I became interested in storytelling (as a business/personal communication tool rather than as a creative/artistic pursuit) about 6 months ago and am doing heaps of reading and watching on the subject. Right now I’m making my way through Annette Simmons’ The Story Factor. I’ve just read the chapter in which Annette discusses the different aspects of storytelling: gestures; facial expressions; body language; sounds, smells and tastes; irrelevant detail; virtual reality; timing and pause; and tone. Yesterday I watched this fantastic video of master storyteller Jay O’Callahan talking about the power of storytelling at The 99 Percent Conference. Jay demonstrates each of the aspects of storytelling so clearly and effectively, so it’s the perfect practical accompaniment to Annette’s text!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14806071[/vimeo]

Also, appreciations is a technique that O’Callahan uses to improve the storytelling skills of his students and he touches on this really nicely as well in this video (O’Callahan’s use of appreciations and how the can be applied to building any creative strength is further discussed in Scott Belsky’s Making Ideas Happen).