Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Engaging the mind's vocabulary

I said yesterday that I've picked up three nuggets about storytelling lately. The first was to "not being the expert." The second one is...

Go beyond the visual.

Last week I was stuck by someone telling a story and I assumed they were going to invite us to shut our eyes and "become a part of the story."

Often we will want those listening to imagine themselves in the shoes of someone in the story. We want them to visualise what a character looked like or did next.

We do this because we want to stimulate the mind's eye.

What struck me was the invitation to not only SEE the person, but use two words to describe them.

It made the "imagining" process much more powerful for me.

The reason was simple. It engaged a part of my brain which I feel much more comfortable with. I value words over pictures, so the invitation to use my vocabulary was a far superior connector then just "picturing it in my mind."

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