While I am nowhere near being a master story teller, I found joining Toastmasters to be the best thing I have done in my life (wondering why I left it so late, leaves me slapping my self each time). Toastmasters (like many other programs that teach communication/presentation skills) is ultimately a study of technique and story telling needs truck loads of it to be engaging and effective. If TM can help a stuttering introvert with chronic low self-esteem like myself, imagine what it can do for you!
I would add that it is really worth seeing professional storytellers, especially if there is a storytelling festival in your area. These are often people who tell both traditional folk tales and personal stories, and sometimes just crazy invented stuff. It's not comedy but it's often funny, and it's not theatre but it's often dramatic. You can be in a tent with 2000 people and feel like you just had a great conversation with an old friend. There is a ton of wisdom, practice, and stagecraft involved in getting to that level, but at the same time the fundamentals are simple and consistent: Respect the audience, respect the story, and let some of your own personality in.
The best advice in the world only works in the context of practice.
Practicing makes advice meaningful.
Practice and then practice more. Then practice more.
Get feedback. Seek advice. Iterate. But practice.
Name anyone who mastered a performance art who didn't practice more than most. Even if you can, I can name a hundred who did.
Practice, practice, practice.
Find audiences you can practice with and practice with them. Until then, practice by yourself, in front of a wall if that's what you have. Use a mirror or a camera. Practice. The more you practice, the more audiences you'll find.
One illusion we have is that a great storyteller is great the first time with no practice or anything.
Hangout with someone who tells good stories and you will hear the same story come back often. The more they tell it, the more it sounds like it is the very first time they tell it.
I watched a lot of videos from Seth Godin, even the jokes are the exact same, but everytime the audience is hearing it for the first time.
How to deal with people who tend to re-tell the same stories all the time? Someone very close to me keeps telling me the same stories every time I meet them (a few times per year) and it's very annoying. Sometimes I kind of finish their story as soon as they start telling it and I feel like this has been the least offensive, but I can't do that for like 3 stories in a row.
I can't tell them to just stop. They really like telling these stories. But if it's a 5-minute story and I've already heard it 5 times before, it's just not fun at all.
I agree with other comments that practice is important.
Even more important is getting good input that you can model. Read fiction every day. While non-fiction is generally read for the purpose of furthering an instrumental goal (e.g. learning how to do something or learning about something), fiction's one job is to be interesting. As a result, even storytellers who are relatively weak by the standards of fiction authors are well ahead of typical business speakers or writers.
Pay attention to what keeps your attention and why. Pay attention to what you remember a week after you've finished the book.
A lot of practical advice in the comments so far. Practice is important. Don't wait in your story to hint at the outcome. Don't give the punch line until it is time but entice the audience with what is coming early on. Hook them.
Like all skills, story telling is something that improves with practice. As you do it more often, you tend to think about it more often and improve your skills. I used to discuss everyday news with my sister. She is a super busy person and liked listening to news through me.So I finally decided to build a startup out of it. I am trying to present everyday news in the form of a story. It has been almost a month since I have started writing news every day in the form of a story and I believe it keeps getting better with time.
* http://witty.news/ is my site. The news is mostly for Indian audience.
I recommend reading George Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces".
This is about comparative mythology, aka comparative story telling.
It opened my mind to be able to understand all kinds of storys on another level, so I guess it is also helpful for writing those.
Two aspects: performance and content. For performance I concur with the other folks advice here to practice a lot. For content I recommend reading Story - by Robert McKee. There's lots of knowledge on how to hold an audience's attention.
Practice is important and when coupled with introspection/self-reflection can help a lot in identifying areas where easy improvement can be developed. However, of equal importance is targeted study. If you want to tell better jokes, study successful comedians and their jokes. If you want to write, read stories by successful writers. Meanwhile, as you do these things always try to understand why the audiences for these things liked them so much.
I think the best advice I can give is the nike approach: Just Do It. If you want to be good at telling stories then you have to drop your ego and just tell them. I'm a blogger and blogging is the best thing that ever happened to my story telling. Being able to write whenever you want, without a gatekeeper, editor or schedule meant that my story telling skills could develop at their own pace.
