The only courses I found were aimed at being able to sell your business better; I'm only interested in storytelling for the sake of itself, with the only end goal of being satisfied in pleasurably conveying a story that has either happened or that is fictional.
Any reference/idea appreciated!
- https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Supe...
- https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_102:_Pure...
- https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_103:_Let%...
- https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_104:_The_...
- https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_105:_How_...
- https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_106:_Five...
Also this YouTube channel has great critique of storylines and character building of several TV series. The guy watches the entire series and explains what worked and what didn't: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUYr55OIJOjDgVtAeD9Vy...
My coworker Fred had no sense of privacy and he loved gossip. Sitting next to him wasn’t that bad though because I always knew what was going on in the office. He even checked my screen and used to read my email. Once he read it before I did and told me “hey our boss wants to talk to you” and when I got back asked me “did you get in trouble?” with a kind of eager look on his face. (Usually gets a laugh if I do the fred voice right)
Vs my normal hasty:
Oh yeah Fred he always read my email as soon as I got it, once he even told me the boss wanted to see me before I knew it. - which doesn’t have enough buildup for any potential punchline or Fred characterisation.
I think a lot of good storytelling is having the assertiveness to take up a significant amount of conversational bandwidth. Which can go wrong if you misjudge the audience or heirarchy (as I have many times).
The only thing that determines whether a story was “good” or not is how your audience responds to it. Reading them and the situation is way more important than having some amazing story ready to tell. Unfortunately that is a way harder skill to learn.
I have a friend who definitely has it. He can tell a story about some inane daily event that will entertain everyone infinitely more than another person recounting their life altering traveling experience.
Then add back a bit of context for humour or engagement.
Here's a great story: "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, they run across each other by chance and are happy together." I know it's a great story because I've heard it so many times over the years and usually enjoy it.
"So there's this computer programmer running for the train. As she gets to the platform she sees the conductor blow his whistle and board the train. But this guy jams his bag into the door and she's able to scramble in..."
Already I'm interested because there's a programmer involved, and I've just missed a train before, and I already know the plot of the story but there's a nice reversal because the protagonist is female.
But put in just a little...less is more! Then when your friends like your story they'll be inspired to tell one back.
Oh, and when I say just a little, consider Checkov's gun. You'd better fire it.
Find interesting angles to mundane ideas. I'll ask people "What did you do this weekend?" and they'll say, "I went to the store, saw a movie. What about you?" and my version will be "I was in the store parking lot, and I saw this awesome muscle car from the 60s, so I waited for the owner to come out, and the guy is a street car racer!" Most people just think of mundane things -- good storytellers find ways to spin those mundane things into something more interesting! Embellish things, exaggerate experiences. So yeah, the parking lot was full, but did you drive around for 5 minutes to find a spot, or did you drive around UNTIL THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE!?!? Leverage hyperbole and exaggeration.
Any time you get someone to smile, capitalize on it. Take note of what you said. Smile right back. Crack another joke. Find another part of the story to do the same thing you just did to get them to smile.
One thing good storytellers do is modulate their voices. Go to a church and listen to a preacher do his preaching. He'll start telling a story, and his voice will be normal. Then he'll get to a serious or important point and soften his voice, getting you to lean in a little bit. Then, once he knows he has your attention, he'll boom, "THE ARISTOCRATS" and your brain just eats that shit right up. Watch Penn from Penn & Teller, and he'll do this. Any good comedian does it. Watch any Shakespearean actor on stage. Voice modulation is key to a great story.
Think about how to build suspense to draw people in. Don't give the punch line or the plot twist right away, instead entice people to stay around and listen to your story. I have a ton of ideas. Thread -> (:) (click to see more)
Inject humor and physicality whenever possible, even if it's a sorta boring story. Remember, "I went to the store" is boring, but "I found myself standing in line at the cashier for the seventeenth time this month because my family hasn't discovered shopping lists yet" is funnier. Widen your eyes to act surprised, narrow them to act angry or tense. Practice facial expressions.
For one particular example, look at Hank Green on TikTok. He's engaging and funny and exciting. He's telling stories about himself, about science, about the world. Watch his facial expressions, listen to how he structures his videos. His excitement about just about anything is palpable. He's not the most attractive dude in the world, he's not the smartest guy ever, he's not even the funniest, but he leverages his own skills to tell compelling stories all the time. (His brother, John Green, is also a great storyteller, but in a totally different way. Worth checking out!)
But above all, practice, practice, practice.
Good luck!
