35. Storytelling (II), delivery

Any person speaking to a group of people, in any context, has an obligation to be entertaining. Storytelling allows you to fulfill this obligation and even more: it gives you the opportunity to make people smile, laugh, and learn.

This is my second post summarising ideas from the book Storyworthy, by Matthew Dicks. The previous post was about crafting your story (i.e. the elements that make a good story). In this post, I’ll focus on telling your story. Needless to say, a large part of storytelling is in the delivery.

Tell ‘small’ (not necessarily short) stories

Most people think storytelling is about the ‘big’ stories. ‘Big’ stories often involve life-and-death situations, miraculous events, and a lot of drama. These are very difficult to tell because, chances are, your audience hasn’t experienced many of them so can’t relate. Instead, the trick is to tell ‘small’_stories: these have their five-second moments in loneliness, love, betrayal, loyalty, and similar themes.

We must find the piece of the story that people can connect to, relate to, and understand.

The present tense is king

Using the present tense is a way of ensuring your story has energy. It’s more lively and allows the audience to feel exactly what you’re describing as if they’re living the moment with you. You can load the audience up with sensory information when using the present tense. For example:

“I’m running down the narrow corridor. I’m already out of breath and try opening all the doors I come across, hoping one will lead me to the outside. My eyes are now watering and the smoke is starting to choke me…”

Within a story, you might want to shift to the past tense to describe a backstory. This is an effective way of separating two stories if you need to.

The following paragraphs are more relevant when you’re performing your story on stage, rather than e.g. at the dinner table.

Time travel

When done right, storytelling is time travel. A good storyteller makes their audience forget they exist and convinces them they are actually in the midst of the story. To do this, you need to create a bubble of alternative reality and make sure this bubble is kept intact throughout the story. Here are some things that break the bubble:

Rhetorical questions - these make the audience think of an answer, and with it, they acknowledge the storyteller exists and that they exist. Similarly, any interaction between the audience and the storyteller bursts the bubble. As a storyteller, you’re the person with the mic, so you should be able to control the room - comments from the audience needn’t be answered.
Don’t mention the word ‘story’ - the word ‘story’ reminds the audience that this is in fact just a story. “If your audience knows that you’re telling a story, then they’re not time traveling”

Time to perform

Here are some pointers when actually performing; I haven’t mentioned the usual reminder of speaking to a large group of people: e.g., maintaining eye contact, projecting your voice, or using a mic effectively.

Don’t memorise your story

There’s a difference between reciting a story and telling a story. Reciting a story doesn’t allow you to be vulnerable and authentic, but telling a story does. The only sentences of a story you should memorise are the beginning and ending - you have to start strong and end strong. As for the rest of the story, you should memorise all the scenes and their order, but allow yourself some freedom in telling the story.

Control your emotions

Your story will naturally cover moments in your life that mean a lot to you, and some of them will be emotionally charged. You don’t want to remove the emotion - this helps you connect with your audience. However, you don’t want the emotion to overwhelm you or your story. Make sure you rehearse the emotionally charged parts of your story.