There’s a storyteller inside every one of us but don’t be disappointed if your style of telling a story ends up boring others. It doesn’t exactly mean that your story isn’t interesting; It’s just that your way of getting your message across isn’t perceived as captivating enough to catch your audience’s interest.
But there’s no shame in that. There are ways for one to work on their storytelling abilities and make their anecdote-sharing sessions engaging.
And to get you started, Plushfluffy has compiled a list of five prominent and proven ways for one to tell interesting stories that people like. Let’s shed light on these ways.
1. Capture Your Audience’s Attention Right Off the Bat
It’s often said that all is well that ends well. However, when it comes to telling a story, you need to start well too. Confused? Let us explain.
Before making sure that people are invested in your story, you have to capture their attention. There are chances that some of your colleagues have already made up their minds that your story would be a bore-fest. Or, it could be that your audience has something else going on due to which they aren’t fully attentive to what you are saying.
In such cases, you have to start things off on an impactful note and grab the attention of the listeners. This can be achieved via opening “hook”. A hook can either be a question, a quote, or anything that convinces your audience that you have something astounding to share.
2. Maintain a Natural Flow
We get it, even an interesting story has parts that are dry. However, you shouldn’t skip these parts just to get to the interesting ones. A story that has a natural flow and smooth transitions from one point to the next is more of a delight to listen to.
Before starting the story, be sure to have a definite conclusion in mind. Your story should be headed towards the said conclusion. State all the events chronologically and ensure that the listeners are with you along the way.
3. Encourage Interactivity
Sure, it’s your story and you want to be the one to share it in its entirety. However, with how short people’s attention spans have gotten over the years, don’t be surprised if someone zones out while you are in the middle of sharing an anecdote.
So, how to solve this problem? Well, you bring your audience into the mix. Spice up your story by raising different implicit or explicit questions such as “do you know what happened next?” or inserting harmless baits throughout your story such as “and you wouldn’t believe what he told me after that”.
While one would think that making the audience anxious is an excellent way of garnering their attention, it might turn them away for good. So, while sharing an anecdote, make sure that your audience isn’t stuck on a previous point in the story. Clear their doubts on the spot and keep moving forward.
4. Sound Captivating
A factor that determines how interested would one be in your story is how excited you are while sharing it. There are people who memorize their story so they would know exactly what to say and when to say it. While this approach has its perks, it can lead to people tuning you out if the delivery is bland.
Most of the time, reiterating a memorized story often makes the storyteller’s tone come off as robotic rather than engaging. And again, if you don’t seem excited about your story, why would anyone else be?
Therefore, work on being more spontaneous and come off as a charismatic storyteller who is fascinated with what they are sharing. Give the people a reason to believe that what they are listening to is worth their time.
5. Keep Things Short & Sweet
Yes, we mentioned that you shouldn’t skip any crucial details. However, we also stated that people these days have short attention spans. There is only so much time one could allocate to listening to someone’s story.
Unless your story has something that would benefit the listeners, chances are that they would lose interest in the anecdote before you know it. And it wouldn’t be because your story isn’t powerful or catchy enough.
So, try to keep your story as short as possible without compromising on its quality. Try not to be too repetitive and only include the details that are relevant to the context of the anecdote.
Conclusion
What good is a story if you haven’t shared it with your friends or colleagues? PlushFluffy can relate. However, it might sound heartbreaking that others might deem your story boring. One of the main reasons why this could happen is that your delivery isn’t up to par.
So, if sharing anecdotes is what you are passionate about, it’s recommended that you work on improving your storytelling skills. Only then can you tell interesting stories that people like.