The second approach is to figure out the core of the story. If you have 30 seconds to make an elevator pitch, you pull the (alleged) Mark Twain, "baby shoes for sale; never worn" trick of using the fewest words in the most impactful way. Sometimes this is figuring out a quick set-up and pay-off one-two punch in the story.
This is harder, IMO, because it requires that you have thought significantly about your story before you tell it. But I've also found that the more you practice this, the easier it gets to tell a short version and a long version, depending on how the room reads and how the conversations go.
The third way is riskier, but effectively, you play the punch line first. "Once I sang karaoke with Kelly Clarkson at a diner in Mexico City" is a headline statement that makes people say "Wait, WHAT?!" If time is tight, they'll take that one statement and that's good enough to make you interesting. Conversation over. Move along.
But if there's more time or the conversation is able to slow down, you'll have the opportunity to expand it into that larger story. In short, grab their attention with an impactful but ultimately throwaway statement, then reel them in for the long version.
There's a book. There's a free podcast with an extensive catalog. There are paid courses.
I suggest reading the book first to get the gist. The team behind Story Grid has really taken the original concept into some highly technical and fascinating directions. You can go as deep as you want, but they take it very deep.
Most importantly, there's a system for thinking about stories. What makes them work (or flop). What makes people pay attention (or tune out). The underlying conventions and structure all good stories share. How to learn from master works.
These lessons work not just for fiction, but non-fiction as well. It's a powerful mix of theory and practice that hash changed how I look at movies, TV series, fiction, and even news articles.
The best way to tell a story to a friend is to make a story your friend wants to hear.
Know your friends, and amusing them should be pretty easy
By coming up with ideas on the spot you'll soon be able to "fill" stories with context to emphasise points. Getting the timeline for a story straight before you utter the first word is important too. Stories in chronological order are easiest to follow.
What did the doormat do in a previous life to deserve being walked over?
What did the cat first think of their new housemate, the dog? What did the cat think about the new food, or even the colour of the cat bowl?
How do door hinges feel with so much responsibility on their shoulders?
Has the house alarm ever had the urge to make a sound just to irritate the humans it's supposed to protect?
Watch it, then make one improvement and do it again. Do it with a longer story. Rinse and repeat.
What you say is much less important than what is heard.
A great, well constructed story delivered poorly is...a poor story.
So, use some of the other tips provided by others to get the mechanics of the story down, but take just as much time recording yourself telling a story, and then reviewing the audio. (Recording into a cell phone is more than adequate)
This is one thing that has helped me more than anything else...
Join the group and see if you can tell your stories to the world. See their YouTube channels
Read this book: “how to tell a story” https://themoth.org/how-to-tell-a-story
Other idea is to join a local toastmasters group to boost your public speaking skills. One of the most underrated but the most life lasting skill.
Good luck!
I suggest writing out stories, setting them aside, then coming back after a week or so to see how they read. You may be surprised at how little you like what you had written, and you may see ways that they can be improved.
Beyond that, read. Read history, read fiction, and don't just let it flow over you, watch what the writer is doing.
"In essence story is intention meets obstacle."
Simple yet powerful imho
It resonated with me because I feel like my brain is constantly trying to explain what I am doing in story form. For interesting events it usually can’t help but iterate around the event until it has created a little entertaining/impressive/endearing anecdote for me to use later.
I don’t have solid advice for the OP but it would be interesting if retelling events wasn’t something your brain prioritized. I seem to do it less as I get older.
Dave Chappelle and Amy Schumer are great at telling funny stories - to name a couple.
Edit: pardon the mobile link but this is a great comedic story telling example by a local to me comedian Rick Reynolds
Aaron Sorkin said it's like a taut clothesline with two things: intention and obstacle. The intention is really big and the obstacle is really big. No such thing as an intention too strong or an obstacle too high. Once you have those two, you can hang anything on it.
The trick is in rephrasing it to be surprising. It's like adjusting a camera. You want it to show it at an angle where the intention seems impossible and the obstacle seems too big, and they're surprised by the actual ending.
Later, try RPG games (Not WoTC/Hasbro D&D)(which apart from being crazy rn, it really got boring around 3.5E when it tried to copy World of Warcraft). There are plenty of games that are more about narrative building and storytelling than mini-max dice-fests and rules-lawyering.
I suggest "Blades in the Dark" for one, cus I'm currently playing it, but also it can be played solo, and if you can get a gaming group together, it's an easy sell by saying: "It's steampunk Peaky Blinders".
Lots of people on YouTube seem to recommend Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. My experience of it is that there's some useful ideas in it, but it's overly formulaic.
Watching him tell stories is also really inspring.
Step 2: say it
