This came up in a music radio session the other day with a morning team . Here’s an excerpt from their recap…
A key to the telling of any story is to think about how it unfolds. Just “winging it” is what real people do, but that’s not what sets apart air personalities and storytellers. You want to be constantly pointing forward, moving forward, to the next thing – that “reveal” that advances the story.
Example: You started the second News story with “…and alligators do not make good teammates…” followed by “(City) FC is based in Orlando, Florida this year, and during Monday’s practice the team got a surprise…”
Gee, wonder what it will be? It’s certainly not a ‘surprise’ anymore, because of the opening sentence. Flip those two lines around, and you tell a story. Say them in the order you did, and it lands with a thud.
This is the simplest example of the art of storytelling, and, as a result, pulling people closer to you.
Here are three ‘bonus crayons’…
- Leading to the obvious will kill the story.
- So will repetition.
- And the Ending should always be something that wasn’t said earlier in the break.
You want to get concise, but still sound conversational and spontaneous.
Even if this is just a refresher course for you, I hope these thoughts help you. Be great today. Do something that someone might remember.