MORE GOLDEN NUGGETS OF STORYTELLING WISDOM

A popular website for speakers and those newbies wanting to be speakers is www.mannerofspeaking.com. Edited by John Zimmel, there are many video links and synopses that are a treasure trove of ideas and quotes for an aspiring storyteller.

From a TEDTalk by Andrew Stanton, a director and screenwriter at Pixar and most notably the key guy for the movies Toy Story and Finding Nemo, Zimmel summarized a number of key takeaway points about storytelling from Stanton’s talk. Below, I have chosen a few that I think are particularly relevant for readers and browsers of Tales and Tips.

§  Storytelling is knowing that everything you’re saying, from your first sentence to your last, is leading to a single goal and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understanding of who we are as humans.
§  We all want affirmation that our lives have meaning, and there is no stronger affirmation than when we connect through stories.
§  The greatest story commandment is to make the audience care –emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically.
§  A good story makes a promise that it will lead you somewhere worthwhile.
§  Don’t give the audience the answer ‘4’. Give them ‘2 + 2’ and let them work it out for themselves.
§  You need to craft your story so that it builds anticipation. Drama is anticipation mixed with uncertainty.
§  Storytelling has guidelines, not hard and fast rules.
§  Here’s the big question: Can you invoke wonder in your audience? Wonder is honest, innocent and can’t be artificially invoked.
§  The best stories infuse an audience with wonder.
§  The ability (of the storyteller) to instill wonder in others, to hold them for a brief moment and make them surrender to wonder, is one of the greatest gifts one person can give another.
§  When developing your stories, use what you know. It doesn’t always mean plot or fact. It means capturing a truth from your experience and expressing values you personally feel deep down to your core.

And…to finish this Golden Nuggets post with a quote adapted very liberally from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

‘All great storytellers were bad storytellers at first’