rather than technical.
- Make a conscious effort to repeat your stories
Next, I want to help you refine them.
History is full of stories, but history is not story
Think of stories as adaptations of historical events. Essentially, you take what you remember as personal history and adapt it for conversational storytelling. It's similar to the way a historical event would be adapted to film. You're trying to find the balance between what would make a good story and historical accuracy.
This might seem like too much bending of the truth to for some people. However, we already bend the truth when we tell a story, unconsciously, leaving out details and exaggerating what was important or impactful to us. As a storyteller, you want to consciously choose what to leave out, exaggerate, and emphasize. All the decisions you make about how to adapt the story should be based on the purpose you have for telling it.
Ask yourself: What is the point of telling this story?
- Am I trying to express a piece of my identity?
-Try emphasizing details about my reactions or feelings about the events of the story. - Am I trying to teach a lesson?
-Try juxtaposing the way things were before you learned the lesson and how things changed once the lesson was learned. Most importantly, don't get swamped in technical details. - Am I trying to give a new perspective on something?
-Try including details about someone's shift in perspective during the story, be sure to include how they felt before and how they felt after. - Am I trying to entertain?
-Try emphasizing the places where people react. Do listeners laugh, jump in with questions, or respond emotionally.
The purpose of the story should dictate how you tell it. Whatever the purpose, remember, it’s not history it’s a story. Often, it’s best to leave out the contradictions and chaos of history in an effort to tell a great story with a purpose.
The Unification of Plot
A great story will have one central plot that everything revolves around. Every extra direction the story goes in, outside of the central plot, is a chance to lose the listeners.
The idea is very simple: anything that doesn’t need to be in the central story shouldn't be.
Here is an example of part of a story without a unified plot:
*The most interesting person I’ve ever met was a Taoist monk. In 2001, I went to China to study Kung-Fu, even though it was my first year at college. I landed in Beijing, where I happened to get drunk for the first time in my life because a tour guide told me not to drink the water and the only other beverage I could trust was beer. From Beijing, I took a train to Wudang mountain. When I finally got to Wudang mountain I met this monk named Feng who taught me one of the most interesting things I’d ever learned… *
College, arriving in Beijing, getting drunk, traveling to the mountain, and the year aren’t necessary because the story is only about myself, the monk and whatever makes him interesting. You can see that in the first sentence: The most interesting person I’ve ever met was a Taoist monk.
As I mentioned in the first storytelling post, recording yourself tell a story, then writing it down word-for-word to look at and edit, will help you get a strong sense of what your stories look like and whether you have a unified plot.
When you’re analyzing a story, think about each sentence and say, “could the story be told without this?” if the answer is yes - cut it. If you get to a point where for every sentence the answer is “no,” then your plot is most likely unified.
Thanks for reading!
Let me know what you think!
Ask me any questions you might have!
Thanks for this important sharing. Storytelling is one of my passion and gather a lot of them as I travel and experience life myself as well. Namaste :)
It's great to know there are so many passionate storytellers out there! Thanks @eric-boucher
Excellent! I am a story-teller, much like yourself. I usually write science fiction, and I try to sneak in some of my belief system into the story, as well as have some person with a moral stand in the story (what ever morals they may be). I also like the idea of including some "how-to" info as a part of the story. I just posted my first Steemit post today. Check it out https://steemit.com/writing/@james83501/my-campaign-to-resurrect-firefly-serenity-including-how-to-bring-back-wash-believably-part-1
Cheers!
Serenity was a great show. I wrote another post about screenwriting and included some advice from Joss Whedon. I'll check out your post -- Thanks!
I enjoyed the screenwriting post as well, Thank you very much. I will follow your work closely. Cheers ~James~
good advice, following it might be difficult from time to time. Ha ha!
It's a skill; it takes practice. Incremental improvements are what you're looking for.
I will follow your advice, I am a lover of telling stories and legend If you visit my vera wall but published a photograph will aompañado of a story, really am not good, maybe I can improve a little, I will uyilizar their techniques and if want to visit my wall, feel free to do it and please comment on my tranajo. congratulations is an excellent post
Thanks so much @jlufer. I'll check out your wall.
The warmest seat next to the fire is always reserved for the best storyteller. Thanks for another Great Post!
No problem - thanks!
Interesting. Up voted and up voting my blogs will be appreciated. Followed.
https://steemit.com/jokes/@hanamana/joke-of-the-night-we-need-laugh-at-nights-too
Thanks!
This is an awesome series of posts. I'm loving this. Keep 'em coming!
Thanks! Will do.
I'd say, imagine writing as if you're talking to a good friend at a bar.
I love this! As a visual storyteller, I truly believe that story has a way of bleeding into every aspects of our lives. But as I tell my clients not every story is actually interesting or engaging! We've all be with that person in a conversation who cannot stop talking but isn't really saying anything. I look forward to practicing these skills in my next conversation!