Monday Minute: How Do I Begin to Tell a Story?

It is time for your Fearless Monday Minute. How do I begin to tell a story…dot dot dot? Well, there’s a very clear way to begin to tell the story which is “once upon a time” to begin your story at the top, the very beginning of the narrative. But a virtuosic and accomplished storyteller knows that there are ways to play with your audience, and seeding different parts of the story along the plot helps to create that sense of tension, and dynamism with an audience. So three spaces to play with is: one, before the inciting incident, before the moment that something shifts which is why you’re telling me a story. The second is right before the climax, so the major turning point of the narrative, and the last is at the very end, start at the very end of the story, and then backtrack and then take me on the story journey story train. And think of that the next time you have to tell a story.