How To Catch The Attention Of Your Readers With Storytelling

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How To Catch The Attention Of Your Readers With Storytelling

Do you find it hard telling good stories?

Storytelling as a writer is fun, if you know how.

It is no doubt that two people can tell the same story with different results.

Through the process of blogging, interviewing people, and writing this book I have learned so much about storytelling.

I’ve arrived at many thoughts I don’t think I would have otherwise had. Part of me has come to believe that my learning will never be done if I never choose to go for the right information.

Back to why you are here…

I came to discover that while we tend to look for compelling stories, the main story material isn’t what separates a good one from a bad story. The real difference lies in the emotion the storyteller puts in.

Storytelling isn’t always inborn. You can have that good talent to tell stories.

Yet, it is a reasonable learn-able skill.

It is a learnable skill, why? Everyone (even a 5-year-old child) have stories to tell.

Even when you are not a professional author (or speaker) you still need to learn how to tell good captivating stories.

In telling your stories and/or listening to the stories of others, you have this self-understanding and feel accepted not rejected.

While I started out, sitting down and writing my book manuscript was remarkably easy for me.

But then I came to the point when I need to actually tell more compelling stories and send the book out for the world to see. Well, that part hasn’t been so easy.

The truth is, anyone can learn the art and act of storytelling.

The reason is because storytelling, like so many other skills, is just a chain of behaviors you have to learn. And, with consistent and focus practice, you can have people hanging on every word of your story, even from the first paragraph.

In this post, I will be talking about those chain of behaviors you need to growthhack the storytelling game.

The truth is I didn’t master the art and act of storytelling on my own. I sought and got the secrets broken to me.

I upped my storytelling game after The Personal and Business Brand Masterclass with Peter Kajovo and Sir Victor.

Stories help us feel not so alone in this world—this is the real truth.

1. Personal Experience

One of the easy ways to create a compelling story is by turning your personal experiences into engaging stories.

Doing this may not be easy. It requires a bit of imagination and more confidence after you’ve worked through your life experiences.

Stories come naturally to you when you mediate and feel the world around you.

Writing a book can if easy if you decide to write from the perspective of your own  story.

You can start with…

Line 1: On a very good day..
Line 2: While I was at the mall, and…
Line 3: I tried my best to…
Line 4: Things turned bad, but
Line 5: The best of it all was…

Even with the first four words, the reader would be like…. On a very good day.. so what?

During this time, the reader had want to know more of what happened.

The real deal is that you just caught his or her attention.

So, on a very good day, did you get engaged? Were your hurt? Did you get the contract?

Many thoughts would have gripped the mind of the reader.

With this alone, you win!

2. Maintain the story structure

You may be a shy person who find it very difficult to share you own story.

You are not a long thing yet (but, will be if you read and never apply what you learn here.)

So, you got his attention, what next?

Don’t fell to note; sharing your experiences requires you to be willing to let them become public.

This means that after you become comfortable with it, you should be able to build a writing style that you can adapt to and make awesome presentations on a range of topics related to what you do.

Did you attend event that may have contributed to the spark of that life story?

This is the purpose why you are writing. If you can support the purpose of the writing, you can engage more the readers—allowing them learn, enjoy and even be will to share with others, family and friends.

Have you not noticed that professional presenters regularly use stories in their presentations and content?

Why do you think they do so? There are many reasons to use stories including; give humor, build a shared vision, to relieve intention and inspire people to act.

3. Get some inspiration

Over the years, come rain or shine, I have always managed to discover things that inspire me to write, ways to get my creative juices flowing again.

There are times I write for five hours or more and feel the heck that there’s nothing to write more.

I feel lost, out of vision and burn out. Such thing doesn’t last though. When this occurs, get some inspiration.

How do you do this? Read the story of how Brian Tracy (I so much love this man!) became an excellent writer or speaker, see a movie, move over to YouTube—watch, watch, watch, watch and watch, get some books related to your writing story—read, read, read, read and read.

Listening to an audio book can be the catch for you. Even while driving to work, switch off the radio and switch onto something that builds you as an individual.

You know why? If your life is awesome, that moment of awesomeness can be passed to the community too.

By doing this, you can grab the attention of your readers, big or small.

4. Control the reading presence

The great comics (i.e comedians) makes storytelling look so easy, keeping away the mechanics of the craft.

As an amateur, you find yourself stumbling around, knocking everything over and thinking over how they do it.

One thing you are yet to know is not it isn’t all about being able to speak or telling good stories.

More of it all lies in your ability to control the audience. To be addicted to this act, you must make it a habit to stand as a premium brand anywhere anything.

The comics are very effective because they know who people perceive them as while they are onstage.

Their ‘stuff’ is written for themselves or their personas.

You should be doing the same thing as a writer. The book is your stage, be in control of how those who read it grab the INs and OUTs.

5. Writers are doctors

Doctors do not only describe drugs, they prescribe too. Make sure your readers find your writing both  descriptive and prescriptive.

Nobody wants to listen to someone or read a book where there is no resolution of the inciting incident. Don’t feel afraid, write with the strong urge to do.

If the words of your writing lack confidence, a good reader will notice.

I hope you know what this could result you? Yeah, mention it to yourself. The pen should be controlled by you—don’t let it fly when you start writing.

Since you know the experience – and all that happened – already, writing the book can be very quick. If you decide later to change that’s easy too.

As my writing career push forward, I discovered that if I didn’t worry too much about how truthful – or not – the story was, my writing became much more fluid and competent.

There are many reasons to use stories including; give humor, make points memorable, show with the particular audience, inspire people to act, build a shared vision, and to relieve tension.
Professional presenters regularly use stories in their presentations and content. When you see a professional presenter, think about their use of stories.

6. Be consistent, get seen

Social media is a great platform to give your readers tiny insights into your personal story without overloading them with much information.

Daily tweets or a Facebook status can be all it takes to catch the attention of your audience.

If you’re having a hard day trying to fix the right things, let your social media followers know about it.

If you’re having a smooth day and you’ve written something really inspiring, again, post about it online.

By doing these things, your followers notice the goods and bad of your writing career and can easily connect.

The reason why should be consistent is because “consistency helps you create a presence.”

You know the feeling of being a storyteller. Everyone has those moments when you feel like you’re stuck in quicksand: the more story you tell, the more it pulls you in.

Conclusion

This post came as the responses I got after I published a post on our Facebook Community asking the members what they would like to improve about there writing skills.

The answers I put right in this post.

Share. Share. Share.

Your turn

Have this post helped you change the way you tell stories? What did you learn reading and studying the post? What are the easy ways to grab your readers attention you use?

Comment (0)

  1. Excellent points here Prince. I love sharing my personal experiences traveling the world and linking to travel stories. Easier for folks to buy in to my blogging tips methinks when they can see me doing wacky stuff around the world yet learn some sweet blogging lessons too. Brian Tracy is awesome, right?

  2. Oh, yeah!

    That man is freaking awesome. I just love him that way.

    It's cool to have you share what your love doing. Interesting!

    Enjoy the day, Ryan.

  3. Insightful.Thanks.

  4. You be boss now

    Thanks for the post. You really tried to explain the stuff and it's awesome.

  5. Yes bro. Thanks for reading.

  6. You are welcome, Nnenna.

  7. Kayode Oluwatobiloba E

    Hi Prince,

    This is a great piece.

    Writing is fun and story telling can be greater fun. I have a baby girl who wants to learn to write; I think having gone through this blog, I will recommend it to her.

    Thanks for sharing.

    1. Thanks for reading, Kayode 🙂

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