Read Like a Storyteller
A storyteller's advice for anyone presenting written work to live audiences
The following began as an extract from All the Better to Read You With, and was adapted into the article below first published in the Writing in Education magazine issue 91.
My vocation as an oral storyteller began almost exactly nine years before the publication of my first children’s book. Throughout that vocation, probably the most popular comment in the feedback from schools and event organizers was, and still is, “I can’t believe you had them sitting still for so long!”
Many storytellers are thought to possess this magical art of enchantment. It’s an art that I’ve seen produce feelings of fear and/or envy in children’s writers and educators alike: sit a group of youngsters in front of a professional storyteller, and they’ll be riveted within minutes – without a screen or even a page in sight, and whether they’re aged four, eight, or eighteen.
But as I approach the end of my second decade sharing stories with live audiences, and leading workshops for others to do the same, I’ve become convinced that the secret to the storyteller’s power to enthral can be found in a review I received from Primary Times during my stint at the Edinburgh Fringe:
“It felt more like a conversation than a performance.”
This feedback most neatly sums up the direction I give at the start every storytelling workshop: Tell with your audience, not to them. This isn’t just a key skill of good storytelling – it’s the keyring skill, the one from which all other key skills hang.
It’s also the skill most undersung by those who see ‘storytelling’ as a synonym for ‘acting’ or ‘performing’, because, well… everyone can do it! Every time you share an event from your day with someone, hoping to help them understand your emotions and thought-processes… or share some gossip with another, hoping to provoke a reaction… That’s the essence of storytelling!
A performer knows they’ve done a good job when the audience has been focused on them, and they receive rapturous applause at the end.
A storyteller knows they’ve done a good job when they detect obvious signs that their audience has engaged with the experience – for instance, immediately asking questions about decisions taken by the characters, the truth of the events, where the story came from, etc. All this shows that the audience are considering what the story means for them.
Of course, a storyteller’s skillset often includes the ability to pull a story from their head to match the interests of their audience after just a short initial discussion, and will adjust the language they use to ensure they’re being understood as they go along. But when reading to students, whether the words were written by you or another, your content is proscribed.
Even so, you can still make use of that ‘keyring skill’ of good storytelling – which, adapted for the purposes of live readings, can be rephrased as follows:
Read with your listeners, not to them.
To help you do so, I’d like to share with you five key skills to ‘hang’ from your keyring, which you can think of as forming your storytelling ‘VOICE’…
There are NOW 4* ways to enjoy the rest of this article…
Easy, Fast, and Cheap: Become a Paid Subscriber!
It’s about the cost of buying a novel from a bookshop, and lets me know you value my work – so I’ll be mahoosively grateful! If you’re already a subscriber, you can just scroll down; otherwise, hit the button below first to…The Most Complete: Buy the Handbook!
If you’re anyone looking to really raise the next generation’s enthusiasm for reading, you’ll find way more than this article alone. Further tips, planned lessons, and even nine stories written especially for reading aloud. Pick your purchase point from Waterstones, Amazon, the publisher’s website, or your favourite bookshop.If You’re a Writer in Education: Join the NAWE!
If you plan to visit schools as an author and/or write advice for teachers, membership of the National Association of Writers in Education gives you a stamp of professional standing – as well as public liability insurance, cut-rate Enhanced DBS checks, and of course access to the magazine where you can read the rest of this article. Follow this link to learn more.*As of 3 March ‘24: Fully free! For those who really can’t afford any other option at the mo’, a slightly more condensed (but still pretty complete) version of this article can now be found at Words & Pictures, the online magazine of the Society for Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. Follow this link to check it out. (NB: Sometimes the W&P website redirects all links to its homepage, so be prepared to search ‘oral storytelling for writers’.)