272 Part IV: Using Words to Entrance
communication. In this section, we gather together ideas for you to develop
your own repertoire of stories and build your skills as an engaging storyteller.
Even if you never thought of yourself as a storyteller before, you can soon
see how to capture your own story ideas and organise your thoughts for
maximum effect.
Using the Personal Story Builder Journal
Everyday experiences can form the basis of your own compelling stories.
Here’s a way to capture and record storylines that you can adapt later.
- Find a situation that generated an emotion: write the emotion down
(was it joy, contentment, pride, fear, anger, shock, confusion, guilt,
and so on?).
- Name the characters of the people involved.
- Tell what happened by giving three key points of the storyline.
- Relate the outcome: in other words, how did it end?
- Describe something funny or interesting that was communicated.
- Explain what you learned from this story.
- List your ideas for developing this story: identify where, when, and to
whom you’re going to tell it.
Stories develop and change over time. Come back to the journal at regular
intervals to extend your repertoire of stories that you can create. As you
listen to speakers who inspire or entertain you, notice that their storylines
are quite simple. Feel free to record interesting stories you hear others tell
and put your spin on them to make them your own.
As you begin to create your own favourite stories, think about the following
aspects:
✓ How are you going to start the story and how will you finish? Some great
starts lose their way (and their readers) long before the finishing post.
✓ What happens in the middle to give the dramatic interest – what are the
interesting landmarks, battles, dilemmas, or conflicts on the way?
✓ Who are the characters – who’s the hero and what about the supporting
cast? How can you make them memorable?
✓ How can you make sure that you build the content around a strong
framework?
