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The more I come to learn about storytelling and its ability to transform who we are, how we relate to the world we live in, or infer our purpose and potential within it, the more I realize that storytelling has been dreadfully, woefully, and dangerously misunderstood.
Let me begin with just a few of the most common misconceptions I have run into since starting my work of helping people become better storytellers -
Myth: Good storytellers are charismatic, and know how to tell stories because they really get into it, and draw the audience in, and know how to keep an audience entertained by using good techniques.
Truth: Good storytelling is not about the storyteller. It is not about how well they speak or how fancy their words are. It is not about how charismatic, attractive, or enthusiastic they are. It is not even about whether or not they have a good vocabulary. Good storytellers are good because they understand the STORY and what the meaning of the story is - and in particular how the meaning of the story influences the audience.
People tend to mistake a good story with having good storytelling skills or technique. A good story hooks you, captivates you, takes you on a journey, and sticks with you because you learn something from it. Think about it - when was the last time you were really hooked by a story? Were you thinking about how well the story was being articulated? How nicely the plot was flowing? How well structured the vocabulary was? If the story were actually good you would be much more focused on how the story made you FEEL and how it made you CARE, and what the story means for you on a personal level because you see a part of yourself in it.
Myth: Storytelling is about telling stories and using metaphors and analogies. It is a way to use made up things to communicate deeper ideas.
Truth: Storytelling is not about what form the story takes - whether it is a joke you heard from someone, or a made up fairy tale, or a brutally honest and intimate telling of your personal life experiences. The point of storytelling is to impart MEANING. It is an attempt to make sense of something in our world, and to better understand our place within it. The "story" is a mechanism that allows the human to interpret, digest, and understand information on a personal and useful level.
Take for example someone who is told that hammers can hurt when used as a weapon or if mishandled. That information means nothing without the STORY - which is that if you hit someone with a hammer it will hurt - and that if someone hits YOU, YOU will hurt. The story imparts the meaning, the purpose, the "what can I learn from this" element that changes raw information into something useful, meaningful, and instructive.
Myth: Storytelling is just a new "trendy" thing that is happening. People are realizing that storytelling is a great marketing tool that gets audiences and potential customers even more invested in a brand or a product. It is nothing more than learning how to manipulate people with emotional wording.
Truth: No. Wrong. Just... no. In fact I am overcome with an urge to strangle you right now for even thinking that way. Let me take a moment here and just recollect my composure...
Okay, storytelling has been abused, misused, and bastardized. Storytelling is not some new trendy marketing or promotional gimmick that nets you more sales and subscriptions. It is not some cheap trick or magic wand to wave in front of your unwitting audience so that you can compel them to do your bidding, join your mailing-list (spam) or buy your self-published ebook.
Storytelling when done effectively is transformative. Storytelling has been with us since before the first written languages, and has been the main vehicle for communicating and passing down our traditions, our cultural heritage, our ways of life, and most importantly, the values we hold and why we hold them.
Storytelling is about the principles and lessons of life that help us be better human beings - and when the stories we tell ourselves or each other become warped and misaligned from our greater, nobler potentials, we in turn become lesser beings for it. Hatred and racism or born of stories that have been told and retold and held as truth. But when those stories change - and we transform the way we see ourselves and each other, the true power of story is revealed: We create the stories we hold true.
So - take storytelling seriously. As though the fabric of existence and the future of humanity depends on it - because it actually does.
Do you agree? Disagree? Have another example of how we have misunderstood the power of storytelling and the responsibility it implies? Sound off in the comments below.