
How do I improve my storytelling? - nvr219
http://ask.metafilter.com/312581/How-do-I-improve-my-storytelling
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flashgordon
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!

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oddlyaromatic
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.

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spodek
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.

~~~
denzil_correa
I think you mean "Deliberate Practice".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_(learning_method)#Del...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_\(learning_method\)#Deliberate_practice)

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k__
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?

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denzil_correa
There's an entire book dedicated to it "Putting Stories to Work"

[http://www.anecdote.com/2016/11/how-to-practice-
storytelling...](http://www.anecdote.com/2016/11/how-to-practice-
storytelling/)

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firefoxd
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

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emerongi
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.

~~~
windowsworkstoo
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

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xiaoma
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.

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sirtaj
This is probably slightly off-topic, but Ask Metafilter is an unsung internet
treasure.

~~~
amelius
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](http://ask.metafilter.com/popular.mefi)

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epalmer
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](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.

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tawaynjudge
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/](http://witty.news/) is my site. The news is mostly for
Indian audience.

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xaedes
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.

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crunkykd
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.

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binaryapparatus
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.

------
known
Feynman Technique [http://qz.com/849256/how-to-master-a-new-
subject/](http://qz.com/849256/how-to-master-a-new-subject/)

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PeanutCurry
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.

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dionidium
A lot of people could start by learning the difference between a story and a
reenactment. If your "story" takes the form:

    
    
        And then she said x
        So I responded with y
        And then she was all like, "I can't believe you responded with y"
        And I was like, "blah blah blah"
    

...then it's not a story; it's a reenactment. I _love_ stories. I _hate_
hearing reenactments.

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fuzzygroup
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.

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nathan_f77
Here's a YouTube playlist of Ira Glass on Storytelling (mentioned in the
comments):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_8pwkg_R8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_8pwkg_R8)

Was pretty interesting.

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frigen
I'm a good storyteller when I'm deeply happy and confident.

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danmaz74
A book I found useful (but it's more geared to storytelling in marketing) is
this one: Storytelling: Branding in Practice

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p0nce
I've found blogging to help a lot.

~~~
ramblerman
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

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totalZero
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.

