How to become a good story teller. A striking fact or telling detail

You walk into a friend's party and immediately see beautiful woman. You're good looking, your body is Arnie's best years. You are well dressed and radiate an atmosphere of complete success. But the woman doesn’t pay attention to you, like all the people around - everyone is looking attentively at the puny guy who seems like a complete loser, but he seems to hypnotize everyone present. This “loser” is the main advantage of the whole party, because he knows how to tell stories. You also want to learn this art, right? If so, what do you need to know? what exactly does it do good story good. This is a whole science that begins with the personality of the storyteller.

Narrator's personality

A good storyteller is always an interesting person. The narrator doesn't have to be great personality, possessing limitless talents, but he must have a character that is based on the following qualities:

Confidence;
- ability to formulate thoughts;
- sense of humor;
- passion;
- communication skills;
- erudition;
- ability to be creative.

The storyteller has a relationship with the audience and must interact with them as their clients. He “sells” a story that should be of interest to listeners. The reaction occurs not only at the psychological, but also at the physiological level. This happens due to the hormone oxytocin, which enhances the feeling of empathy and increases a person’s ability to experience various emotions. To put it simply, the action of oxytocin creates a connection between the storyteller and the listener - this connection is, in a sense, chemical.

But a good story doesn't always work perfectly. The reason is simple - each situation requires a specific approach. The same story goes well among friends, but shocks colleagues. To understand this, you have to understand the types of narratives. Conventionally, they can be divided into three: social type, professional type and emotional type.

Social history

Social history contains a huge layer of storytellers. Usually, we're talking about about comedians, actors, showmen, pop stars. They all fall into this category. The essence of a social storyteller is simple - tell jokes and entertain the audience. Social history works best among friends or people who cannot be “offended.” To tell a good story social history, you need to know a few simple truths:

History should entertain. Try to tell something that will evoke pleasant emotions - don’t tell topical stories, people don’t want to hear them at parties.
- Be open. You need to be your guy. Don't move away from the crowd, make them think you're the one true friend.
- Savvy. You will have to work with the audience to capture their attention. Try to pull material out of those listening to use it in the story.
- Short and to the point. If your story is too long, you will lose attention - be to the point.

Professional history

This type of story is in demand among religious leaders, general directors, leaders and various trainers who teach life. Great for people who want to tell a good story from the height of their authority. The rules of this story are a little more complicated than the previous one, but not much.

Manage conflicts. This is important when you need to show confrontation, a point of disagreement, which can be great fuel for the perception of the story.
- Provide the story with the context of the past and a forecast of the future - this must be done so that listeners see the story in volume, and not in fragments.
- Describe difficult situations in simple words. Your audience must understand you. A good storyteller should not use highly specialized vocabulary.

Emotional story

Suitable for women's ears, which perceive the world much more sensually than we do. Also great for small group conversations. An emotional story is the ideal choice when you are talking to a person face to face. This story has a number of distinctive features:

Fear. Use this feeling to thicken your colors.
- Excitement. Keep the ending unclear so that the listener waits with bated breath for the ending.
- Disappointment. You can talk about the problems that concern you.
- Compassion and love. These feelings are still strong on this planet - use them for the story.
- Vulnerability. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable. Thanks to this feeling, the listener takes the side of the narrator.

To tell an emotional story well, you must use body language, eye contact. You must also understand the importance of voice intonation, its tone. You should not evoke pity, but through the story you should evoke sympathy, pain, fear or any other strong emotion. If you master even one type of storytelling, you will be able to become the life of your company - we know this for sure.

Love to listen interesting stories, is not it? Therefore, if suddenly there is someone who knows how to narrate a story very captivatingly, you will immediately distinguish him from others. And in the same way, you will stand out in the eyes of others if you can captivate your listeners interesting story. And for this you just need to know how to become an interesting storyteller.

I would highlight two ways here:

• promising - actions that will subsequently make your stories more and more interesting and interesting, as well as give your stories an increasingly “tastier” emotional coloring. However, you won’t be able to use them directly when communicating with your interlocutor.
• momentary - those techniques and methods that make it possible to make the story more interesting based on the fact of the story

Strategic steps for the future

Chat with different people

Each person is unique in his energy, manners, words, etc. And you can learn something from each of them. Sometimes it’s enough just to listen to stories from different people without entering into dialogue with them. For example, I formed a considerable share of my piquant, cynical and witty speech patterns while listening to Alexander Nevzorov.

You may not immediately notice how your speech, gestures and manners are changing and enriching, but after some time the results will become obvious. The principle of an enriched environment works here, which I learned about from K. Sheremetyev’s book “How to become smarter.” It works like this: for example, if you constantly communicate with doctors, spend all your working days working in a clinic, mastering many medical knowledge happens by itself. Simply because you constantly listen to this terminology, regularly observe certain treatment methods, and discuss cases from their practice with doctors.

Add variety to your life

If every day of your life is like two copies similar to one another, then you are unlikely to be able to emotionally enrich your story. And vice versa - the more impressions you receive every day, the richer your emotional world will be, and the brighter your stories will sound.

