How to become a Better Storyteller?
You might be sobbing while watching a romantic movie.
You might experience an emotional outburst while watching a TED Talk.
You might experience the characters’ feelings while reading a book.
The suffering, the thrill, and the feelings are all the outcomes of excellent storytelling abilities!
Great stories may leave you with several thoughts, including the following:
How do these gifted storytellers captivate their readers?
What separates stories that are truly compelling from those that are merely good or even bad?
Well here are a few points that even you can use to become a great storyteller!
1) Share some personal bits –
Storytellers who make themselves a little vulnerable by sharing a portion of their own lives with the audience are much more likely to connect with them than those who disclose very little. Humans naturally have an interest in the life experiences of other people.
We might not be interested to know when a school teacher would share his daily schedule of taking classes, but we would like to know what made the person choose teaching as a career- maybe his mother was a teacher too!
Share some personal bits from your journey to make the readers more engrossed in your story!
2) Keep Your Audience in Mind –
The most crucial piece of advice is to concentrate on and get to know your audience. You won’t become close friends with them just to make a good impression, but it’s still important to comprehend their passions, aspirations, and challenges. This will enable you to better target your message and comprehend what inspires people to take action.
3) Include a few surprises –
The best public speakers never want their audience to become the pilot of the plane called “imagination”. An audience member typically has expectations for how a story will develop, and if those expectations are realized, the audience member is likely to lose interest and tune out. It is your responsibility as the storyteller to avoid this state of insanity, so incorporate a plot twist into your storylines. You’ll get the audience’s attention back when you get to the surprising part of the story.
4) Engage the Senses
In any story, visuals are crucial. However, you shouldn’t just rely on pictures. Throughout your story, use words to engage all of the senses. This will improve the experience and increase the impact of your presentation.
Example: “The ringing of the bell could be heard from the distant green hill.”
5) Rehearse Telling Stories
Last but not least, practicing is the only way to improve at anything. In other words, you need to get into the habit of telling stories after you start gathering them. You can record yourself telling stories on your phone. You’ll be able to monitor your progress as well as make progress toward overcoming your aversion to public speaking and being captured on camera.
Using stories to enhance your presentations is a great way to improve them. You’ll be well on your way to using storytelling in your presentations and making them more memorable if you follow the above points.
For more such content, you can follow me on my social media handles!
Till then..
Stay Awesome. Stay Productive.
– Divas Gupta