Storytelling skills refer to the ability of an individual to intertwine thoughts and ideas into an interesting plot that compels the audience to create a visualization in their mind when the idea is narrated to them. Storytelling skills help an individual engage the audience, leading to a better understanding of the idea.
Benefits Of Storytelling Skills
- Easy transmission of ideas:
Storytelling leads to the picturization of the concept in the minds of the listener, which in turn helps the listener to create their own opinion of the idea based on the image created in the mind. It makes the complex concept easy to understand, leading to better understanding.
- Generation of new thoughts:
Storytelling enables the listener to generate new thoughts regarding the same idea in their mind. It is straightforward if the listener feels that something is missing in the plot, the individual tries to fill that void with their imagination, leading to better idea generation.
- Promotes creative thinking:
Storytelling skills are a boon to promote creative thinking. Thinking of an idea, then working on the plot to incorporate the idea, making the plot engaging and easy is a whole set of exercises of the mink which enhances our creative thinking.
- Gives practical sense to ideas:
Storytelling makes the ideas look at how they would be operated in real life and what impact they will leave. If an idea is presented, it will not tell how it will lead to a change in the lives of the people concerned. Still, if it is told in the form of a story, then we can easily see its impact by analyzing the different characters and situations in the story.
- Source of entertainment:
Presenting a complex idea in the form of reports and others will bore the audience to some extent. But if the idea is presented as a story, the audience should pay attention to know what will happen next.
- Better retention:
Storytelling leads to better retention of ideas in the future. The listener develops a bond with the story’s character and feels emotions that are not easy to forget. This way, the listener retains the idea for longer by interrelating it with the character.
How To Develop Storytelling Skills?
Storytelling skills can be attained through regular practice and reading such stories. A few ways to develop storytelling skills are:
- Have a clear understanding of your idea:
Idea generation is the first and foremost step in storytelling. A good idea has a good concept to weave a story around it. By saying ideas, we simply don’t mean having a thought in the mind. But you should clearly understand the idea you are working on. You should know its strengths and weaknesses, how it will change people’s life in the future, etc. if you have these things clear about the idea, then only you can create an engaging plot.
- Think like the character:
Once the plot has been decided, creating a strong protagonist who will connect with the idea is important. The protagonist of the story is you, who is transmitting the idea from your mind to the audience’s mind. Before writing the story, put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist. Think and act like him.
- Have an unbiased opinion of your own story:
If the character has been developed and the story has been fabricated, the next idea is to become an audience for your story and review whether it resembles the thought in your mind is not. Analyze the character and check that it is the representation of you. You are not telling the story for fun but to leave an impact on the audience’s minds. Make sure your story first impacts you and then move forward with presenting it to the audience.
- Create scenarios:
Every time you stumble across any idea, whether yours or someone else’s, analyze it by creating imagined scenarios. This will lead you to create different situations and help better analyze the idea. This will also develop a habit of thinking of various plots for the same idea and choosing the best among the present alternatives.
- Read:
It is effortless if you want to develop storytelling skills. Individuals have to read many stories to develop this skill. Reading helps you understand how storytelling is practiced in real life and gives examples. Reading also widens your horizons. Each story you read will enhance your concepts, and then when you write your own, everything you observe in the story you read will be subconsciously added to your story without you knowing.
How Storytelling Affects Business?
Storytelling skills are widely used in business for the following reasons:
- Making the brand memorable:
As already discussed, storytelling retains ideas for a longer time. When a brand narrates a captivating, engaging story, people develop an emotion for that brand, which makes the brand stay forever in the minds of the people. For example, Coca-Cola, Maggi, Colgate, etc., the message conveyed by these brands still stays in our minds because they were advertised with amazing storylines that stay alive, and we remember them.
- Better sales:
Storytelling leads to actual sales instead of simply a wasted call. A business good at storytelling will likely generate more profits as it will easily enter the customers’ minds through its amazing storytelling skills.
- Better engagement:
A brand becomes an emotion through the stories it has weaved. Every time a brand comes up with a unique story, it triggers the audience’s emotions and lingers in their minds. This leads to better engagement of the brand with its customers.
Conclusion
Storytelling skills are widely utilized in business. World’s best business models have always adopted this method to make their impression in the market. Numerous great stories have, over time, influenced people and changed their lives and narration. Thus, storytelling now is not merely a way of passing the time, rather, it is a skill which, if developed fully, will help you to reach great heights. Get in touch with the expert coach at Orator Academy to develop effective storytelling skills.
