Understanding the Art of Great Storytelling

It doesn’t matter whether you want to be a writer or content creator; storytelling is one of the most important skills that you can learn to ace your craft. Did you know that the people with the greatest influence on this planet are exceptional storytellers?

Look at your favorite teacher – the best teachers use storytelling as an art to convey complex concepts. Comedians use this technique to make their audience laugh. Even companies use the art of storytelling to sell their products.

Besides – good storytellers are seen as more attractive and important.

Here is how to become a good storyteller.

Prepare the Setup

This is the part where you prepare the scene for your story. You provide the listeners with just enough details for them to know what you are going to talk about. You might want to think of this aspect in terms of a book cover, where you are attracted to a book based on its setup.

In the absence of a proper cover, people will not want to listen to your story. So, you will want to ensure that your story is relatable to the subject at hand. For instance, if you are hanging out with your friends and they are talking about their crazy dorm roommates, you might want to bring up a story about your old roommate.

Similarly, if your friends are talking about their past idols, you will want to bring in a story about your mentor, whom you used to look up to. So, you will want to be relatable, for which you will want to ensure that you have the perfect setup.

Focus on Content

The next step is to prepare the core of your story, which describes the events that occur. However, you will want to avoid the mistake of spending too much time covering unnecessary details, as people will quickly lose interest.

Surely, you might have met such people in life who just talk, talk, and talk and never get to the point. It is safe to state that you might want to take some classes on creative content writing, such as the creative writing classes in Houston, that is, if you reside in Houston, to know how to write better content.

As a rule of thumb, you will want to keep your story short and simple instead of keeping it long and lengthy. If a piece of content is not important for the story to make sense, then you had better not include it.

One of the most important factors that you want to focus on regarding establishing great content is the element of tension. You will want to focus on building tension because the more and more tension in your content, your listener will get more and more invested in your story. They will keep wondering about what will happen next.

In order to build tension, the content of your story needs to be interesting, which means that the events that occur in your story have to be something that doesn’t happen normally. If people stop paying attention halfway through your story, it is mainly due to the fact that you are not building enough tension.

Get the Resolution Part Right

The next important part of a good story is the resolution. In this final part of the story, you release all of the tension that you built up in the previous step. For instance, if you watch comedies, you might be familiar with the resolution as it lies in the punchline.

When it comes to presentations, the resolution tends to be the conclusion. If you fail at properly resolving your story, people will simply not realize that your story is done. However, by getting the resolution right, you can get the sort of emotional reaction from your listeners that you were looking for the entire time.

How to Tell a Great Story

When storytelling in the first person, which means when you are talking about yourself, you want to immerse the listeners in the same emotional journey that you personally experienced. Every story needs a near-constant element of mystery to keep the listener engaged.

Simply put – you need to raise questions in the listener’s mind constantly, and each time you answer, a new one needs to pop up – if you are going to keep their attention. Remember – the best stories have a lesson at the end, such as the stories that you know from Aesop’s fables, where there is always an overarching point, which is explicitly shared in the last portion.

So, when sharing your story, you need to know your intention so that you get to the resolution and you know what the listeners are supposed to take away from your story. The lesson is supposed to leave an impression in the listener’s minds, prompting them to take the action that you want from them, such as making a donation, buying a product, or sharing your story with others.

The point is – at the end of your stories, you cannot just leave people hanging. You will want to make it explicitly clear to people why they just went on that journey with you, and if there is some action that they might want to take, make sure to tell them.

If you are telling a story for your business or product, you must avoid pitching right into what their product does. You will want to emphasize the problem for which you have a solution. So, start with the problem that your product solves in a way that the listeners can relate to. So, make sure to end your story with a lesson.

The Takeaway

The better you become at storytelling, it can help you transform your life. Your storytelling skill can land you a job in a crowded pool of candidates; it can also help you stand out on your first date and make the final difference between establishing a successful or failing business. By remembering the above-mentioned points while storytelling, you can make a huge impact on your listeners.