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     General Storytelling Techniques of The Magic Seven

 

                      These techniques come from great storytellers from an issue of Toastmaster Magazine. 

                                                         You can apply these to effectively tell a story. 

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1. Vocal Variety – Stories often feature characters, each with a unique voice. Tellers develop the ability to make different characters distinct by using vocal variety, inflections and nuances, as well as pitch, volume and accents. In your next speech, instead of describing dialogue, actually deliver it using different voices for each participant. 

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2. Stage Presence –  Storytellers take advantage of their space, moving upstage, downstage, to the left or right – to say nothing of kneeling, teetering and more. Expand your speaking platform. Own the stage area and use it to further your presentation. Inhabit your environment. 

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3. The Power of the Pause – Storytellers understand that the pause is a valuable mechanism for building drama, adding suspense and imbuing key words and sentences with added meaning. Pauses signify to audiences that something profound, important or special has been – or is about to be – said.  Professional speaker and storyteller Lou Heckler : “The main reason I love to use pauses is that they turn the monologue of the speech into a dialogue with the audience.” He says a pause draws the audience in. “While the audience is not really speaking, the pause allows them time to consider what’s going on in the story and makes them guess what comes next. Right or wrong, they’ve had a feeling of being on stage with you and it really links them to the rest of the presentation.”  Review your speech script or outline  for key spots to introduce pauses for heightened effect. 

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4. Paint a picture, as with imagery. Storytellers paint vivid verbal images of scenes and settings. They use literary techniques, such as metaphors and strong adjectives, to convey color and detail. Storytellers excel at all the particulars that build dramatic effect: the sights, smells and sounds of scenes; the nuances and subtleties of situations; the specifics of settings. Our brains have the ability to remember pictures more easily than words and especially data.

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5. Set the Stage, the setting to be imagined. In 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy recognized the need for a new stage or goal to galvanize the space race. Before a joint session of the United States Congress, he boldly announced that by the end of the decade the country would be dedicated to “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” Despite widespread doubts, and the fact that NASA had not yet even sent a man into orbit around the Earth, he electrified the collective imagination of the country. Imagination is the direct access point to our creativity. Simply say “Imagine this...” and people’s creative juices start flowing. They’re transported to a different and vivid new reality without leaving their seats. 

       In 1995, Nelson Mandela knew he had to encourage post-apartheid unity. Adopting the strategy of “Don’t address their brains, address their hearts,” Mandela convinced the Springboks rugby team, until then the country’s symbol of white supremacy, to join him. At the commencement of rugby’s World Cup final being held in South Africa, Mandela and the team symbolically broke all barriers by singing “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika,” the anthem of the black resistance movement, to a still-divided nation and a worldwide television audience. The Springboks won the World Cup and South Africa moved toward reconciliation. 

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6.  Emotions involve the audience. A workshop was held to learn to buy stocks based on trusted market signals rather than emotions. The speaker told audience members to hold up a piece of paper and pretend it was a stock they'd just bought. He asked them to kiss the stock. They felt silly, but they kissed it. He told them to hug the stock. They felt ridiculous, but they did it. The point is to take stock of the idea that feelings expressed stick with you and make an impact. You don't have to have the audience mimic silly actions or do something hands-on, but do involve them by expressing emotion. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable and openly share yourself.  As Maya Angelou said, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

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7. Use Repetition.  Advertisers know that if you hear their short, silly jingle enough times, it will be ingrained in your memory. In fact, you can probably sing songs from commercials that have not aired in 10 years. Repetition works. The simpler the better. Repetition works. Try it. You will not be disappointed. Have a word or a short phrase as a hook. 

 

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The two critiques below are just small measurements of how a story might be evaluated:

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Your Basic Speech Critique that could be applied to a Story

What I Saw: in body movement, facial expressions, gestures, and overall personal appearance in painting a picture (what is visualized)

What I Heard: in content, with introduction by TM, opening, organization, conclusion, phrases and wording (as repetition);
in the story’s characters and dialogue and plot in vocalizing, with enthusiasm and other emotions, variety of pitch, power, and pacing (and power of the pause) 

What I Felt: in what was driving the story and giving it purpose; in what was interesting and especially appealing, in how this was adapted to audience needs, in what emotions it aroused in you

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Your Basic Story Critique:

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1) What is the theme or message. How well is this idea shown with the plot’s building, the climax and the resolution that unfolds?

2) What characters and setting are visualized?
How well can we “see” these based on the story’s content and delivery?

3) How specifically are the voice and language and the gestures used to emphasize? What especially stands out?

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There are well-known elements, like pacing, that could use more emphasis in evaluation.  One far less known storytelling element is the focal point.  Is the storyteller/narrator/character to only look at the audience?  NOOOO!  One big element of reader's theater is to use a separate focal point for different characters and also "see" a scene above the audience members heads.  Based on your eyes and expression, the audience can better visualize a scene.  (This is shown on the workshop tab of Oral Interp in more detail.)

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