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Five Mistakes Boring Storytellers Make
By Aneeta Sundararaj
Mistake #1: Most boring storytellers tell you half-stories.
Fact: The world's best storytellers tell you the whole story.
How many times have you finished watching a movie, reading a book or listened to a lecture and wondered, “What was all that about?”. Well, you may think that the fault was yours but the fact remains that the storyteller did not tell you the whole story. They told you parts of it but really, unless they tell you the whole story you will neither understand the story, feel satisfied nor understand it.
I have many times played this game with people: I say: "Imagine that you are a reporter and you have ten minutes to hand in a story about an accident that just happened. If you do not get the story done, you may lose your job.
And this is what I ask them: What are you going to write?" The typical response is something like: "I can't do this. Ten minutes is too short a time. I hope I don't lose this job. .. etc."
To all of these I ask, “Do you actually have the necessary information for telling this story?”
The typical answer: "Ermm … I don't know. I think I have the whole story!"
Then I nod and say, “Well if you do not know whether you have the story or not, then how in the world are you going to tell the story?"
Mistake #2: Believing that telling stories is one of the poorest of professions in the world.
Fact: Telling great stories is one of the HIGHEST paid jobs of all time …
Steven Spielberg, J. K. Rowling, Enid Blyton, Salman Rushdie, John Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Stephen King, Donald Trump, Corey Rudl, Jay Abrahams, George Bernard Shaw, Nelson Mandela, Whitney Houston …
If you're wondering what politicians, singers, internet marketing gurus and the sort are doing in that list, then you need to know that one of the most important things that all of these people did was to use the most important rules - they told stories from their own experiences in their own unique way. Internet marketing gurus created tools and books which made them millionaires when they told their own stories!
Note: most people don't think of successful business executives and celebrities as storytellers. These storytellers aren't really storytellers at all but really great 'repetitors'. Which leads us to Mistake #3:
Mistake #3: Great storytellers have to invent new stories.
Fact: The world's best storytellers do not re-invent the wheel
Storytelling has been one of the oldest of traditions in this world. It is a universal art that transcends time, space and people. In its crudest of forms, it is using gestures, drawings, hieroglyphics, signs and so on to convince people that their stories are true and get what they want. They told the same stories over and over and over again but they used their own individual style.
From time immemorial, there have been people telling horror stories. There have been thrillers, murder mysteries, corporate takeovers, mergers, acquisitions, love gone wrong, starting a new venture, failing and then starting all over again, abandonment and so many more themes. The result, they interact with thousands (and even millions) of people each year, make the most money and effortlessly rise to the top of every profession…
Mistake #4: Most boring storytellers tell stories that they do not themselves find interesting.
Fact: No one wants to hear a boring story.
Have you ever told someone else's joke and no one laughs … then to get out of it, you say something like, “You just had to be there to understand how funny it was…”
It is a universal fact that if you do not know the principles of effective storytelling, then even the most interesting of stories you tell will sound dull.
Mistake #5: Great salespeople have a 'gift'.
Fact: The world's best storytellers learn the skill.
Great storytellers have a skill. They were not born with this skill. It was developed and they became masters in this skill. They then use it to their benefit and in the process, enjoyed themselves and entertained others.
About the Author
Aneeta Sundararaj, a storyteller, is the creator of the bestselling program "How To Tell A Great Story". Aneeta's technique and famed “R.P.I. Principle”© has been used by many people and offers simple, cutting-edge strategies applicable universally. She is also the author of two 'traditional' books The Banana Leaf Men and Mad Heaven: the biography of Tan Sri Dato' Seri Dr. M. Mahadevan. Visit http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com to learn more.
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