Tips to be a better storyteller

How many times have you thought ‘I wish I was a better storyteller’?

If you spend time with kids, you’ve no doubt read them a storybook or two. My little human’s favourite was ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. I could tell it with my eyes closed and she knew every line that was coming up.

But storytelling isn’t just to entertain children. It’s a great skill to have as a leader, employee, business owner, writer, teacher – you name it, storytelling gets you heard.??

The two absolutely key ingredients for storytelling are a good story (obviously), but that good story also needs to be relevant to your audience. Telling your boss the story of how you missed your flight to Thailand after a wild night out in Hong Kong* might be a good story, but it’s not very relevant if the point you need to land in your conversation is about team performance, unless that performance is how amazingly they responded to a customer in need…?

Know what message you’re trying to land with your audience and what is going to keep them interested.

Consider how you’re delivering the story. Are you speaking it, or writing it? Think about the tone you’re using. Take into account the various elements that complete the story, so you don’t rush it. How you deliver the story plays a massive part in how well you hold the audience’s attention.?

There’s science behind storytelling too. A good story connects your audience emotionally. When this happens their brain produces oxytocin, a hormone that increases compassion, trustworthiness, generosity and sensitivity to social cues. This in turn creates empathy with the storyteller and the listeners’ brain neurons fire in the same pattern as the storyteller’s, called neural coupling.?

Here are some tips to help you become a better storyteller:

1. Read, read, and read some more. When you’re exposed to good stories you learn about what makes a good structure, what captures your imagination and what generates what feelings.
2. Write. Every day things happen to us that could be turned into a story. When you write down your experiences, you soon begin to recognise what could be pulled into a story to bring a point to life.?
3. Don’t limit yourself. You might be interested in using storytelling to become a better communicator at work, but soon find you have a knack for it and want to start telling children’s stories.
4. Know your subject. To land a story well, you need to be passionate about it. It’s far easier to weave a story when you know your subject well.
5. Know what you want to communicate. Is to entertain and educate? Sell a product? Make some changes? These topics all generate difference emotional responses from your audience. You need to understand what response you want to elicit and make your story fit for purpose.??
6. Think of your audience. Is your story for engineers? For children? For marketers? Knowing your audience means you make the elements of the story appropriate for them in terms of structure, detail and length.
7. Struggling to find stories? Keep an eye on the world around you. Maybe there’s a need not being met? Tell a story to call people to action. Is there a trend happening in business right now? Use this as a story on your website. There are stories to be found everywhere.
8. Stick to the important facts. It’s easy when telling stories to veer off down rabbit holes that take us away from the main points. We lose our audience’s attention when we do this.?Bullet point your key facts of the story on paper first; it helps you stay focused.
9. Act some points out. If you’re speaking your story, some parts come to life better when you act them out. Maybe you slammed the door as you walked out, and you can physically show your arm slamming the door behind you as you walk a few steps away. Bring different characters to life with slightly different voices. This all helps keep your audience engaged.?

Storytelling is an important communication tool. Stories can entertain, bring action, or both depending on the story and how well you tell it.

Whatever you use storytelling for, learning to do it well will help you successfully connect with your audience. That can only ever be a good thing.

*I can’t confirm or deny that this happened in my earlier years.