How to find and tell your story

Robert Munsch is an American-born Canadian author of children’s books, noted for his humorous and imaginative stories.

Munsch is known for his exuberant storytelling methods, with exaggerated expressions and acted voices. He makes up his stories in front of audiences and refines them through repeated tellings

Access the article to see a larger version of the image above, which details the steps to tell a story like Munsch:

• Start with something familiar
• Add something strange
• Use repetition and sound effects
• Find ways for the kids to participate
• Have a good ending

"While any story is better than an bullet list, some stories are more interesting than others. They command an audience's attention, communicate a message both clearly and memorably and thus help the audience to make a decision."

Read the full article for more on these tips for improving your presentations with stories:

1. Ask permission before telling a story
2. Anchor the story to a particular time
3. Anchor the story to a particular place
4. Feature a hero your audience identifies with
5. Use concrete words rather than abstractions
6. End the story with an emotional win

"Continuing my series of posts on The Truth About Memoirs, I want to talk about ways in which you can tell your stories."

Read the full article to see examples of and find out more about these 6 techniques:

1. Interior Monologue
2. Dramatic Monologue
3. Letter /Email Narration
4. Diary Entries
5. Detached Autobiography
6. Observer Memoir

National Storytelling Week (Sat 31 Jan to Sun 8 Feb) was set up by the Society for Storytelling 15 years ago and aims to promote the oral tradition of storytelling; celebrating our most ancient art form.

"We have sourced some sound advice from two of our directory storytellers who give simple tips for getting to grips with learning a story and top tips for telling a tale."

Read the full article to find out more about:

• Ewan McVicar’s top 10 handy hints for storytelling.  How to choose and tell a tell a story.
• Judy Paterson's step-by-step guide to learning a story.  This is not as difficult as you might think. Once you have used this technique with simple and short stories you will find it easy to learn longer and more involved stories.

"Eleven years ago, StoryCorps began with the simple mission to get people to slow down and hear what others had to say. Beginning with a single booth inside New York's Grand Central Terminal, over the years, they’ve amassed 55,000 interviews from across the U.S.A.—stories the cover the spectrum of the great human condition. For their work in capturing contemporary America's collective oral history, the company recently won the annual TED Prize award, $1 million dollars that will go towards funding a “wish to inspire the world,” to be announced in March."

Read the full article to see or access examples of their work

• a combination of audio overlayed on animation
• audio followed by a written a transcript.

For more information and DIY tips, visit the StoryCorps website.

"Here is an example of what you can do with Puppet Pals in a history classroom. This is a digital story I made to show the students what can be done with the app."

Read the full article to access brief tutorials and examples of digital stories made with the apps:

• Puppet Pals
• Tellagami

"The very epic nature of The Hero’s Journey makes it problematic for most for us as marketers. Relying on this type of story assumes we have the full attention of our audience as well as the content to make it work.

What if you don’t actually have a strong enough story with all the twists and turns of the Hero’s Journey? Your story falls flat and ends up trying too damn hard.

There are so many ways to tell stories in your business, but if you’re going to use the Hero’s Journey, deconstruct it so you’re not telling an epic story, but a much more bite-sized one.  Every one of the 12 steps of The Hero’s Journey could give you the jumping off point for stories to share in your business."

Read the full article to find out more about these four examples of how to turn the traditional journey into one related to your business or yourself:

• Ordinary World
• Call to Adventure
• Meeting with the Mentor
• Return with Elixir

"Great corporate storytellers do two things very well: First (obviously), they tell stories. Second, through their stories, they get people to take action.

You might be thinking, “That’s great if you’re Steve Jobs, but how do I even begin turning my dry, everyday material into a story…let alone a gripping one?”

Well today I’m going to help you out with 15 insanely actionable storytelling tips and tricks to get you into the storytelling mindset, regardless of what type of material you’re working with."

