(See sample speech here)
Introduction
As a storyteller, you try to tell interesting stories with good characterizations, good dialogue, and good descriptions. You are trying to please your listeners and entertain them. But you also have another purpose – to make them feel something. You want them to feel emotions. You’re trying to make them feel a variety of emotions – love, hate, anger, friendship, grief, happiness, sadness, hope, courage, and jealousy. When you arouse your listeners’ emotions, you’re enabling them to experience the story with the characters. But how do you do this?
Executive Summary
Storytellers want their audiences to feel emotions, whether it be love, hate, anger, happiness, hope or courage. Experiencing emotions involves your listeners in the story, keeps their attention and helps them to remember it. Use dialogue or descriptions to convey the emotions you want the audience to feel. The secret to arousing emotion is to understate it. Don’t be obvious or melodramatic.
Objectives
- To understand the techniques available to arouse emotion
- To become skilled in arousing emotions while telling a story
Your Assignment
Prepare, rehearse, and present a story designed to arouse emotion in your listeners. Be sure to include all of the elements of a story - plot, setting, characters, conflict, action - keeping it moving and building to a climax. Do not use a script or notes when telling the story. Maintain direct eye contact with your audience. Use natural gestures/body movement.
The setting for your storytelling should be informal and the atmosphere relaxed and intimate. Ask your listeners to sit in a semicircle facing you. Don't stand behind a lectern or other obstacle. You don't want any barriers between your listeners and you.
This information is provided as a service to members. For full details on this speech project, refer to the Storytelling manual. All materials in the Toastmasters Educational Program are copyright Toastmasters International. All rights reserved.
The Storytelling Manual
