4 Things I Learned Going from a Storytelling Workshop to the Stage
When it comes to personal stories, I learned that they usually fall in one of two main categories — crazy shit that happened (ie. a bear attacked me), or something that resonates with most people.
We recount personal experiences almost everyday — something random that happened, our travels, an amazing restaurant experience or the worst encounters in life.
We are all natural storytellers when it comes to sharing a personal experience. We know it inside out and usually storytell it in a sequential order.
I practice storytelling all the time — sharing my adventures in life, design portfolio pieces, pitching at hackathons and client meetings, and more recently, writing my own travel stories at jpang.io/travel.html.
I’ve always thought I nailed it, not until I joined Hong Kong Stories’ storytelling workshop.
“Don’t Tell Me Your Resume”
Hong Kong Stories has a very simple model — it’s a monthly production where storytellers are mentored and coached to tell the best versions of their true, first-person stories in front of a live audience. Each story is then recorded as a podcast episode.
As a designer and aspiring podcaster, I wanted to explore the different ways to storytelling as a design tool and podcast format.
At every workshop, we tell our stories and iterate based on the feedback. In my first workshop, I shared the story of my career transition from marketing, to sales, to finally discovering my passion for design. I was confident, knowing that this was something I’ve rehearsed many times for interviews and a proven success.
To my surprise, I did not impress anyone. In fact, the feedback was “don’t tell me your resume”.
They were right, it was merely a series of events and philosophical recap of my theories about life — “don’t give up”, “keep trying” and all sorts of cliché.
As the sharing continued, the other fellow storytellers told far more interesting stories — fond childhood memories, an inspiring 30-day art challenge turned habit, reinventing an acting career, and many more.
Mine, in comparison, seemed like a weak recap of my work experiences.
Struggling Iterations
I stressed about my story for the next few weeks and tried various structures.
To make it more story-like, I tried to draw analogies from my travels to my career journey. I felt that I needed some profound realization and moral.
By the third workshop, I had developed stage fright. I hated my story and froze mid-way during sharing. It was disastrous.
How am I ever going to host a podcast if I can’t even tell a good story myself? More importantly, how can I brand myself as a Storyteller when I can’t even recount something that I know by heart? I felt defeated, my face burning from embarrassment at the end of the workshop.
Of everything I’d shared, my story traveling in New Zealand was particularly well-received. So I dropped the career story, focused on New Zealand and strung together the series of events that led to the climax — seeing the Southern Lights.
It went from a cliché “It’s okay not knowing where to go and embracing the unknowns in life” to “Then I saw the Southern Lights. (pause) Like I said, 10 days in New Zealand is not enough.”
Turns out I didn’t need any morals, just an engaging story.
Just like the design process, it’s iterative and built upon feedback.
Rule #1: “It’s not a story until you tell it to someone”
It’s true. A story is not just a series of chronological events, like my resume.
A story has a structure and its events can be re-arranged to evoke emotions, communicate a message or develop a character.
There are many ways to look at story structures.
A Repeating Theme
When I stressing over the “moral”, one suggestion was to use a central theme to string together the series of events, challenges and critical points — “What’s the worst that could happen?”, for example.
Drawing parallels or on an analogy through sub-stories
I learned this from the storytelling show host, Kristen’s personal story on Competitive Yoga, where she used the challenge of each yoga pose as an analogy to the hoops she’s overcome relocating to Hong Kong.
Mirroring the opening and closing
As I had done with the final iteration of my story, I connected my closing with the opening of “10 days is not enough in New Zealand”.
If you could summarize your story with one line, what would it be?
My final iteration landed on “This story is about stumbling upon the Southern Lights in New Zealand”.
Rule #2: Show, Don’t Tell
“Show” refers to painting a picture for the audience. Describe the place and interactions. Don’t say “this happened”, describe it, bring it to life, bring us there with you.
A good technique is to use present tense. How? Easy, just turn all your verbs into present tense.
Another way to “Show” is to reduce redundant words or details. For example, when quoting a conversation, cut out the “He said”, then “I said”, then “He said”. Keep it concise and just say “I say to {name}…”.
Rule #3: Make Us Feel Something
This is a common exercise in design. How do we want people to feel in this experience or interaction? Usually, it would be “delight”.
One of the feedback I received often was “tell me how you feel”.
My story structure is a mix of surprises and occasional disappointments before stumbling upon the Southern Lights. As I recounted first seeing a sky full of stars, all I said was — “It was an entire canvas of stars.”
Feedback: “Okay, and? Tell us how you feel”.
The power of storytelling lies in the ability to evoke a full range of both negative and positive emotions from the audience. Use it.
Rule #4: Saying It Out Loud
When you say something out loud, it’s more apparent whether it flows well or not. You notice your pace and verbal expressions. This is something I learned from one of our fellow storyteller actress.
She replayed an acting scene where she cocked the gun, threw a dangerous look and took a shot. I observed her body gesture and focused gaze. This is a live show afterall — how can I apply this to my story?
I learned to take advantage of pauses, which help build suspense, reveal the big moment and sometimes to calm my nerves.
I also learned to use more verbal expressions like gasps and sighs. As I talked about my camera’s long exposure setup to capture the Southern Lights, I inhaled to hold my breathe, “worried I’d ruin the shot”, and exhaled when “the 30-second shutter is over”.
Final Thoughts
Seven iterations later, I made it to the live show.
A proper story with a few bumps and the climax finale, replicating the scene’s ambience and evoking emotions from the audience. (A really nice Kiwi lady came up to me after and validated my story as a local , phew!)
Storytelling is quite a confidence building exercise. It’s being comfortable with vulnerability, exposing your feelings and thoughts. It’s learning the ways to connect with people.
And I just did it again — reflections.
Thank you Hong Kong Stories, Rachel and Kristen for the opportunity and amazing storytelling mentorship.
And you’re right, storytelling gets addicting.
Check out more stories on Hong Kong Stories podcast.
