Understanding The Art of Story Telling

Friends, Thank you very much for taking out time from your busy schedule to read my blog(s). Sharing knowledge with you has become my passion now. I feel encouraged after reading your feedback in the comments column.  Today I’m very happy to present 109th Blog: The Art of Story Telling.  

Friends’ stories have played a very significant role in our upbringing. Some of the stories told by our grandparents, and parents have left permanent imprints on our minds – memories because those stories were narrated in certain situations - environment, with emotions and every story had some lesson to learn from.

Time has changed so are the stories and the story tellers and hence there’s a need to understand the art of storytelling.

Friends Story is a narrative which is designed to create interest, entertain, or educate the listener or a reader. A story is a connected series of many events told through words or any other form of communication. There are stories about all things and all times; past, present and future. We can find stories everywhere.

Stories are a universal language; they have the power to bring people together and create a sense of community. In spite of any barriers and differences, stories connect us through feelings and how we respond to them. A story is a depiction of a journey where we follow a character or a series of characters on a journey with a purpose. Every story needs conflict; a struggle or a moment of tension to keep us involved and wondering what is going to happen next.

Every story has a simple structure of a beginning, middle and an end. An excellent story has a sequence that usually happens in five parts that are called the 5 C's of storytelling i.e. Characters, Circumstance, Conflicts, Conversations and Curiosity. These 5 Cs make any story a memorable one.

An excellent story is:

·        Believable: story that can convince the reader of their version of reality and make it easy to trust and engage.

·        Educational: story that can spark curiosity and add to the reader’s knowledge bank.

·        Entertaining: story that can keep the reader engaged and interested in what’s coming next.

·        Memorable: story that can stick in the reader’s mind through gossip, humour or inspiration.

·        Organized: story that can follow a concise organization that helps convey the core message and helps readers absorb it.

·         Relatable: story that can let the listeners of the story relate themselves with the persons and places of the story.

 

Friends Storytelling is the primary form of communication that human beings share. Storytelling is also an art and like art, it requires creativity, vision, skill, and practice. Just telling a story isn’t enough. We need one that resonates and grabs attention of our target audience. Before telling a story, first we have to think about what key message we want to get across in our story. Then, we’re to include fine details that support our cause - purpose of storytelling and to be stay focused from start to finish. A feeling of connection and interaction is essential to storytelling. Telling a story is like making a film inside the listeners’ heads. Whenever we’re telling someone or a group of people about a series of events we’ve come across in our day to day lives, we’re telling a story.

 

Every story has a narrative, which is a spoken or written account of events that are influenced by a particular setting. Similarly every person has a story, but the art of storytelling can make his or her story transformative. Friends while sharing a story of some important happening in our lives we must stick to the sequential order of things i.e. start – middle – end.

When someone listens to our story, they might develop a visual for the story in their mind, and it can be incredibly detailed and include the characters, setting, and events. Stories have the power to make the listeners nostalgic and pull up memories, and the listeners might see themselves represented in our story plot and the characters.

To conclude, Storytelling helps in strengthening our communication skills to better articulate anything we want to convey and also to build the connections between WE, THE PEOPLE.  Storytelling is an art that’s present in each conversation, everything we read, listen to, and watch. Every day, when we indulge into a conversation in our daily walks, during our yoga - exercise sessions, in classrooms, in our workplaces, in our drawing rooms, or while talking to friends & family members over phone or at home, or while watching a movie or a serial on TV, we all indulge in storytelling.  Even if our stories are short, our stories still add to a great conversation.

Thank you for reading the blog.

#####