How to Tell a Compelling Story in 3 Easy Steps

Have you ever listened to someone tell a story — over coffee, at church, at a conference — and been absolutely bored to tears?

The meat of the story was interesting, but for some reason you just couldn’t stay engaged.

Or maybe you heard an anecdote that completely blew you away, but when you tried to retell it, it didn’t have nearly the same impact.

Why was that?

Chances are, whether you realized it or not, the storyteller was using dynamic storytelling elements.

Photo credit: Julien Harneis (Creative Commons)

We are all living and telling stories. It is our duty to learn how tell them well.

Steps for Telling a Story

Here are three simple steps for how to tell a story and make it interesting:

1. Use a hook

A “hook” is your opener. It’s the attention-getter, the question or quote that immediately hooks your listener or reader. The more off-the-wall or mysterious, the better.

Dare your audience to get lost in the story.

2. Tell the story

A story has natural momentum to it. If you simply state what happened in chronological order (many people actually neglect doing this), you will captivate your audience.

Ira Glass calls this the “anecdote” — a story in its purest form — and likens it to a train on which you’ve invited others to join. Those riding along can feel that you’re headed towards a destination.

Glass also says that you need to use “bait” to keep your audience engaged. Bait, as he defines it, is a series of implicit or explicit questions that you raise. The implication is that any question you raise, you’re going to answer.

3. Reflect

So many people tell stories just to tell them. Or so they say...

But when you start asking people why they share the stories that they do, often there is an objective. It may be simply to encourage or cause you to ask questions, but there is purpose to the telling.

At the end of your story, take a moment to reflect on what you shared. Why is it relevant? Why did you spend time telling the person this? It doesn’t have to be cliche or cheesy; in fact, your reflection can even be subtle.

In your reflection (which you can also think of as a “closing”), you must resolve any questions or conflict raised in the story. This is also the perfect opportunity to revisit your hook.

Wrap up the story with a quick mention of your attention-getter or a restatement of your quote, interesting fact, etc. This is the opportunity to make sense of anything that seemed superfluous at the time.

Often, I hear people neglecting these three practices for telling better stories. They jump straight to the reflection or don’t take the time to grab their audience with a hook.

Or they drone on and one with an anecdote without explaining why they’re telling you the story. The result is confusion and even frustration.

Your stories deserve better.

How do you make your storytelling more compelling and dynamic?

*Photo credit: Julien Harneis

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