Good storytelling doesn’t just apply to fiction; it applies to our everyday life. Whenever I’m chatting with friends, advocating for a project, or explaining our vision and mission, I’m telling stories.
The more those stories resonate with the people I’m talking to, the more successful I will be at achieving my goals—whether that’s deeper connections with friends, approval for my project, or having employees work towards our company direction.
So, how can I be better at it?
Below is my collection of tips that have stuck with me. I’d love to hear what works well for you: send me a note via the form in the bottom right!
I saw this 2-minute excerpt from the creators of South Park talking about storytelling. The TL;DR that’s stuck with me forever is:
If the words ‘and then’ belong between the beats [of your outline], you’ve got something pretty boring.
What should happen between every beat is either the word ‘therefore’ or the word ‘but.‘
Julian wrote in his storytelling guide:
Hooks require premeditation. Neil deGrasse Tyson told author David Perell that nearly 100% of the stories and analogies he shares in interviews are first written down.
But:
The storyteller’s craft is therefore in making that prep work invisible. This is important: You never want to memorize your words. You only memorize key points
This connects with the first tip: prepare your beats to make sure the red thread of the story is solid (‘therefore’ & ‘but’, no ‘and then’) but don’t prepare the specific words.
From Julian’s storytelling guide again:
In contrast, bad speakers who bore me lack narrative hooks—like you’d find at the beginning of a book or a film. A hook raises a question without immediately providing the answer. For example, “It was the worst date of my entire life.” Listeners wonder, “Why?”
You’re not going to tell them for a while.
[…] When [the best storytellers] finally get to the nail-biting answers, they then drag out the telling.
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