No matter what your age, your life is filled with great stories, some funny, some sad, others exciting. Start with your own history. Recall of one of your experiences that triggered strong emotions in you. Take a few moments to recreate what happened, step-by-step in your imagination. How did your experience start? What emotions did you have as it happened? How did the experience progress to its conclusion?
I doesn't make any difference if you are an experienced or beginning storyteller. As a public speaker with large audiences, I like sharing a story from my life to make a point. The caution is not to overdo it.
For example, I could tell you the story of my first experience skydiving. How old was I at that time? (20) How did this happen? (ROTC challenge) What occurred? (Cessna 180, terrified, 3,000 feet, door opens and I climbed out on the strut and let go, static line hooked to aircraft, amazing experience once I realized I survived). As you prepare the story, be sure to expand the details as accurately as you can. Then describe the ending. (This was the first time I had ever been in an aircraft!). If this conclusion has "punch," don't give it away earlier. Of course, I am not mentioning the much greater detail of these events I would reveal in my story.
Who?
Your audience could be one person (e.g., your partner or your child) or could be a group (e.g., a family dinner or coffee with colleagues). Choose a friendly group that could accept your story.
Choose the right time and place to share your story, your experience.
Talk with your audience about the story if you can.
Strengths?
There are four strengths of starting with a bit of your history. First, it's easy; you don't have to memorize anything because it happened to you. Second, assembling parts of the story--beginning, middle, end-- are simple. Third, you can be emotionally invested in the story because it happened to you. And Fourth, your audience is not (probably) a potential critic. You are safe.
Future blogs will expand on the above issues at greater length. This is a simple start. You have a lot of stories you could tell. You are already a storyteller!
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