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Storytelling Matters


Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has good and bad stories. And everyone has an inner story teller.

When I was young, I loved to read book and comics. I admired authors the way they organized their thoughts from their vast imagination. Words fascinated me and I wanted to play with them. When I wrote stories I left the characters playing with each other when I took a break in authoring something.

When we read stories, we learn indirectly from the experiences and wisdom of the writer. Before a writer can write his own book, he must have read hundreds if not thousands of books, from which he learned the best words that would match his thoughts.

If you talk to a writer, you can imagine things as if they were really happening before your very eyes at the time of narration, as they choose the descriptive words that will leave your mind something: a meaning behind a story.

It is very important that at a young age a person is trained on how to hone his storytelling skills. I remember when I was a student in a public elementary school, our names were called one by one. The teacher sat on the chair with an arm, then the pupil called was asked to read a story silently while standing, then he would tell the story read to the teacher. Basically, the purpose was to improve reading comprehension and storytelling skills.

As I grew up I understood the importance of this activity. My mind was like a camera capturing the screenshots created by my imagination, and like cards, the scenes were cascaded properly, that served as my storyboard. I loved to think in metaphor and simile -- oh, those figures of speech! School presentation tasks got easier for me, armed with such skills.

Storytelling matters as it has to do with how the listeners feel about your story and how they experience indirectly what you tell them.

In business, storytelling can convert a 'no' or 'maybe' to a 'yes'. "Don't sell; tell." We hear this many times. We read and view many testimonials of product users. Those are their stories that touch our emotions and we take actions moved by them.

Man-made things we see now come from the vision and ideas of bright people who tell their stories which help make the world we have today.

Hopi American Indian proverb has this impactful line --
Those who tell the stories rule the world.
This is very much aligned with billionaire Warren Buffet's belief that one can increase his value by 50% if he masters public speaking.

Netflix clicks because movie writers have stories to tell and viewers are transported elsewhere. I get hooked to watching movies via this platform shared by my daughter, as I also have some stories to tell, and one day they will see light. I will passionately Maya'ed them, turning Maya Angelou's name to an action word 'I rise'*,
There is no greater agony bearing an untold story inside you.
If you've got brilliant ideas, have the courage to free them from your head. Storytelling is the most powerful way to do so. Who knows they will help change your world -- or our world?

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Photo credits:  Pixabay

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