I don't buy that 80/20 breakdown. Timing and structure can be different in two tellings of the same story, and those have little to do with the in-person attributes of a storyteller. A blogger still has to draw attention, play with the audience's emotions and anticipation, etc. So there's an obvious difference between story telling and blogging, but it may not be as substantial as neglecting 80% of the whole deal.
I'll try to add and explain a couple of things that I haven't seen: ups and downs and body language.
One of the most important things is to match your body language to your message. While it is true that it might come naturally if you practice a lot, it is also one of the "easy" gains in the beginning. It is also easy to exaggerate so be careful. The ups and downs display your personality and let the other people trust you more and feel like they know you better.
Let me explain both of them with a real story of my own. I have been quite often to Japan and I get here and there the question "why Japan"? This is similar to what I normally tell in a relaxed environment:
I have liked Japan for a long time [1]. I didn't like the manga and anime thing so much [2], but I think their culture and language are awesome[3]. So when I got a chance to do my final year project in Tokyo University I took it [4]. Actually, I also had a Japanese girlfriend back then but then we broke up [5]. I went to Japan anyway and it was one of the best experiences of my life [6]! I did so many things like [substory]...
Explanation:
[1] Mild value display for Japanese people. Body language: neutral to high.
[2] High value display, for most people who a foreigner can meet (both Japanese and non-Japanese) manga and anime are not cool. I am not saying I don't like them though, just putting distance between me and those "baka gaijin" (;
[3] Depending on the public I might add some stuff here, like the fact that I like robots or that they are quite efficient. I might even add that Japan does have some weird stuff, mainly in more tense social situations (competition).
[4] The best and hardest to get university in Asia. For foreigners it's a normal to positive sentence, for Japanese is an unbelievable thing (some times I must add some notes due to their stupefaction). Humble face here.
[5]-[6] This must be said in a "I was young and stupid" face initially and then go in with a big, happy and honest smile. Also this shows your story is genuine.
[substory] Tell a high value and positive story. It depends a lot on the people and situation though, I might go for my geeky side to my Japanese culture lover: [geek] Hatsune Miku live > Mario Kart with my friends > Martial Arts training [non-geek]
Make every concept count and display something about you and don't add unimportant fillers. The story reached this point just by interacting with people, telling it again and again and seeing what works best. Some of my other "value" stories: my teen "rocker" days + big live, the community of Makers I helped create + winning a NASA competition [1], etc.
While I am nowhere near being a master story teller, I found joining Toastmasters to be the best thing I have done in my life (wondering why I left it so late, leaves me slapping my self each time). Toastmasters (like many other programs that teach communication/presentation skills) is ultimately a study of technique and story telling needs truck loads of it to be engaging and effective. If TM can help a stuttering introvert with chronic low self-esteem like myself, imagine what it can do for you!
I would add that it is really worth seeing professional storytellers, especially if there is a storytelling festival in your area. These are often people who tell both traditional folk tales and personal stories, and sometimes just crazy invented stuff. It's not comedy but it's often funny, and it's not theatre but it's often dramatic. You can be in a tent with 2000 people and feel like you just had a great conversation with an old friend. There is a ton of wisdom, practice, and stagecraft involved in getting to that level, but at the same time the fundamentals are simple and consistent: Respect the audience, respect the story, and let some of your own personality in.
Practice, practice, practice.
The best advice in the world only works in the context of practice.
Practicing makes advice meaningful.
Practice and then practice more. Then practice more.
Get feedback. Seek advice. Iterate. But practice.
Name anyone who mastered a performance art who didn't practice more than most. Even if you can, I can name a hundred who did.
Practice, practice, practice.
Find audiences you can practice with and practice with them. Until then, practice by yourself, in front of a wall if that's what you have. Use a mirror or a camera. Practice. The more you practice, the more audiences you'll find.
Then practice more.
