Squiggly sprint 24: Day 20 - Storytelling

The final day of the SquigglySprint, and the final topic today is Storytelling.

I feel like I can end on a high with this one. I mean, I’m Irish, and this is our national stereotype, to be able to spin a yarn

It’s also ironically something that I have never been comfortable with in my career. There is a definite stereotype of how to present in business, which leans towards being very homogeneous and upright. People tend to get very uncomfortable when moving beyond that.

Years ago I saw an executive of mine standing on stage telling a personal story, and they looked so out of their depth and nervous. The strange thing was that the person was normally so relaxed and chatty, but having to tell a story in a setting that they associated with bar charts and graphs obviously felt so alien to them.

And here is where I have to lean into the Irish stereotype, as there is a reason that we are thought of as good. It’s because it’s valued and expected. Trips to the pub tend to be barrages of conversation in a way that I don’t find in living in Finland. These days I often find it draining to be back in Ireland for an extended period as I’m out of practice.

Like so many things, storytelling is a practiced skill, and it’s also one that people likely approach as being something that is not for them, as they are introverted, or not interesting, or not funny. It’s probably up there with public speaking as one of the great “not for me” skills.

So how do you practice it? In many ways it turns out. Things that have worked for me are literally walking around the flat reading out loud, so I get comfortable with my voice. I’m actually going to a recording studio next week to learn how to use a vocal booth. 

As I’ve said on here, I write fiction in my spare time, and have friends critiquing me. The upside of this is I now write REALLY fast and am comfortable throwing jokes in.

As an example, that’s the sprint for the year. These posts have been hard work at times, but I now have 8035 words of content written in the space of a month, so just over my target of 400 words per post. That’s where some of these skills have come in useful, being able to blitz out content so quickly from the germ of an idea. Stretching those storytelling muscles does work!

https://youtu.be/pStToj0KkR0