The Power of Storytelling

I have a dream. I dream to be a storyteller and that stories are what the world is made of and that eventually everyone is involved by tales of wonder and that happiness is a term and not an excuse or a goal.

Storytelling is my most precious skill.

You see from my other hobbies or skill or pass-the-time activities, writing is the most important one. The one that I care about the most.

And because I care about it the most I avoid it the most. I dread because it is so precious and fragile that I with my human mistakes can´t possible make it justice.

The fear that comes with this love is paralysing.

For a long time I thought about why I wasn't able to write. What was blocking me from stories. and the answer is myself.

The answer is years and years of reading and sharing stories and understanding the power of storytelling.

Reading a book or being in a book are two very different way of experiencing a story. Actually there are thousands of ways of sharing a tale. Theatre and Poetry and Music and Dance and Anime.

For a while I thought that I wanted to be an actress and now I see that this was due to the same possibility in that field of becoming a storyteller. But later I realised that Theatre was not the right medium for me. and so I turned to writing.

If we look back at the ancient times and look well, really well at history we may noticed that a lot of things revolve around stories, being real or imaginary ones. Language is one of the things that separates humans from some of their ancestors. and language is mostly used to tell things. To tell stories.

I think humans are part story. I think humans have an instinct that pushes them to share and to tell everything they feel in a story way. History is stories. Parents tell stories to their unborn children. People master is telling friends stories every day, at work or at school or to their partner.

The world revolves around storytelling because it is a powerful thing. It somehow makes us who we are. Without the ability to tell stories we would be ash and nothing more.

‘Stories are the way we understand and make sense of the world we find ourselves in.’ says Clare Patey, Director of the Empathy Museum (source)

I was always a storyteller. I remember in my Anime phase to just watch and re-tell what I had watched the next days to all of my friends. I remember that I loved it. and it was so exiting.

But now I am afraid. Utterly afraid because the stories I want to tell are my own. Even this article. I am telling you a story. and right now, I feel a pit in my stomach because what if I can't make it worthy.

In the book Unleash the Power of Storytelling by Rob Biesenbach, we learn about what stories can do. We can get jobs, partners, investors, business opportunities, love etc...all with the power of storytelling.

There are six keys to powerful stories: stories trigger emotional responses, put a face on an issue, connect us to deeper issues, humanise us, raise the stakes of the discourse, and go beyond telling to showing. The narratives and incidents described help transcend generic keywords and set us apart (source).

The ability or skill of being a storytelling is something that is, nowadays, seen as a trivia thing. Not important and not worthy of learning/using. But society forgets to look at underlines of "worthy careers".

Such as lawyer which is literally a storytelling position with the added book of rules they have to follow (Law). But do you think that law and fact and numbers on its own can take someone innocent out of a prison sentence? No. Stories does. The story that convinces the jury of said innocence or guilt.

How about Science? Science is a storytelling part but instead of being free like other storytelling ways it is constrained by nature laws. Science is a story being written in reality. and then scientist are the ones responsible to create a truthful narrative around a fact and spoon feed it to others.

Everything can be part of a story. Numbers, people, places, facts, emotions, imagination, reality, past and future. Today or tomorrow or never. Pain.

“There are a thousand coaches and workshops who come in and tell you why telling stories is a great way to persuade people or communicate in business, but none tell you how to tell a good story,” Evan Wolf, a global sales executive at Google (source).

I am afraid of the power of storytelling. I am amazed at it as well. and I am happy that I am skilled at it. In my life and in my career. I am grateful that even if it is silly I may be able to put "Storyteller" in my CV.

And even if it takes time or patience or practice being someone that tells stories is worth it. Don't you think?

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