Monday 24 November 2014

The Fifth Element of Storytelling

At the very beginning of this series of articles, I spoke about the four elements of storytelling: storyteller, audience, subject and story. As I said then, successful storytelling needs to pay close attention to each of these four elements. However, there is another element of storytelling - and it's the most important one. Storytelling never just happens. When we tell stories, we do so for a certain reason, there is a certain occasion for our storytelling.

Why tell stories?

Scheherezade, the famous narrator of the Arabian Nights certainly had a reason for telling her story. Married to a Sultan who had sworn to execute his wife after their wedding night, she told him a story that was interrupted by the dawn. The story was so good that the Sultan wanted to hear the end of it and therefore put off the execution. The next night the same thing happened again. And again. And again. It was through storytelling that Scheherezade managed to escape death.

Take a minute. Ask yourself: why do I tell stories? And if you're working on a story right now, ask yourself: why am I telling this story? Why do I have to tell it? This question is incredibly important. Your audience has a thousand and one things to do, so your storytelling needs to be as sharp, as driven, as Scheherezade's. And therefore you need to be as conscious of why you are telling your story as she was.

Now, few of us are in a life threatening situation that can only be solved through storytelling. But, as the British Indian author Salman Rushdie once said, only stories that must be told, that may not remain untold, are worth paying attention to. If you want your audience to pay attention to your story, you have to know why it's important they do. And whether you tell your story because you want to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony or just because you want to sell a certain kind of product, awareness of the reason why your story needs to be told is essential to its success. Write it down. Put it on a piece of paper and hang it on the wall above your desk: "I tell stories because..."

When to break the rules?

Being accutely aware of the reason for your storytelling, will also help you to take decisions on another very important issue. Throughout the articles in this series, I have given you rules for storytelling. I have talked about essential elements you need to include, about what to do to make your storytelling successful. But there is one thing that will surely stiffle your storytelling and that is a mechanic, rulebound way of telling your stories. That is not to say you should always ignore the rules - and especially for beginning storytellers, these rules will provide you with a road map to successful stories. But your particular story may necessitate a different kind of storytelling. And if - but only if - you are fully aware of the reason why your are telling your story, you will surely know when this is the case. When the rules need to be broken. Because sometimes they need to be broken and if you listen carefully to the reason for your storytelling, your own story will tell you when the time for this has come.

This is the seventh and final article in a series of seven articles about storytelling.

Read the other articles here:
1. The Four Elements of Successful Storytelling
2. Ten Essential Building Stones for a Good Story 
3. Telling your story with the right voice 
4. Guide Your Audience! 
5. Telling Your Story With the Right Point of View 
6. Why Your Story Needs a Moral Dilemma 
7. The Fifth Element of Storytelling