Storytelling is a method of delivering the necessary information

Today, I will share with you a secret method of delivering information to the reader, which I constantly use myself.

It is called storytelling .

Here confess honestly, which articles do you read to the end: those that contain an interesting story - a life example that explains the main text, or a solid sheet, overloaded with facts and terminology?

Well, it's clear: if you are preparing for some kind of scientific conference, then you will have to deal with specialized literature that does not draw on popular reading. But why complicate all other articles?

In order to make the texts of my site simple, understandable and interesting, I try in many of them to tell stories that happened to me, my friends or relatives.

If you are involved with writing at least somehow( journalism, copywriting, your own website, etc.), then be sure to use the method of storytelling to attract readers.

Businessmen and managers should not avoid it, especially for working with their own personnel.

So, what is this method like?

Everything is much easier than you think.

What is storytelling and who invented it?

Do you know how there were fairy tales, legends, legends?

The first writers understood that it was not enough to write an instructive text or a dry historical reference. To make the story popular and produce an effect, you need to tell it in an accessible language, using vivid characters.

It is not so important whether they are fictional characters or simply embellished historical characters. The main thing is for the readers to understand what is at issue, and to believe in the told story.

Exactly the same method is used by modern writers to bring the necessary fact to their audience: they tell interesting stories.

This is exactly what the word storytelling is translated from English - storytelling.

That is, storytelling is an effective method of delivering information to the audience by telling a funny, touching or instructive story with real or fictional characters.

Despite the fact that this is far from a new way, for the first time a wide audience was presented by its head of the corporation from the USA Armstrong International - David Armstrong.

He used storyboards to improve the performance of his company and to train newcomers faster.

The results were so great that Armstrong decided to share them with everyone by writing a book Managing by Storying Around, where he showed his own experience in using storytelling.

What goals can you achieve with storytelling?

As I said, storytelling can be successfully applied in various areas: site maintenance, business, work with personnel, product promotion, psychotherapy, coaching, etc.

Using this technique, you can achieve various objectives:

1. Affect the subconscious of the reader or listener.
2. To deliver the necessary information from the first time, without forcing to torment the question: "What did the author of the text want to say?".
3. As soon as possible, train new personnel in the rules and duties that are common in your team.
4. Minimize the number of conflicts in the team, to strengthen the working relationship.

5. Stimulate to achieve new goals.

   For example, the father of storytelling Armstrong at general meetings told stories of the success of employees of his company, encouraging everyone else to imitate them.

6. Strengthen the authority of the leader in the eyes of his subordinates, increase the level of confidence in him.

7. Save on material compensation for employees.

   Remember, in the Soviet era, all the newspapers were packed with stories about milkmaids, miners, tractor drivers and other labor heroes, who beat all records on the implementation of the norms.

   People were willing to work on wear and tear to be like them.

8. Show that the tips that you give to your readers work because there is a specific person who used them and everything turned out for him.

9. Sell product.

   Masha smeared face with a miracle cream and got rid of all wrinkles, smear and you, if you want to have smooth skin, etc.

As you can see, using storytelling you can achieve different goals.

The main thing is to tell the story correctly, so that it affects the audience, and was not told in vain. And for this you need to know the main rules of storytelling.

10 Rules for Successful Storytelling

Of course, in order for the story to influence the audience of readers or listeners as you need, you should have the talent of a writer or narrator.

Semi-literate uninteresting texts no one reads to the end, and the most interesting story can ruin the narrator that will mumble to himself without expression or stumble on every word.

There are also basic rules for writing the texts themselves:

1. Brevity is the sister of talent.

   You are not Leo Tolstoy, do not write multi-volume works.

   If it is an oral report of history, then remember that a person can concentrate attention for 20 minutes, after which he needs rest.

2. You need a bright hero , which will definitely interest the audience.

3. Do not write stories with an open end.

   Your goal is not to get the reader / listener to guess what will happen next, but to get answers to your questions.

4. Text should not be boring.

   He must stir up the interest of the audience, make him read / listen further.

5. Do not impose your opinion.

   Gently influence the consciousness of the audience.

   After the end of your story, everyone should have an idea: "I want to."

   If you constantly repeat in the text: "You must!", Then call the resistance of the audience.

6. Affect the emotions of the audience.

   Cause laughter, joy, sympathy, fear, anger, but do not leave your listener / reader indifferent.

7. Adjust the text to a specific audience.

   You can not cover all of them with one story at a time.

8. Use the beautiful metaphors of and other speech figures, but do not let them clog the basic idea of ​​what you want to convey.

9. Do not distance yourself from the audience, try to establish the most friendly relations with it.

   Texts in the style of "I'm a cool big boss, and you're a fool" will cause only annoyance.

10. If you are talking about printed text, then use the illustrations of - they attract attention and allow you to better understand what is at stake.

On how to effectively use storytelling in presentations,

, see the following video:

The storytelling of the is a really cool method of influencing the audience, but only if you use it correctly.