Read the full article to find out more about these tips:

1. Find Your Characters And Make Them The Focal Point Of Your Presentation
2. Set The Stage By Describing Where You Are Now And Where You Want To Be In The Future
3. Describe What Needs To Be Overcome And Highlight Why This Will Be Difficult
4. Emotionally Invest Your Audience In The Struggle (Define Failure Or The Status Quo)
5. Emotionally Invest Your Audience In The Outcome (Define What Success Looks like)
6. Challenge Your Audience’s Assumptions By Adding A Twist
7. Onboard Your Audience With An Interesting Metaphor THEY Can Relate To
8. Show Your Audience Exactly What You Are Talking About
9. Highlight The Important By Cutting Out The Unimportant
10. Use Sound Effects To Anchor Important Details In Your Presentation
11. Use Silence To Create Emphasis And Draw Your Audience Into Your Story
12. Create A Warm Fuzzy Feeling By Sharing A Personal Or Vulnerable Experience
13. Pace Out Your Story To Allow Your Audience To Breathe
14. Turn Your Important Data Points Into Memory Glue
15. End Your Story With A Bang And Then Shut Up

"Michael Hauge is a brilliant Hollywood story consultant, author, screenwriting coach, and speaker.  His experience as a top Hollywood script consultant is evident in his masterful ability to bring out the emotional potential of any story.  Following his expert advice, both business speakers and professional speakers can learn how to tell their stories more effectively."

Read the full article to find out more about these tips from Hauge that will help improve the quality of the character descriptions in your stories:

• Your job as a storyteller is to create IMAGES. This is true not just for screenwriters, but for anyone presenting a story to a reader or an audience.
• The most common weakness of character descriptions I read or hear is that they generalize.
• Your goal must be to reveal two or three clear, succinct and vivid details that create a picture in the minds of your reader or audience, and that convey something of the essence of that character.

"Australians are known for our generous nature, which has given rise to a robust and diverse giving sector. We’re also characterised by our love of a good yarn – we like telling and hearing stories. It’s no surprise then, that storytelling is an incredibly effective means of communicating key messages for organisations and individuals, particularly in the charitable space.

The power of storytelling cannot be understated, and mustn’t be confused with mere ‘reporting’.

While facts, figures and reporting on impact are important, it’s the stories – and the right people to tell them – that are the most important components of any communications toolkit."

Read the full article to find out more about these five tips for collecting and sharing stories:

1. Search far and wide for the right storyteller for you
2. Keep it real
3. Dare to be different
4. Use a variety of mediums
5. Look after your storytellers

"No matter the tech, humans have invariably figured out a compelling way to tell each other stories.

That’s not to say we all tell stories the same way. Far from it. As Kay Turner, a folklorist and independent scholar who’s on the board of the New York Folklore Society, notes, “Even if a story is the same, each culture will tell it differently, because each one has its own genres and cultural rules.” That’s led to a host of different traditions and practices beloved around the world. Here are just some of them."

Read the full article to find out more about these storytelling traditions used across the globe:

• Hula - Hawaiian
• Shadow Puppetry - Chinese
• Zagal - Arabic
• Cunto - Sicilian
• Rakugo - Japanese
• Griot - West African
• Bharatanatyam - Indian
• Calypso - Trinidadian

"Take two minutes to watch this advert from IKEA. Those two minutes are guaranteed to change how you think about marketing your business. This video is more than just advertising designed to sell something, it’s a home run in brand storytelling."

Read the full article to find out more about these 10 things that Ikea did to make their story great:

1. Understood their customer’s worldview.
2. Made the customer the hero.
3. Started with his story.
4. Changed how the customer felt and acted in the presence of their product.
5. Understood what they are really selling.
6. Helped us to see reflections of ourselves in the hero.
7. Tapped into our emotions, creating a visceral connection with the brand.
8. Created advertising that aligns with the company’s vision and brand personality.
9. Backed up the story with the experience delivered in store and across all touchpoints with the brand.
10. Gave potential customers something to believe in.

"Even if you are aiming at a position as a public speaker, you will be needing the art of storytelling to help you out. To express a story, be it real or a fiction, yours or someone else’s, one can adapt several ways. Storytelling is basically a band that is shared between the listeners and the person who’s telling the story, and one of the best, yet trickiest part of storytelling is that every storytelling experience is a new one so there’s plenty to keep a note about.

In spite of the dynamic nature of storytelling, there are some tips that you can keep in mind that will help you in better storytelling regardless of how different the story is every time you narrate it."

Read the full article to find out more about these seven tips:

1. Choose The Story You Prefer
2. Don’t Rush The Story
3. Use The Microphone
4. Don’t Be Afraid To Trim The Story
5. Be Confident
6. Maintain Eye Contact
7. Let The Listeners Get to The Moral