The Art of Storytelling
When people hear storytelling, it's usually correlated with books, movies, fiction, and fantasies. However, you can implement storytelling in other parts of your life. I think storytelling is also a skill that many people seem to overlook. I believe the art of storytelling can enhance many different things in our lives, such as our careers and how we interact with people. This is something I came to realize recently, and it’s something I want to get better at.
What is storytelling
Everyone knows what storytelling is, but I feel like the idea of it has gotten lost. Throughout the years, storytelling seems to be limited to books and movies, but when you look at the definition, you can apply stories in other parts of your life. The definition of storytelling is telling or sharing stories through a medium. The most common medium has always been entertainment. But stories aren’t always entertainment, they can be educational. The idea of storytelling is to deliver a point or idea through a story. As I get older, I realize that everything can be a story, and we need to figure out the best way to tell that story.
Every day we tell a story. When you are at work and giving a presentation, you are telling the story of how much profit a product gained or lost. When you tell your friends how bad a workday you had, you are telling them why it was a bad day and what caused it. Every day we tell a story whether we planned it or not. So, how can we use storytelling to benefit us?
Skill of storytelling
There are creators who emphasize the art of telling a story and how it impacted their careers. When you think from the point of view of a storyteller, you want to deliver the story in the best way possible. If you are working in an office, you want to tell the story of how well a product is performing; you can give some numbers and tell how well something performed, but if you are able to tell the story of its performance, it can be way more impactful. Start from the beginning and explain how the product started and what was the expected result. Then explain how it changed over time to now the performance. This tells a way better story and has more context and information about the product.
This is why storytelling is such a great skill to have. Now, it isn’t easy. I had a hard time implementing this skill in my life because I am so used to quickly giving information and telling people what they asked to hear. Now, I have to intentionally remember the story I want to tell with this report. Not only does this show the full picture of the product, but it also takes the other person through the process of the product. This also shows that you know what you are doing.
Creating stories
When we can create the story, we are trying to add depth and substance. Now, your report isn’t a boring page full of numbers. It is a book about your work and the journey of your work. To many, this may already seem like a regular concept, but to me, this is a new way to think and deliver information. Something that I haven’t thought about.
Recently, we have created a new series of articles where I have to post articles based on popular questions about our industry. And we have to post these articles on our website, and I implemented storytelling in this. I wanted to post the articles in a way so that the way our users access them makes sense. I was thinking about the topic of our articles and our target audience. Where should this series live on our website so that it’s easy for users to find it later? This can be seen as overkill because it doesn't need to be this complicated. But, I wanted to implement this way of thinking, and it made me more intentional with my work. To create the best story ever.
The way we told stories in the past doesn’t make it the only way. Storytelling is a skill that you can learn. It will require us to challenge our way of thinking, but I believe this will benefit everyone in every part of their lives. Although I am new to this idea and concept, I am excited to talk about this, and share my journey of telling stories with everyone.