The ability to tell a story indicates a person's ability to identify and convey the most essential truths about humanity, life and chiefly, themselves. As story-telling is one of the most universally significant and complex forms of communication, it has been revered and studied throughout the history of communication - from the unschooled to the most prominent scholars, people of all levels of education, class and tax bracket have delighted in a story well-told, while some seek the secrets behind the art of story-telling.
A good story can illuminate the dull, feed the spiritually hungry, enlighten the ignorant. The most talented story-tellers can awaken a myriad of emotions and ideas in their audience: Martin Luther King, Jr., J.K. Rowling, Steven Spielberg, Igor Stravinsky are prime examples of master story-tellers. That these people are not canonized writers such as Milton, Virgil and Whitman - all equally deserving to be in my top list of story-tellers - begs the question:
What is a story-teller?
We are all story-tellers. Most of the time we tell ourselves stories: for example, if you reach for a grape, your brain may flash to the trip to the grocery store a few days ago, or that time you ate grapes while watching "West Side Story" with your best friend in the 5th grade...soon you've created a domino effect of stories, as you've revisited memories and asked yourself questions such as, "what gives grapes their color?".
We also tell stories in our day-to-day interactions with people. Whether you are recounting the details of last Sunday's episode of The Sopranos or talking about your upstairs neighbor's bizarre habits, the rules conversation demand that we as participants relate to one another through stories.
Think of the best story-tellers you know. They are usually the same people that top your list of funniest and/or most interesting people you know. They are the people who can tell a joke or engage you with their elaborate descriptions of settings, faces, reactions. Some of my favorite story-tellers include my mom, Gore Vidal, Margaret Cho, Freddy Mercury, Sofia Coppola and Tennessee Williams. Not only do I admire these people for their natural talent for telling stories, I have found that they are great story-tellers because they exhibit the following qualities:
- Candor. A great story-teller draws from within himself and relates to his audience with honesty and uninhibited candor, giving the story the fundamental "human" element. This quality also certifies the story-teller as a credible and relatable narrator.
- Knowledge of who their audience is (and often not giving a shit). Sure, it's important to know your audience when you're telling a story, but you shouldn't let your audience dictate the content and execution of the story. If it's great, someone will notice and appreciate it.
- An almost deluded sense of confidence. When talking about his move to Corpus Christi, Texas from Beijing, China at age 12, an acquaintance of mine told me how he learned to fit in. He said, "If you act like you're bad ass, then everyone will think you're bad ass. Even if you're not." The same goes for telling stories. If there is even a hint of reluctance or doubt, you've lost your audience and the story is defunct.
- A sense of humor. Whether the story is funny or not, the teller has to be perceptive enough to recognize humor in the story and execute it in the form of vocal inflections, facial expressions, timing and choice of words.
To answer the question, "what is a story-teller?" she is the perceptive, candid, funny know-it-all (remember, confidence) whose stories grab you with such a force you wonder, "how did they do that?".
But if you are like me, you might be too captivated to even wonder.