> Practice, practice, practice.
When practicing for a presentation, I'm always getting bored by my own story after the first rehearsal.
That is the point. So then you change it and rinse repeat. What's left over is something more than the first.
“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
https://www.carnegiehall.org/BlogPost.aspx?id=4295022505
I think you mean "Deliberate Practice".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_(learning_method)#Del...
Here's a relevant post by Andrew Ng, who credits deliberate practice for greatly improving his public speaking.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140320175655-176238488-lear...
Deliberate practice and perceptual exposure are the corner stones of effective learning.
They're both based on the premise to consume small parts, how does this work with stories?
People can look at hundreds of math examples in 30min and probably solve a few special parts of problems in 30min.
But how do you do this with stories?
Write 5-10 intros in an hour?
What parts of a story are even small enough to count as deliberate practice when your write them?
Intro, main, outro? Is this like with songs? Are there fills? interludes? breaks?
There's an entire book dedicated to it "Putting Stories to Work"
http://www.anecdote.com/2016/11/how-to-practice-storytelling...
One illusion we have is that a great storyteller is great the first time with no practice or anything.
Hangout with someone who tells good stories and you will hear the same story come back often. The more they tell it, the more it sounds like it is the very first time they tell it.
I watched a lot of videos from Seth Godin, even the jokes are the exact same, but everytime the audience is hearing it for the first time.
So yeah. Practice.
Edit: typo
How to deal with people who tend to re-tell the same stories all the time? Someone very close to me keeps telling me the same stories every time I meet them (a few times per year) and it's very annoying. Sometimes I kind of finish their story as soon as they start telling it and I feel like this has been the least offensive, but I can't do that for like 3 stories in a row.
I can't tell them to just stop. They really like telling these stories. But if it's a 5-minute story and I've already heard it 5 times before, it's just not fun at all.
Holy shit just say "oh yeah you told me this one" or just be a good mate and hear it out and have a laugh, dont overthink it
I agree with other comments that practice is important.
Even more important is getting good input that you can model. Read fiction every day. While non-fiction is generally read for the purpose of furthering an instrumental goal (e.g. learning how to do something or learning about something), fiction's one job is to be interesting. As a result, even storytellers who are relatively weak by the standards of fiction authors are well ahead of typical business speakers or writers.
Pay attention to what keeps your attention and why. Pay attention to what you remember a week after you've finished the book.
This is probably slightly off-topic, but Ask Metafilter is an unsung internet treasure.
Funny, when I searched for "best of ask metafilter", I got a page with "How do I improve my storytelling" as the first entry :)
http://ask.metafilter.com/popular.mefi
Metafilter is the best web site I paid to access.
A lot of practical advice in the comments so far. Practice is important. Don't wait in your story to hint at the outcome. Don't give the punch line until it is time but entice the audience with what is coming early on. Hook them.
There are short TED talks on giving TED talks. Here is but one play list. https://www.ted.com/playlists/226/before_public_speaking
If you must have slides
-- don't use bulleted text much -- don't use much text at all -- use images, pictures, sketches
See how boring that is.
And don't read your slides when you do have text.
I'm much better at presentations than one on one. I tend to provide more details than I should one on one. There is room for improvement.
Like all skills, story telling is something that improves with practice. As you do it more often, you tend to think about it more often and improve your skills. I used to discuss everyday news with my sister. She is a super busy person and liked listening to news through me.So I finally decided to build a startup out of it. I am trying to present everyday news in the form of a story. It has been almost a month since I have started writing news every day in the form of a story and I believe it keeps getting better with time. * http://witty.news/ is my site. The news is mostly for Indian audience.
I recommend reading George Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". This is about comparative mythology, aka comparative story telling. It opened my mind to be able to understand all kinds of storys on another level, so I guess it is also helpful for writing those.
Two aspects: performance and content. For performance I concur with the other folks advice here to practice a lot. For content I recommend reading Story - by Robert McKee. There's lots of knowledge on how to hold an audience's attention.
