We've been talking about adding elements to your storyline, to create more impact in your story, connect with your audience and make sure they are not only listening to your narrative, but become a part of it.

What elements have we talked about and what effect can they have on your story?

CORE MESSAGE:

The message you want to convey. The thing you want people to absolutely remember. 

SETTING: 

This is the decor, the stage set of your story. You paint the scenery in which your narrative takes place. Who is involved? Where are we? When does the story take place? These details are important to make sure people fill your descriptions with their images that they collected in their brains as memories. 

IMAGERY:

These images that people use to fill in the descriptions you give them, is called imagery. If you describe the setting, give examples and extra details, you provide your listeners with more opportunities to make their own visual memories part of your storyline.

EMOTION:

Emotion is the other thing that creates engagement with your audience. It's the thing that connects us as human beings! 
You can either literally describe emotion ("I was really sad"), or describe an emotional situation without naming the emotion.

PERSONAL TOUCH:

By adding a personal touch to a story, you make yourself part of the story. Often you already are part of the story, because it is you telling it. But showing more about yourself and your own experience creates a bond - it's like your audience gets to know you better. This can be done in so many ways; you don't have to tell your whole life story, some small personal touches here and there can do the trick, or a short anecdote to start off your presentation or halfway your speech. 

ACTION:

Without something happening in your story, things just might get a bit sleepy. Adding action can lift your narrative: there's movement, there are new images, there might be new emotions, a new setting. New things help people to wake up, stay focused, drag them back in if they happened to drift away. 

By playing around with these elements, you can add gravity to your core message. It's like a song: the chorus gets more impact every time it is repeated, because the verses generate more context.

NOW IT'S UP TO YOU!

Remember I gave you an exercise to work on from home?

Just to summarize: try and create two versions of a story revolving around the core message ‘Friendship is important’, one in which you add a setting and imagery and one in which you also add a personal note and some action.

You can email your results back to me  on info@thepitchshifters.com.
Try and do this by next Monday and I’ll summarize and reply to all of you before our next class, which will be about the impact of verbs! 

Then, as promised, the links to some Medium articles that I wrote about storytelling in songs. 

I’m curious if this approach sparks your imagination and creativity.  I wrote a couple of articles, but here are three to start with.

The Power Of Story: Marcie (Joni Mitchell)

The Power Of Story: She’s Leaving Home (The Beatles) 

5 Reasons Why We Remember Good Stories And Songs

I enjoyed working with you and I am looking forward to seeing the results of the home assignment! 

Merit