Whether you want to tell a story professionally or read a poem aloud in class, there are methods of exposure and ways to avoid. You will have to learn to get comfortable with the things to be told, with what needs to be left out and what needs to be expressed to the audience. Read from the first step to start captivating the audience!
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Public Speaking Techniques
Step 1. Get comfortable reading and speaking at the same time
It is very important if you are telling a story or interpreting a poem as you read. You can also memorize it, which can help, but it is good to be able to read aloud.
- Read it more than once. Especially if you have to perform in front of people, it is advisable to read this narrative several times, in order to get used to the words and to watch the audience.
- Get into the rhythm of the words. You will notice in poems and stories, even in those that need interpretation without text, that the length of the sentences and words used create a sort of rhythm. Get used to this rhythm by practicing so that you present the story or poem out loud.
- Try to avoid simply reading the story or a poem beyond the written text. Narrating means having an active part in engaging the public and exposing the narrative. Look up as you read, so that you meet the public eye.
Step 2. Change the pitch, speed and volume of the voice
To tell a story in an engaging way, it is appropriate to vary the voice in terms of speed, volume, pitch and cadence. If you speak in one (monotone) tone you will bore your listeners, no matter how interesting the story is.
- Make the tone of your voice match that of the story. For example, it is not preferable to speak softly when telling an epic story (such as Beowulf), just as it is not advisable to use an epic tone to interpret a funny poem by Shell Silverstein or a light novel.
- Make sure you narrate slowly. When you read aloud or tell a story in front of an audience, it's better to speak slower than you would in a conversation. By speaking slowly, you will allow the audience to fully grasp and appreciate the story or a poem. It is good to have water next to you, while you are doing your narration, and to stop and take a sip, in order to slow down the exposure.
- It is advisable to set the voice, not to shout. Breathe and speak through the diaphragm. Practice to help you understand how to do it: stand with your hand on your abdomen. Breathe in and out, feeling your stomach rise and fall as you do this. Count to let out one breath and then up to ten on the next breath. The abdomen should begin to relax. It is best to speak in this relaxed state.
Step 3. Speak clearly
Many people don't speak correctly or clearly enough when trying to tell a story. It is necessary for the audience to be able to hear and understand what you are saying. Avoid muttering or speaking too softly.
- Articulate sounds correctly. The articulation of sounds basically involves an appropriate pronunciation of phonemes, rather than words. The sounds to focus on for pronunciation are: b, d, g, dz (j of jelly), p, t, k, ts, (è of ciligia). By accentuating these phonemes, you will make your speech clearer for the audience.
- Pronounce the words correctly. Make sure you know the meaning of all the words in the story or poem and how to say them correctly. If you have trouble remembering the pronunciation, write a small note next to the word so that you can pronounce it appropriately while you are narrating.
- Avoid saying "ahem" and using interlayers like "that is". While fine in normal conversation, these words will make you seem less confident in your narrative and distract the audience.
Step 4. Put the accent at the appropriate time
Let the audience understand what the most important parts of the poem or story are. Since you are narrating aloud, it is necessary to show these parts through the voice.
- Lowering your voice, using quiet tones, and raising it to engage the audience in the important parts of the story can be a great way to intrigue. Make sure you set it even if you speak more calmly and attentively.
- For example: if you are narrating "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (the first book), it is appropriate to point out those parts of the story when Harry confronts Voldemort or wins the Quidditch match, taking the snitch in his mouth.
- The poems have specific accents reported in their structure. It means that you have to pay attention to how the poem is structured (what its metric is), so that you know which syllables accentuate your narrative.
Step 5. Take breaks at appropriate times
It is advisable not to tighten the timing of the narration. Reading a poem or telling a story aloud is not a competition. Instead, make sure you place the pauses in the right places, so that the audience can fully assimilate what they are hearing.
- Make sure you take a break after a particularly fun or exciting part of the story, to give the audience time to react. Try not to leave out the pauses in the core parts of the narrative. For example: if you are telling a funny story, you could take a few breaks during the exposition until the punchline, so that people start laughing as soon as they understand how far the story is going.
- Many times punctuation is the best way to take breaks. When you are reading a poem aloud, be sure not to stop at the end of the line, but where the punctuation (commas, periods, etc.) indicates a rest.
- An excellent example of the correct use of pauses is The Lord of the Rings. If you read the work in mind, you will notice the overabundance of commas to the point of suspecting that Tolkien did not know how to use commas. Now, if you read the book aloud, you will find that every comma corresponds to a perfect pause in oral narration.
Part 2 of 3: Building a Good Storytelling
Step 1. Set the mood
When you are telling something (a story, a poem, a joke), make sure you create the right atmosphere. It means setting the story in the right place and time, telling it so that the audience feels as if it were there and giving immediacy to the story.
- Give context to the story. What is its setting? What times (did it happen in your life? In someone else's? What era does it refer to?)? All of these things can help you solidify the storytelling in your audience's mind.
- Tell from the correct point of view. This is your story, did it happen to you? To someone you know? Is it a story that people already know (like Cinderella, for example)? Make sure you are telling the story from the right point of view.
- If you are telling a story, especially a story that happened to you, instead of respecting the narrative of the written text, you could tell it in the present tense. This way you will make the narration more immediate for the audience, who will be more easily sucked into the story.
