157: Vivid Storytelling

VIVID STORYTELLING… …is not optional. If it ain’t vivid, it ain’t a story; it’s just an idea. Warning! This episode may give you awesome communication power. Can you handle it? Before we talk about vivid, let’s clarify what storytelling is for those of you who want to sell more products and services and/or influence people to act on your words. Think of storytelling as a journey for your audience that takes them from an undesired or painful before state, through an obstacle course, to strongly desired after state. You, the storyteller, are guiding and directing that journey. Your responsibility is to make it an authentic adventure of a lifetime. That’s where vivid comes in. You make your story vivid by using sensory language. Remember this easy rule. Use your senses, all five of them. Make your audience see, hear, smell, taste, and touch (feel) your story. When you do that, you speak to the heart; when you don’t do it, you appeal only to logic, to the head. Not good. When your communication does not appeal to and arouse emotion, it has little to no impact. It’s barely heard and quickly forgotten. Here is another import tip to remind you how to communicate vividly and strongly. Never ask your audience to figure out what you’re talking about on their own. There are two major problems with that. One, your message is open to too many different interpretations when it doesn’t vividly jump out at people. Two, imagining things requires energy that most people are not willing to give. Let’s compare head language with heart language:   In this episode, you will also hear two powerful examples of vivid storytelling from two professionally written short stories, one of them based on a real life event. You can easily transform your communication into a magnetic force that compels people to listen to you and act on what you tell them. This can earn you a lot  of money, and it will enrich the lives of the people you meet. Listen to this podcast more once, take notes, then, practice, practic, practice. You will experience mastery. BOOKS IN THIS PODCAST Writing For Story by Jon Franklin The Fly by Katherine Mansfield (in Stories Vintage Classics)