I'm a horrible storyteller. That's why I was so stunned when, as I was telling a story at a renaissance faire, I looked up to find 50 people listening in rapt attention to my story. I had inadvertently stumbled upon the formula for perfect storytelling.

I had memorized the story by picturing the people and the events in the story. I also found it helpful to remember things by putting a body action or motion to the story. This also helped bring the story to life.

I was to begin the story at 2:30 and had 15 minutes to fill. As I began telling it, I had five people there. I set the story by telling about the town, and motioned at the houses on the hillside and described the hero of the story. The people were watching my hands as I did so and I could see they were picturing the setting as I described it. That encouraged me to make the motions as big as I could.

I had envisioned the characters so well, that I felt I'd actually seen them, and that helped with my ability to convey the same image to my audience. I forgot about the audience and focused on my story, bringing it to life, making it interesting for me to tell. As I got to the end and the character cried out, "No no, don't go!", I looked to see 50 faces lit up with anticipation and 50 more turned toward my voice to see what was happening.

As I ended the story, I realized there were 10 actors on the stage behind me, and one very quietly said, "huzzah!" I knew I'd done it right.

What I learned in those 15 minutes was this:

1. Know your material. If you're stumbling for words, the audience will drift away. Knowing your material ensures you won't freeze up in the middle or forget where you are.

2. Picture the story. It's much easier to let the audience know what you mean if you can picture it in your head.

3. Add motions to the story. Talking heads as on the news isn't fun to watch. Make your motions big enough to fit the setting. The bigger the audience or the venue, the bigger your motions should be. As a director once told me, at an outdoor event, people 100 yards away should be able to tell what's going on. Muscle memory will aid in remembering things. I use it often in daily life.

4. Love the story. If you believe in the story, your enthusiasm will shine through and captivate your audience.

5. Practice, practice, practice. This cannot be said enough. It helps you know the material and helps you get the motions in the right places to let the audience know what you want to say.

6. Learn to improvise. If you forget something, make it up. Chances are no one will ever know you goofed unless you make a big thing of it. I recently directed a play where one woman lost her place and went, "blah, phooey", and stumbled back a few lines to get back on track. It was so glaring everyone knew she blew it. By contrast, I once watched two classmates do a scene from "Waiting for Godot". I thought it was running a little longer than the last time they'd done it, but I was still entertained. They said later, they both forgot the lines halfway through and just improvised until they remembered where they were. It was seamless, and they did a perfect job with it. They were the only two in the room who knew they'd goofed.

Following these few steps will turn even the poorest storyteller, like me, into a great one.

Learn more about this author, Liane Laskoske.
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