How to become great storytellers

Being able to tell stories is one of the most beautiful things in existence. Stories fascinate, amuse, move, make you dream. Those who are able to narrate attract attention, create empathy, establish bonds, manage to build trust with their audience. Too often, however, it is believed that the art of storytelling is something innate or reserved for a small circle of professional writers. In reality we are all storytellers to some extent, narrating is a skill that belongs to us, it is an act that humanity performs from the moment it began to communicate. And like all the actions we perform, it can be improved by paying attention to a few simple practical tips.

To be precise, the seven strategies proposed by the Irish writer Bernadette Jiwa in her " The secrets of the great storytellers " (Hoepli Editore, 2022, pp. 166, also e-book), an agile handbook to become the protagonists of our stories.

Bernadette Jiwa starts from a very current consideration: being able to transform facts into stories, to tell and involve is today, more than ever, necessary not only for writers, but for companies, entrepreneurs, managers, free professionals. In fact, it is the stories that make it possible to close a deal and to create narrative universes in which the values of the brand and those of the consumers meet. Because you can no longer buy attention: you can only try to build trust that lasts over time .

To do this, there are some simple, but essential precautions. First you need to realize that story ideas are all around us. We just have to be very careful to catch them. To become good storytellers, therefore, one must first of all be willing to listen and have a good ability to observe what is happening around us. You have to be interested in people and what they have to say. And don't have your head constantly bent over your smartphone. Then you have to discover the wonder in everyday life. The greatest stories often arise from minor events, which feature common heroes and heroines, similar to most of the people who will later listen to our narration . It is these seemingly ordinary stories that trigger the identification mechanism that makes them unforgettable. In addition we must exploit the strength of the detail. If your story bores you before you even tell it or if it looks like a shopping list, maybe you want to put too much meat on the fire. Focus on that detail that struck you first. Tell it as if you were reliving it the moment you talk about it. Don't be afraid to expand on it only when you've captured your audience's attention. Furthermore, storytellers are made by practicing, narrating and learning to risk something of ourselves. In fact, narrating implies the effort to show ourselves, to make ourselves known, to show the public our abilities, but also our vulnerabilities. We don't tell for ourselves, but for those who listen to us. So let's be careful to be empathetic and not exclusively centered on ourselves. Narrating means performing an act of generosity, giving a gift to those in front of us, not building a monument to our narcissism .

Let us also remember that the story must be thought out, not improvised. Unlike a simple anecdote, a good story must be structured, thought out, organised. Only in this way does it become meaningful and even memorable. In short, you can't be good storytellers if you don't think about how to start, continue and how to end a story. Finally: we must be honest. It doesn't mean that in stories we have to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It means that we have to admit to ourselves that when we tell stories we want to be recognised, seen, appreciated. So, when we want to show off, it's better to reveal the most sincere part of ourselves.