Come, I have a story to tell you! As we come to know, there is a chance for us to listen to a story. We all stand alert. We all love to listen to stories, whether we are kids or adults. In fact, in the recent past, storytelling has proven to be the best technique to make people listen to you as well as influence or motivate them to do something. Even salespeople have learned how to sell their products using the story-telling technique.
We might have come across people who are very good story tellers. I still remember one of my father’s aunties who used to speak about her daily life incidents, and we all used to listen to her like she was narrating the Ramayana or Mahabharata. But no, it was a normal incident that takes place in our lives as well, but we don’t know how to narrate it in the form of a story. Some people are natural story tellers, but there is a story teller inside all of us, and we need to hone our skills.
Well, storytelling is known to be an art form. It needs creativity and practice to deliver a good story. Let’s take a few steps which can polish our story-telling techniques.
Understand your audience.
A storyteller or writer needs to know their audience before starting with the story. As the marketing mantra says, know your customers in the same way a storyteller must know his or her audience. If we are going to tell any story to kids, it should be formulated in such a way that it can arouse their interest in listening to the story. Similarly, if it is for adults, we cannot present it in the same way that it was for children. In fact, the story should have some logic, which would help the adults understand as well as create interest in them.
The key message of the story
Before we can tell or write a story, we must first decide what message we want to convey to the audience. Every story has some core message or learning to give to the world. In the same way, find out what needs to be learnt by the world through your story.
Sequencing the story
Always decide beforehand how you are going to start a story. Every story has a sequence to follow from start to finish.
Decide on how you are going to start the story, then think about what happened then, next, and last. Sequencing the story would help you understand the introduction, then where to put the climax, and last, what the core message or value would be from it.
Engage your audience.
Try to engage your audience by asking different questions. This would also help you to understand if they understood the story or not.
Use expressions
Expressions are very important while narrating any story. Without expressions, people won’t know if it is a funny story or a suspenseful one. Without expression, interest would not be aroused in your listeners to listen to you.
Don’t forget to narrate the moral of the story or the value learnt from it at the end. This way, your listeners will gain something by listening to the story.
