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3 Principles of Successful Storytelling

[Adapted from How To Tell A Great Story (7^th Edition)]

What makes a story exciting? What makes you want to know more and more about a tale? What makes a winning story? There are 3 basic principles of storytelling everyone uses. They are:

• the elements

• the senses

• the settings

The elements:

Take the recent disaster of the tsunami in Asia. The following is a paraphrased version of one account of the disaster - Tide of Grief

[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6777595/site/newsweek/?ng=1].

When the earthquake happened, the rotation of Earth was jolted to a point where it was enough to reduce a few microseconds off the clock. In terms of Earth’s long history, this was nothing. Indeed, in the past, the entire contents of the planet’s molten core has vanished and reappeared. Still, this jolt was large enough to displace a massive amount of water in mere seconds. Without making a sound, the water gushed outward at speed and as it neared the shores, large waves were formed. The view of a large wave coming in your direction is not something you’d like to see while standing on a beach.

Can you identify the four elements of fire, water, air and earth used in this piece? Did reading the piece enable you to picture the scene better?

The senses

A common rule of thumb is that the more unusual the location of your story, the more exciting your story.

Read this paragraph and try to figure out what is being emphasised:

I am in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport waiting for someone to arrive. I begin to observe things around me. What I notice is this: The colours featured most in here are silver and blue because of the steel frames and the marble flooring. I know that one of the trees outside produces the jasmine flowers but I cannot smell them. All I hear are people speaking English but with a huge American accent. The taste of the coffee is strong as it is from one of the many ‘imported’ outlets like San Francisco Coffee or Coffee Bean. The air-conditioning must be set on "High" because I’m freezing!

The senses identified here are as follows:

• The colours featured most in here are silver and blue because of the steel frames and the marble flooring – refers to the sense of sight.

• I know that one of the trees outside produces the jasmine flowers – refers to the sense of smell.

• All I hear are people speaking English but with a huge American accent. – refers to the sense of hearing.

• … Taste of the coffee is strong as it is from one of the many ‘imported’ outlets like San Francisco Coffee or Coffee Bean. – refers to the sense of taste.

• The air-conditioning must be set on "High" because freezing! – refers to the sense of touch.

Yes, they are the five human senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch. These five senses can help you paint the picture of your set in words.

The settings

The following are various settings you can think about when telling your story:

1.     Menacing

This always comes to play when telling an adventure story, a thriller, a horror tale or crime story. Your setting must almost be hostile. The key words here would be danger and excitement. Examples of these would be desolate deserts, towering mountain ranges, crashing seas, thunder and lightning, typhoons and so on.

2.     Glamour

There is almost no one who at one point in his or her life wonders what the world of the rich and famous is like. There is always someone who wants to know what it’s like. And if you can narrate a story … even if it’s second-hand, you would have succeeded.

3.     Power

Power corrupts and what better setting can you pick if you know where he powerful people congregate and operate? Company boardrooms, underground government departments, casinos, back-street-places, Old Boys Club … anywhere really!

4.     Workplaces

These are what most people call ‘breeding grounds’ for great stories to narrate. What is it like being a doctor or a crime scene investigator? What does a computer graphics designer’s office look like? What interesting stories can an architect tell me about the houses he builds? Get my drift?

5.     Science Fiction

Of all settings, this is the most exciting one because you can create the most bizarre setting and yet, people would believe you. The only limit is your imagination.

Put all these three principles together and most certainly, your story will become exciting.  

Copyright © Aneeta Sundararaj

‘How To Tell A Great Story’ is an ebook that caters for beginners to storytelling and in particular, how storytelling can be used in every day life. The author of this popular ebook is Aneeta Sundararaj. This ebook is now in its 7^th Edition and to find out more, visit http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com.