To search for new experiences every day, it is not necessary to invent anything artificially - it is enough to simply find the “painful” part of your life, and take some steps towards improvement every day. For example, are your relationships with girls not going well? Then make it a rule to meet one new girl every day just for the sake of meeting and communicating. And if you are looking for your talents and abilities, then simply spend every day doing something new, and decide how much you like it.

Firstly, they serve as a source interesting quotes, examples, metaphors and thoughts. Secondly, thanks to them you can always maintain a conversation on a relevant topic or even tell an interesting story (or a piece of history) simply because it is interesting to you.

Enrich your sense of humor

To do this, watch various humorous productions, programs, sketches, memes, etc. And also try to come up with humorous expressions, answers, and phrases on your own. Wit greatly enhances the interest of a story.

Open up new horizons in your business

A professional is not one who has been doing his job for a long time, but one who every day discovers new (subjectively for himself) knowledge, skills and abilities in his field. The fact is that mastering new things, in addition to personal development, also gives an amazing feeling of the joy of learning. And if you experience it regularly, then your emotional sphere will become more interesting in itself. And this is the most important condition to add excitement to any of your stories.

Practice being a storyteller

Any quality develops with proper exercise and fades away when it is not used. Therefore, if you regularly tell different interesting stories, this skill will improve on its own. And below you will learn techniques that can make any of your stories much more interesting (than if you did not use them). Some of them can be applied right away, while others will require a little practice.

Learn to relax

Remember that the most attractive people are those who do not carry any internal tension, clamps, etc. Such people give off energy inner peace and freedom (to which is often added lively enthusiasm), which has an almost magical effect on interlocutors. And if you show sufficient sensitivity to interesting people, then you will feel that very (subtle) quality of relaxation and inner freedom that attracts others. And in the same way, by learning to relax when communicating (freeing yourself from the grip of the fear of saying something wrong and internal tension), you will gradually increase your attractiveness to other people (especially the opposite sex).

Storytelling Techniques

The most important technique is to evoke emotions in yourself. This is discussed in detail in the article “ How to manage your emotions?" Remember that without an emotional component, any story will be boring and insipid.

Engaging in listening

Your story will never be interesting if you cannot involve the listener in it. And for this you need an “anchor” and attention to your interlocutor. An anchor can be:

• shocking fact or saying(on a topic that is significant to the interlocutor). For example: “Did you know that jealous people in old age are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases? And that's why…". At the same time, your counterpart admits to being jealous
• parallel with life situation interlocutor. “Remember, you told me how that girl... the love of your life set you up): so, a similar thing happened to me...”
• emotional anchor. Here it is not necessary to build any turns and link the beginning of your story with the interests of the listener. You just need to add to the beginning of your story the right emotion, and the person will be drawn into listening by himself. Often this emotion can be expressed by the words “Listen!”, “Do you know that...?”, “I never thought that this would happen to me...”, etc. The main thing here is to get emotionally interested (in this case, you can use the most ordinary and primitive phrases).

Sometimes, to get involved, it is not at all necessary to use the above techniques - you just need to start your story, making sure that the interlocutor is paying attention.

Intrigue

– Listen, how did you manage to seduce her?

- Is not phone conversation

- It's clear. Again I will ask the boss for time off,

to meet and talk with you

If you want to keep the listener's attention throughout the story, intrigue him. Compare two options:

1. Recently met interesting girl, got into conversation with her, sat in a cafe...
2. I recently met a girl alone, we talked to her in a cafe, and then she told me about one little professional trick (it’s very simple, but not all experienced nail technicians know it). But I'll tell you about this a little later. She works…

Other than that equal conditions The interlocutor will listen to the second option more carefully, because he will want to know about a little professional trick.

Jokes, anecdotes

Starting your story with an anecdote will help establish a much stronger connection than a dry opening. However, humor can not only “ignite” the listener’s attention, but also hold it throughout the entire story. Therefore, be sure to insert elements of humor (this can be either a harmless “vanilla” joke or harsh cynical banter).

Right at the moment of telling the story, you may think, “What can I tell you now that would make him laugh?!” You shouldn’t think in this way, because... from such thoughts you will get unnecessary tension, while the most interesting is a relaxed and laid-back storyteller.

This article provided strategic direction for upgrading yourself as a storyteller. In other posts, I will describe in more detail all the steps that I briefly skimmed here. Therefore, do not forget to subscribe to the blog so as not to miss further useful articles on today's topic.

An interview is a standard step during a job search. After all, after a suitable vacancy has been found, there will be a meeting with the employer, where you will have to personally prove to him your professional suitability. The most important thing here is to present yourself correctly, which means you need to compose a competent story about yourself. For examples of what to tell about yourself during a job interview, see below.

Don’t forget to ask your employer about your future job – ?

Most often, an interview with an employer consists of a series of standard questions. For example, this could be personal information where they will ask about place of residence, age and work experience. But main part interviews – self-presentation. And more often than not, this is the part that confuses most people. To successfully pass it, you should prepare in advance and draw up sample text story about yourself.

