Factors of a Good Story

Storytelling is a powerful tool for effective public speakers. It gives the speaker an opportunity to share experiences and creates relevance to the audience and gives details. For the story to be effective and enable the audience to visualize and comprehend the topic, the story teller needs to consider a number of qualities for the story to make it interesting and memorable. The major aim of these qualities is to keep the audience attentive, help them understand the message, and ensure that they comprehend the story in a constructive way.

A good story is compactly wound such that the author puts the point across in a few words. Another factor is that the story has an effective structure providing a good flow from one event to another to enable listeners keep track and stay with the narrator.

Another factor is the story describes to the audience what happened rather than telling them it occurred. It focuses on a well defined or series of related events. Additionally, the presence of memorable characters who comes alive to the audience and live in their mind and heart (Clawson, 2003).

A good story conveys the message in a way that can be remembered. It also uses simple and short words and metaphors. This makes the communication memorable. For example, in his speech Martin Luther used the contrasted segregation with racism by using the dissimilar metaphor of sunlit path and dark and desolate valley (Hansen, 2003).  

How to discern when and if a story will be effective

A story is effective if it is concise such that the message is relevant to the tale narrated. It interests the audience and leaves behind some memory or effect. The storyteller depends on the audience bringing prior knowledge and personal experience to the story (Simmons, 2001).

The story language is simple and not too colloquial also the story delivers the intended message through the theme to the audience. No ambiguous words and the story grasp the audience’s attention through the story time (Templeton, 2010).