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Practice makes perfect! Tell a lot of stories! Also read and listen to stories. Watch good storytellers and see what they do. Find interesting angles to mundan

Practice makes perfect! Tell a lot of stories! Also read and listen to stories. Watch good storytellers and see what they do. 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!

szemy2 4y ago
Thank you for the detailed and practical comment! I think lot of your advice works well, after you have earned the space to tell the story with as much time as you need. One thing I struggle is how to not rush the story in a setting where conversation is fast paced.
- Jemaclus 4y ago
  Totally. I've found that there are three approaches to that. The first is that almost any conversation will slow down for a good story. If you get good at commanding the attention of folks in the conversation, and your stories are engaging, people will gladly stop and listen. Most conversation, IMO, is fairly dull. It's small talk, or it's someone ranting about something. When a good storyteller comes along, people will stop and gladly give up the cognitive load of having to carry a conversation, and instead let the storyteller take over. And people love it when they hear a good story that they can tell others later. 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.

szemy2 4y ago

Thank you for the detailed and practical comment! I think lot of your advice works well, after you have earned the space to tell the story with as much time as you need. One thing I struggle is how to not rush the story in a setting where conversation is fast paced.

Jemaclus 4y ago
Totally. I've found that there are three approaches to that. The first is that almost any conversation will slow down for a good story. If you get good at commanding the attention of folks in the conversation, and your stories are engaging, people will gladly stop and listen. Most conversation, IMO, is fairly dull. It's small talk, or it's someone ranting about something. When a good storyteller comes along, people will stop and gladly give up the cognitive load of having to carry a conversation, and instead let the storyteller take over. And people love it when they hear a good story that they can tell others later. 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.