Storytelling is an art and a craft. The best stories engage and entertain and keep the listener listening. Stories need a teller and a hearer. The teller uses the gifts of their experience and imagination. The teller uses words, images, sounds to tell the best stories. All cultures and civilizations have their conceptions of the best stories and the best forms of storytelling, from storytelling in oral and traditional cultures, to storytelling in books and films, to storytelling on the internet. Stories can be ancient/traditional, modern, postmodern. There are many kinds and genres of stories. Folklore and myths and legends. Fictional and factual stories.

The audience is very important in storytelling. In oral stories for example the audience participates in the storytelling, as in call-and-response forms of storytelling. The audience as readers can also participate in storytelling.

Storytelling can be an innate ability, and people can also learn how to tell stories from master storytellers. You can learn from master storytellers, just like you can learn from master writers. Great storytelling like great writing involves practice, practice, practice.

Learn more about this author, Susan Shaw.
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