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How To Tell a Great Story

Ten Tips For Story-Telling Success

Dec 9, 2007 Tammie Burak

Story telling will never go out of style. Here are a few pointers that will help you keep your audience riveted from start to finish.

How to Tell a Great Story

Story-telling is an ancient art. Even in our technology saturated society, story-telling is a valuable art worth learning. While anyone is capable of telling a story, becoming a good story-teller takes practice. Good story tellers use the same tools an all effective communicators. Learn these ten simple steps and you’ll be on your way to becoming a great story-teller.

  1. Start with a catchy beginning to draw listeners in. For instance, a suspenseful start such as, “One stormy night, as I lay awake listening to the wind rattling the shutters…” is a better attention-getter than this bland beginning: “Does anyone maybe wanna hear about my long, boring ride to Grandma’s house?”
  2. Avoid repetitive fillers like “and”, “uh”, “then”, “now”, “mmm”, “well”, etc. How long would you listen to someone who talks like this, “Well, let’s see. One day, um, as I was, uh, going to the store, I, mmm, saw, uh, now let me think, I, uh, I saw a, now just a minute, where was I, uh…”?
  3. Know your audience. Your story should be of interest to your listeners. For example, if all your friend ever wants to talk about is his favorite team, he’s probably not going to be very attentive if you want to tell him all the blooming details about your tour of the botanical gardens last summer.
  4. Plan your beginning, middle, and end. Good stories always have a beginning (introduction to characters and situations), middle (usually a problem that needs a solution), and an end (how the problem was solved). Think about the beginning, middle, and end of your story and plan how you will move from one part to the next smoothly.
  5. Keep their interest. Using details that involve the five senses will keep them listening. For instance saying, “The soft black earth smelled damp and musty when my head hit the ground with a thud,” is more interesting than saying, “My head hit the ground.”
  6. Keep it short. Don’t tell what’s unnecessary or unrelated to the message you want to share. Get to the point.
  7. Use humor. If you can find a way to put into words the things that make you laugh, you’ll likely have your audience laughing, too.
  8. Express yourself. Effective communication includes the use all your communication tools: facial expression, tone of voice, voice modulation,gestures, body language, etc. Remember that verbal language (the words) is really only a small part of the whole message that you communicate to others.
  9. Use silence. Pauses emphasize a point and can be used to create suspense.
  10. Satisfy them. Make your ending satisfying to your audience. A one-sentence summary can signal the finish of your story. For example, saying, “And that is how I came in first,” will let everyone know that your story is done.

The copyright of the article How To Tell a Great Story in Homeschooling is owned by Tammie Burak. Permission to republish How To Tell a Great Story in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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Comments

Nov 20, 2008 10:12 PM
Guest :
and that is how i came in last... very sound advice. however one thing that seems to be missing in almost every site i visit looking for the what nots and the what to dos, is that i believe a great story should always be inspired by love. maybe i am crazy, but all the best stories i have read had some sort of love story, whether it be a one true love a parent or sibling. love the one thing that keeps your caracters or protagonist going despite the overwhelming odds... love ... one of the most powerful weapons a writer has in his arsonal....
Nov 21, 2008 10:11 AM
Tammie Burak :
Condolences on your coming in last! Good point about love making a story most compelling. It is the one force that energizes the world, believe it or not. Love compels us and motivates the good in us. (For more on this wonderful God-like attribute and its source, see 1 John 4:7-21, and also the most famous chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13.)May Love find you today!

Tammie
Dec 3, 2008 2:58 AM
Guest :
Other notes:
use your voice to have light and shade. for example, you might have some sections where you are loud, but others sections have a soft voice.
Example: (in a loud rushed voice)"But as we closed into damasus, a big blinding light (slowed soft voice) struck us down. (soft voice) we waited, but we herd Saul's voice say who are you lord? the light left the seane, we got up, exept for Saul who was still on the ground."

really good tip!
Jan 6, 2009 6:18 PM
Guest :
These are great tips!
Thanks alot!
Mar 8, 2009 9:43 AM
Guest :
Thank you for sharing these tips!
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