What to tell about yourself at a job interview

Many people, before going to a meeting with an employer, hope to improvise on the spot. But it has been proven that even the most resourceful people often get lost when answering the most ordinary questions. Therefore, it would not be superfluous to make short story about myself still at home.

When writing a story about yourself, it is worth remembering that brevity is the sister of talent. The overall story should be between two and four minutes long. Therefore, the written text must be carefully re-read loudly and out loud, with your usual diction. We need to talk about the most important facts in your biography so that the monologue is short, but free and meaningful.

It would be a good idea to find out some additional information that will be very helpful during the interview:

• Check out the company's website. There you can find out in what direction it works and what kind of employees it is looking for;
• Based on this data, make a list personal qualities, which may come in handy while working in your desired position. For example, responsiveness, determination, self-discipline;
• If this is wholesale or retail sales, then you can talk about successful experience working with many clients;
• Mention achievements without embellishing them, but also without keeping silent. After all, they are the ones who can play important role during candidate selection.

Someone who knows how to tell stories in a fun and playful way. They are loved, they are valued, they are invited to register, and then, when you get old and put on fat, you go to a restaurant for anniversaries.
However, this gift is not given to everyone, except perhaps the chosen ones. But it is very easy to become this chosen one, because there are rules that will allow you to become the first talker in the village. And if you become more skilled, you can go to a club and joke in front of a pseudo-intellectual audience.

Choose a story that is important to you

The problems start from the very beginning - which story to choose? It’s very simple, take the one that worries and excites you directly. You can delve into the jungle of your own past and unearth something that has left an imprint on your future. Chances are that a story that you find funny will also be funny to your friends.

Divide into parts and present each correctly

Your story shouldn't be much different from literary story. So mentally, break your story into several parts. Do not forget to indicate at the beginning those details that are necessary for the normal perception of the story. You can even start with the notorious “Once upon a time...”; upward action is always perceived much easier.

The main thing is not to forget to add color to the details of the plot as the story progresses. There is such a cinematic technique - to pile colors and special effects on sagging fragments of the script and uninteresting details. So here, do not hesitate to add color to those moments that, in your opinion, cannot be ignored.
The final part of the story should be the most effective. It is the ending that makes it clear to the viewer why he was forced to listen to all this. Of course, these rules do not apply to all stories, but they are guaranteed
effective.

Focus on the right details

not everyone likes to read Balzac, who passionately loved to describe everything, from the squiggles on the asphalt to the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes. Such richness may help present the story in more detail, but only for the most persistent individuals. Listening to stories that are too oversaturated with information is very difficult. Therefore, we strongly recommend focusing on truly interesting and juicy moments.

The purpose of your story is to make people experience the same emotions that you experienced. Therefore, if you want to stuff your story with vivid details, add your personal experiences to it. This is a universal material; people are much more interested in learning about your personal condition and attitude than about defects in a corrugated pipe. Out of natural curiosity, it is interesting and useful for a person to observe the behavior of other people, because he can use this model of behavior in the future.

Tell the truth

You are not a fisherman, not a woodcutter in a remote village, not a prisoner, not a superhero, and not even a traveler, you a common person, you haven’t seen everything that Fedor Konyukhov could see, but does that mean that listening to you is completely uninteresting? Life is full of fun, an interesting story can happen to anyone. Therefore, always tell the truth, there is no need to embellish. Because people who begin to invent some details in a story in order to seem better, shift the entire emphasis to their magical coolness, which makes the listener ask: “what was the story about?” It’s especially funny when everyone knows that you’re a jerk and a coward, and in the stories you’re like Lee Bruce.
In fact, the most interesting stories are those in which the narrator is sincere and does not hide his vulnerability, stupidity, and strangeness. The truth is much more fun and interesting, so there is no need to try to decorate it with unnecessary fictitious details. When you start making things up as you go, it catches your eye, just like a coherent, sincere story.

Practice and work on the little things

Everywhere you need practice, even things that seem simple at first glance. Talk these stories to yourself, take a breath, write down the details that you would like to convey, because such little things are completely forgotten, fly out of your head. And without them, the story is like a sailboat without sails - some kind of nonsense. A story in the style: “I came to the garden and was beaten by a mole. It was painful. That’s it” - it won’t be successful.

We talked about sincerity, but there are details everywhere that should be omitted. Some because they are meaningless and uninteresting, and some will defame you. That's why it's important to think through your speech before it becomes public.
And most importantly, your story should sound equally interesting and cheerful both the first and the hundred and twenty-first time, so please try. If you are asked to tell it again and again, then congratulations, this is a success.

Know your audience and don't be afraid of failure

Don't be afraid that your story won't be accepted or understood. People are different. Everyone's interests are different, this is just a story - nothing more, nothing less. But from now on, notice at what moments people perked up, at which they laughed, and at which they yawned. And most importantly, if possible, take into account the characteristics of the audience. If you know for sure that some people cannot stand jokes about dicks, or are categorically against any mention of jokes from the Internet, then this needs to be taken into account.