Start _every_ story with 'once upon a time' and it sounds good already. Audience is hooked.
Storytelling greatly depends on personal charm. Rehearse that first if it can be rehearsed. I am not sure it can.
Feynman Technique http://qz.com/849256/how-to-master-a-new-subject/
Practice is important and when coupled with introspection/self-reflection can help a lot in identifying areas where easy improvement can be developed. However, of equal importance is targeted study. If you want to tell better jokes, study successful comedians and their jokes. If you want to write, read stories by successful writers. Meanwhile, as you do these things always try to understand why the audiences for these things liked them so much.
A lot of people could start by learning the difference between a story and a reenactment. If your "story" takes the form:
...then it's not a story; it's a reenactment. I love stories. I hate hearing reenactments.I think the best advice I can give is the nike approach: Just Do It. If you want to be good at telling stories then you have to drop your ego and just tell them. I'm a blogger and blogging is the best thing that ever happened to my story telling. Being able to write whenever you want, without a gatekeeper, editor or schedule meant that my story telling skills could develop at their own pace.
Here's a YouTube playlist of Ira Glass on Storytelling (mentioned in the comments): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_8pwkg_R8
Was pretty interesting.
I'm a good storyteller when I'm deeply happy and confident.
A book I found useful (but it's more geared to storytelling in marketing) is this one: Storytelling: Branding in Practice
I've found blogging to help a lot.
I don't think this is the best advice, it's akin to reading about story telling.
While 20% of it is the story itself, 80% is the delivery, and that can only come through practice
I don't buy that 80/20 breakdown. Timing and structure can be different in two tellings of the same story, and those have little to do with the in-person attributes of a storyteller. A blogger still has to draw attention, play with the audience's emotions and anticipation, etc. So there's an obvious difference between story telling and blogging, but it may not be as substantial as neglecting 80% of the whole deal.
What I mean is if you are writing blog articles, you are writing hence it improves your storytelling.
I'll try to add and explain a couple of things that I haven't seen: ups and downs and body language.
One of the most important things is to match your body language to your message. While it is true that it might come naturally if you practice a lot, it is also one of the "easy" gains in the beginning. It is also easy to exaggerate so be careful. The ups and downs display your personality and let the other people trust you more and feel like they know you better.
Let me explain both of them with a real story of my own. I have been quite often to Japan and I get here and there the question "why Japan"? This is similar to what I normally tell in a relaxed environment:
I have liked Japan for a long time [1]. I didn't like the manga and anime thing so much [2], but I think their culture and language are awesome[3]. So when I got a chance to do my final year project in Tokyo University I took it [4]. Actually, I also had a Japanese girlfriend back then but then we broke up [5]. I went to Japan anyway and it was one of the best experiences of my life [6]! I did so many things like [substory]...
Explanation:
[1] Mild value display for Japanese people. Body language: neutral to high.
[2] High value display, for most people who a foreigner can meet (both Japanese and non-Japanese) manga and anime are not cool. I am not saying I don't like them though, just putting distance between me and those "baka gaijin" (;
[3] Depending on the public I might add some stuff here, like the fact that I like robots or that they are quite efficient. I might even add that Japan does have some weird stuff, mainly in more tense social situations (competition).
[4] The best and hardest to get university in Asia. For foreigners it's a normal to positive sentence, for Japanese is an unbelievable thing (some times I must add some notes due to their stupefaction). Humble face here.
[5]-[6] This must be said in a "I was young and stupid" face initially and then go in with a big, happy and honest smile. Also this shows your story is genuine.
[substory] Tell a high value and positive story. It depends a lot on the people and situation though, I might go for my geeky side to my Japanese culture lover: [geek] Hatsune Miku live > Mario Kart with my friends > Martial Arts training [non-geek]
Make every concept count and display something about you and don't add unimportant fillers. The story reached this point just by interacting with people, telling it again and again and seeing what works best. Some of my other "value" stories: my teen "rocker" days + big live, the community of Makers I helped create + winning a NASA competition [1], etc.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14417329