Philipp Humm

5 tips on how to become a great storyteller

April 28, 2023

Imagine this: you’re at restaurant with a group of friends or coworkers. You’re having a good conversation. At one point, you find the perfect opportunity to tell a story.

You go into your story. It’s a great story.

Immediately, everyone stops talking and looks at you. They hang on every word you say.

You love telling that story. You feel confident sharing it.

By the time you’re done, everyone looks at you with big eyes, “Wow just happened?”
One of folks comes up to you and asks, “How did you do that? Your story was incredible!”

Well my friend, you can make that happen. In this article, I’ll show you 5 concrete tips on how to become a great storyteller.

So let’s get started!

Storytelling Tip #1: Find stories in your day-to-day

First, you want to identify those juicy moments in your day-to-day life that could make for an awesome story. How can you identify these moments?

By starting the exercise Homework for Life (by Matthew Dicks).

Here’s how it works:

At the end of each, ask yourself: “If I had to tell a story from today, what would it be?”

What’s that one moment that stood out. It doesn’t have to be some huge, life-changing event; it could be something as simple as a random act of kindness from a stranger, a funny conversation with your mom or some small thing that annoyed you.

Once you’ve pinpointed that moment, write down the date and a one-sentence summary of what happened.

Every single day!

It doesn’t take longer than 1-2 minutes.
But after doing Homework for Life for just a few days, you’ll have a pool of stories that you can start using.

Storytelling tip #2: Save your stories

Now that you’ve started identifying your storyworthy moments, it’s time to make sure you don’t forget about them.

So, let me introduce you to the Story Bank, a central place where you can capture, classify, and remember your stories.

You can use any medium or technology to save your stories, as long as it doesn’t add too much friction. You can save them electronically, like in Evernote, Google Docs, Notion, or Word, or on paper, like in a journal. Personally, I prefer Google Docs because I can easily edit them and access them wherever I am. But, hey, use whatever medium you feel most comfortable with.

What exactly should you capture in the Story Bank?

Here are a few details I capture in my story bank:

  • Title: A short title that allows you to easily remember the story
  • Use case: Situations you could use the story in
  • Audience: The audience you can share the story with
  • Point: The point of the story (a story can have multiple points)
  • Summary: Bullets that will help you remember the story (instead of writing full sentences, focus on short bullets)

By saving your stories in the Story Bank, you’ll have an endless supply of stories at your fingertips. The more stories you have in the Story Bank, the more options you have to pull out a story at any moment. 

So, go ahead, and create your own Story Bank!
Don’t want to start from scratch?
Feel free to download my Story Bank template here for free. 

Storytelling Tip #3: Internalize 1 story structure

Depending on how experienced you are as a storyteller, you may have heard about different story structures or narrative arcs. The Hero’s Journey, The Three-Act Story Structure, The Five-Act Story Structure. There are many different story structures.

It can be overwhelming.

My tip is to pick a relatively easy structure and stick with it for a while until you’re comfortable with it. That way, you’ll be able to use it anytime to improvise a story on the spot.

My favourite story structure consists of four steps: 1. Context, 2. Challenge, 3. Response, 4. Result.

  1. Context: In the first step you want to give some rough context. Set the scene. Where and when does the story take place. Who’s the main character and what is that character up to. This step is very short. 2-4 sentences. That’s usually enough.
  2. Challenge: After setting the scene, it’s time to introduce the challenge. What is main character struggling with? What’s their problem and how did that make them feel? This is the longest and most important part of the story. Go deep into emotions here.
  3. Response: After that, tell your audience, how the character responds to the challenge. What actions, reactions, decisions do they take to overcome the problem.
  4. Result: And lastly, what is the result of that story. How does the story turn out at the end? How is the main character’s live transformed? How do they feel after?

You can use this 4-step story structure or any other structure that you prefer. 
The key is to pick one and get very comfortable with it.

Storytelling Tip #4: Practice your stories

Like any skill, storytelling takes practice.

The more you work at it, the better you’ll get!

How many times should you rehearse your story?

Well, it depends on your learning style.
Most of my clients find 2-4 times to be the sweet spot to feel comfortable sharing their stories with an audience that matters.

You don’t have to remember every single line of the story, but it’s crucial to remember the most important moments or scenes of the story. That way, the story will still sound natural.

Remember to rehearse your story out loud and in the same way you’ll be delivering it.
Speak like you’re sharing it with a real audience. Use the same tone, pace, and pauses you would use in real life. If you mess up, don’t worry, just keep going. It happens to all of us! In fact, trying to go on when you make mistakes will train your mind to deal with any problems that arise.

Curious for more rehearsal techniques? Check out our article on How To Rehearse For Your Presentations Like A Pro.

Storytelling Tip #5: Improvise a story

Now that you’re familiar with a simple story structure, it’s time to train yourself to improvise stories.

The idea is to be able to share a story at any moment, without having to spend hours preparing in advance. 

First, pick a topic.

It can be anything – your storyworthy moment, a random word generator online, or even something as simple as “the color yellow”.
Don’t overthink it, just pick something and run with it!

Then, start improvising your story out loud. Try to use the structure you’ve just learned, and play with different story elements. Try to make it more emotional, visual, or to build up some tension. Don’t worry about making it perfect or sticking to a strict script. This is all about having fun and challenging yourself to think on your feet. Who knows, you might just surprise yourself with what you come up with!

Conclusion

Alright that’s it for today.
Give it a try.
Any of these 5 tips will help you become a great storyteller.

But keep in mind that storytelling is a journey, not a destination. You’ll make mistakes along the way, and that’s okay. Learn from them and keep going.

With each story you tell, you’ll get better and better.

Are you ready to unleash the storyteller within you? Then check out our new online course The StorySelling Academy.

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