3 Reasons Why You Need to be a Good Storyteller even if You're Not a Writer

People like to be entertained.

Stories have been around for as long as humans could talk. In fact the first cave painting is thought to be 27,000 years old.

Today, most people either watch television, read books or go to movies because they want a good story. People make sense of the world around them through stories. All the major religions are communicated through stories.

We can relate to each other through storytelling. But what most people don’t realize that you need to be a good storyteller even if you aren’t a writer and here are 3 reasons why.

To Remember Something

Despite the fact that humans are exposed to more stories than any other time in history, it is still the most effective way for us to remember something. You want someone to remember a bunch of facts? Tell them in a story.

The bad teachers blab on reciting fact after fact. The best teachers tell their students stories to emphasis a point.

Remember the Grimm Brother’s and all the stories they collected? They were all fables designed to keep naughty children in line and prevent them from getting lost or befalling into some other calamity. The Grimm Brother’s and their stories still effective 200 years later

Part of the reason we remember stories so well is because our brain is wired for storytelling. Stories activate part of our brain because we think in narratives, whether it’s something that has happened to us or something we can relate to. If you break a story down to its simplest form, you basically get cause and effect which is actually how we think.

To Buy Something

Let’s face it, most people will buy a product because they have heard good things about it.

Whether it’s something they heard from a friend or a review they read on line, we rely on stories to make decisions. I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I made an important purchase without reading all the reviews on line.

Companies spend millions of dollars telling stories about themselves so you will be familiar with their brand.

With the internet, marketers have realized storytelling is paramount now more than ever before. In about the last ten years, content marketing has become perhaps the most important tool to get messages to consumers.

Content marketing is just a fancy name for storytelling—creating media that people actually want to consume rather than the old school interrupt method.

But even before content marketing, the best television and radio advertisements told stories. The commercial that is often voted the best of all time is the Apple commercial where a female is carrying a hammer while running away from guards. She throws her hammer at the large screen that is hypnotising the masses. The hammer shatters the screen and breaking the spell of the leader.

The Apple commercial worked so well was because we recognized the symbolism from the famous George Orwell book 1984. What does all this have to do with Apple computers? Not much but it’s such an effective message that we remember it.

To Get a Job

It’s unfortunate, but we all need a job. In order to get one you need to be able to wind a good story to get somebody to hire you. Sometimes these stories are in the form of resume, cover letters and sometimes it’s an online profile. Interview skills are all about telling your personal story. If you're a good talker and you tell a good story then you'll stand out from the other canditates.

Then when we want to get a promotion we need to use storytelling again to convince our boss that we deserve it. We tell them about all the great things we have done lately.

In fact, it’s an endless cycle until we retire.

(Bonus Tip) To Get A Date

You May think it’s ridiculous for me to include storytelling as a way to get a date but if you want to impress that special someone you better be a good storyteller.

People wonder how these crazy, ugly famous people get dates. Well, you’ve heard it here first: they are often amazing story tellers. Everybody wants to be around good storytellers and they are often the life of parties.

I would love to hear what you think about the un-hero. Who is your favourite un-hero?

Joel Mark Harris is a writer, producer and journalist. (@joelmarkharris) He is the proud founder of Scene2Studio and you can download for FREE his award-winning thriller novel A Thousand Bayonets HERE

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