A brand, company, or individual’s storytelling approach and style reveals information regarding personality, strikes the consumer through emotion, and cultivates an environment worthy of repeat customers. More importantly, storytelling is a proven method of influencing audiences to adopt your perspective or rally others around your cause. According to a recent study, those scientific articles that displayed facts and statistics through story earned more citations than those written in an expository way. During the study, researchers evaluated the effectiveness of science storytelling based off of these 6 indicators:
Narrative perspective
Every story is told from a certain point of view. For example, the books in the Harry Potter series are written from in the third person, while To Kill a Mockingbird is written in the first person. This means that pronouns such as he, she, and they are used predominantly throughout Harry Potter books. On the other hand, pronouns including I and we are used frequently in To Kill a Mockingbird. If you want to project more influence as a writer and presenter, write and speak from the first person perspective. If you want to level with your audience, utilize second person pronouns such as you, your, and yours. This will create a direct tone.
Setting
The foundation of narratives – the setting – is comprised of the details of location and time of events. From the beginning of a story, adjectives are combined to give listeners and readers a sense of visual placement.
Sensory language
The type of words a person decides to use dictates much of storytelling influence. For instance, the frequency with which a storyteller incorporates words that spark the senses – sight, hearing, smell, touch, or taste – correlates to the audience impact.
Conjunctions
A more technical aspect of writing style, conjunctions form the structure for a storytelling narrative. This would entail the use of words including and, but, because, when, etc.
Connectivity
Another technical element of writing style, connectivity is created through specific references or repetition. It serves to link concepts and phrases from one part of the story to another part of the story – establishing meaning.
Appeal
How a topic is evaluated from the particular narrative’s perspective creates the appeal of the piece. Why is the story so important that people need to know? It’s important that a narrator takes a strong stance on their topic to strengthen the storytelling.
It seems as though there is no topic that storytelling touches and doesn’t improve. Analyze your text and content aside the 6 indicators of narrative storytelling. For more information on storytelling techniques and narrative tips, review the following resources:
Create a Mood for Positive Perception of Presentation Messages
