What makes a “best” story?
They were the best kind of stories.
The group is stretched out in a circle on either side, the storyteller sits in the middle
They are still, waiting for the words to land… In a slow voice she begins. The legends, the songs, the jokes. The realities handed down.
In the house another story was brewing, a circle of moms and aunties were giggling and telling the news to their little ones, children on laps, curled up in the deep coach, listening, listening, and dreaming. One scribbled with a crayon, drawing the words into characters with green and red hair, and a newspaper….
The journalist grabbed the phone, held high over his head. He couldn't see for sure, but knew there was something inside that huddle. He heard the crackle of something - a firecracker, a shot, shouts? So many cameras, so many stories, telling and retelling, and shaping our now.
From the earliest human circles to the modern news cycle—the primary goal of storytelling is the same: to connect.
We are all story tellers, we start early - we tell babies stories long before they can talk. We tell each other stories throughout life. We exchange them, we remember them and we retell the best ones.
Why do some stories stick with us long after we hear them? I bet it’s not the facts of the story, it’s the emotion at the centre.
Think of a story someone has told you, one that you might tell someone else. What made it so memorable? Maybe it was that story about an earthquake that devastated a village. Strangers sent food, blankets, water. Or that person who fled to Canada, and was met here with a warm winter coat at the airport. Or that athlete who dared to jump down the ski hill and twisted in a fall while the world gasped.
We can all understand and feel emotions - we know what it feels like to be challenged by something, or to reach a goal, to be afraid of something, to worry about something, to discover something, to be made so happy we cry…
For sure, everyone has contexts and details in their stories that are unique - but we remember the emotional centre. That’s what connects us.
Recently I was at a workshop about stories for Media. The group sat in a circle and each person shared their most powerful personal stories. Some of them were harrowing, some were funny, some were joyful, and some were sad. All of them spoke to an emotion that was shared, across the circumstances, across the room, across the cultures.
They were the best stories.
For your next presentation, pitch, or content piece, don't just share the facts. Find the emotional center. That's the story that connects.
What is the most memorable story someone has ever told you?
#communication #interviewtips #storytelling
