Entertain First. And Last. And Everywhere in Between.
Every story must be entertaining even if it means enhancing the truth. When I tell storytellers to embellish the story they’ll say, "But that’s not the way it really happened.” Too bad if the way it really happened is going to put your audience to sleep. Your first priority is to make it interesting, not to stick to the facts.
Know Your Story’s Purpose
Every story serves a purpose even if it’s simply to get your audience to laugh. Know the purpose of your story. Know the message. Know why you’re telling it and what you hope to accomplish by telling that story. Know what will make that story entertaining and powerful.
Tell Your Story in One Sentence
No, I’m not saying that your story must be one really long sentence. But before you write it, I want you to be able to tell it in one sentence. You don’t have to include the entire plot, but you do need to include the moral of the story. For example: This is a story of how a girl learns that being different can sometimes be good. When you are able to tell your story in one sentence, you start out with control over your story and where it is going. You find out right away if you’ve got a story that’s not about anything.
Write What Your Reader Needs to Know
I actually make a list. Yes, that’s right. As boring and uncreative as it sounds, I make a list of the things that my reader NEEDS to know. Not the things that I want to tell them, but the things that they need to know for the story to make sense. The fun stuff can come later.
Beware of Personal Stories
Something happens to a story when it happens to us. We lose objectivity. Be very careful of trusting a story that actually happened to you and help me write my speech. Test it out on others. See if it gets laughs in social settings. If it doesn’t, then it’s not as good as you thought it was. I actually take myself out of the story and picture someone else telling the story.
Find the Story That Fits You
This is the story that speaks to your heart. If it doesn’t mean anything to you, it will not mean anything to them. Be authentic. It’s everything.
Short and Simple
The more you cut from your story, the better it will be. Period. It’s not about how many words you use, but what words you use. Say more with less. Replace three paragraphs with three sentences. Don’t write long stories, write short stories and put them together if you need something longer.
Be Specific Enough To Be Believable, Universal Enough To Be Relatable
The more specific and the more personal you get, the better your story will be. Aim for stories that happened to you, not people you heard about. Avoid stories that most people can’t relate to. Find stories that have themes that most people can relate to.
Start and End With a Bang
You have thirty seconds to get their attention. Don’t start a story with ten minutes of introductory material. I can’t stand it when someone takes fifteen minutes preparing me for a story they are about to tell. Start with a bang and end with a bang. Don’t hang around at the end driving your point to death. End the story and get out.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
James Moore lives in Duncannon. He has had many articles published, both in magazines and on the Internet. Writer on writemypaper4me.co