Step 2. Give the story the right structure
When it comes to narrating an event, especially if it has happened to you or if it has some relationship with your life, make sure it has an interesting structure for the audience. People have been telling and narrating stories for thousands of years, so there are some principles that can improve your storytelling.
- Any story should follow a cause-and-effect order. It mainly means that after an event something else happens due to the cause that resides in that event. Think of this through the word cause: "Because of the cause, the effect has happened."
- For example: your play begins with water spilling onto the floor. This is the cause, while the effect is sliding on it in the climax of the story. "Since you previously spilled water on the floor, you slipped on it while playing chasing your friends".
- Introduce the conflict quickly. Conflict and conflict resolution is what keeps the public interested in the story. By making an introduction that is too long or moving away too often, you will reduce the interest of the public. For example: if you are telling the story of Cinderella, it is not appropriate to prolong yourself on the story of her life before the family conflict. Cinderella's family conflict constitutes the conflict of the story, so it needs to be introduced quickly.
Step 3. Share the right details
Details can make or break the narrative. If you share too many details, you will overwhelm the audience or bore them. If, on the other hand, they are too few, the audience will not be able to penetrate the narrative.
- Choose the details related to the outcome of the story. Using once again the example of Cinderella, there is no need to make detailed descriptions of everything she has to do to fight against adversity, but the descriptions of the chores that the stepmother commissions her so that the girl cannot go to the dance are important because they hinder the resolution of the story.
- You can also provide some interesting or amusing details, disseminating them throughout the narrative. Don't overload the audience with details, but some can provoke a few laughs or provide a deeper interest in the storytelling.
- Avoid being too vague in details. In the case of Cinderella, if you don't tell the audience she's going to the prom or where she got the dress and shoes from, you risk confusing listeners.
Step 4. Stay consistent within your story
The tale may have dragons and wizards who can instantly carry a person from place to place, but as long as it's consistent, audiences can suspend their disbelief. Now, however, if you add a spaceship without having foretold any science fiction elements, you will take the audience away from the story.
The characters will also have to act consistently. If a character begins to be very shy, he probably won't suddenly go up against his idle father without his character development being explained
Step 5. Respect the right duration
It is difficult to determine what the right length is for a story or a poem. It's something you will have to decide for yourself, but there are definitely some things you should consider about it, because they can help you choose the length of your story.
- It's easier to get by with a shorter story, especially if you've just gotten into storytelling. It will still take time to make sure you have all the right details and find the right tone, speed and so on.
- If you're going to tell a long story, make sure it's long, but not boring. Sometimes it is possible to cut out some details to shorten and liven up a long story, making it more interesting.
Part 3 of 3: Avoiding Common Mistakes
Step 1. Use your voice appropriately
Two of the biggest mistakes people make when telling a story is speaking too fast and not varying the voice. These two problems go hand in hand, because it is difficult to change the voice when flying through the narrative at the speed of light.
- Watch your breathing and your pauses if you are worried about speaking too fast. If you don't take deep, slow breaths, you are probably going too fast. If you don't take a break then you will definitely be going fast and the audience will have a hard time keeping up with you.
- Make sure you give your words and syllables cadence, not to speak monotonously. These are the greatest gimmicks to keep the public interest high, even if the story itself is not the most interesting.
Step 2. Get to the story
Another problem is that you don't get to the story quickly enough, because you take too many detours over the course of the story. Occasional digression isn't a problem, especially if it's informative or entertaining. If not, stick to the main storyline, because that's what the audience wants to hear.
- Avoid the "preamble". As you begin the narrative, give a very brief introduction about yourself and the work you have done. The audience doesn't want to hear how you conceived the story, whether in a dream or some other way. They want to hear about it.
- Don't digress into the story. Respect the fundamental framework of the story and do not lapse into other memories or immensely funny things that jump into your mind. If you digress, making too many digressions, you risk losing the audience.
Step 3. Avoid sharing too many opinions / insights / morals
When you tell a story, whether it belongs to your life or someone else's, the audience doesn't want your moral reflection. Think about your childhood stories (like Aesop's fables). Most, if not all, had a certain morale. Do you remember her or do you just remember the story?
Stories are built on facts, the facts of the narrative. By following these facts, you will provide teaching, opinion or reflection, even if it is explained
Step 4. Practice
It's such an obvious step, but people often fall on this point. You will need to practice before you can deliver a story in an effective and entertaining way, whether it is a poem or a story, or even an episode that belongs to your life.
The more you know the subject, the more confident you will appear of what you are telling. The more confidence you show during the narration, the more interest you will arouse in the audience
Step 5. Listen to the other narrators
There are people who do storytelling for a living: they are storytellers, people who do voiceovers in films or who read stories for audio-books.
Watch how the storytellers live and observe how they use their body (hand gestures, facial expressions), the way the voices vary and what techniques they use to gain the attention of their listeners
Advice
- Show confidence as you speak. Even if you don't feel confident, speaking slowly and carefully will help you gain confidence.
- Add sensory details to the narrative to make it seem more immediate and more real in the eyes of the audience. What smells are there? What sounds are there? Both you and the characters, what can you hear and see?
