Watch how your mind is working here to take this image and turn it into a story. Whether or not your mother or dad read or told you the story of Little Red Riding Hood, this image immediately compels you to try to understand it. How do you do that? By making up a story. The juxtapositioning of these two figures, one threatening and in disguise and the other with wide eyes, causes us to make a story, to create a scenario or a variety of scenarios.Storytelling is an integral part of public speaking. The speaker must engage the audience using sensory elements because we are all dependent on our senses to give credibility to information. Stories embody all of these elements, making the information real.
By finding and using simple stories (real or imagined), examples, anecdotes, metaphors, and analogies to illustrate each of your points - the information will come alive! Each point needs a story to illustrate it - either from your own experience, an experience you have read or heard about from others, or a "what if", a story in the future.
Stories and metaphors are wonderful vehicles for your openings and closings. Use memorable, sensory details to establish a connection with your audience. A short personal story about something you saw or did this very morning on your way to the presentation site, for instance, can be used to quickly give them a sense of you and your attitudes and perspective, as well as supporting the main message of your whole presentation. This can then be bridged or verbally connected to your main message.
Metaphors have a special gift, because of their poetic nature, able to drop into the conscious and unconscious mind simultaneously. If, for instance, a speaker refers to the community library as a "nest" made up of many kinds of "materials" and a welcoming "home-away-from-home" with "nurturing" librarians, she creates a picture and an experience. If the speaker actually draws or produces a picture of a nest at the same time, that image will be inscribed in the audiences' memories helping them to recall later.
Use stories to illustrate your main points. Little real life anecdotes can give your points credibility. Share your own experience about the skills, information or ideas you're teaching them.
Make sure they are filled with the sensory details that communicate a sense of reality. Instead of saying, "he was angry," you can communicate much, much more by saying, "his skin was flushed and he paced back and forth like a caged tiger, his eyes darting around, looking for a target to pounce on."
Embody your stories - draw your listeners in. Practice broadly, play with the characters, search for the highs & lows, the pacing and volume. One cautionary note is to make sure that you don't get so carried away with your stories, that they get more focus than your main points. Stay on course.
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Do you want to increase and deepen your storytelling skills? Come, participate in our STORYTELLING INTENSIVE WORKSOP coming very soon! Click here for details.
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