Welcome to the final part of the Storytelling for Beginners series.

Your Greatest Tool

Personal taste is the greatest tool you can have as an storyteller, the trick however is being able to justify why something you like matters to you. It is not about your ability anymore, but about the things that you like. The things that you are passionate about will direct your ability and inform your storytelling process.

Welcome to part two of the Storytelling for beginners series.

The Secret to Engagement

The secret to storytelling engagement is… wait for it, wait for it… wait for it… I bet you are thinking “Oh come on, just tell me already!” If you are, then my evil plan to illustrate the concept worked, the answer is tension.

Tension is the space between two opposing forces. It is when the audience doesn’t know the answer to a question in your story or the reasons why something is happening or what is about to happen. The secret of suspense lies in how good you are at keeping secrets. Hang on to a key fact for as long as possible, give hints about it as you, but don’t reveal everything at once or too soon.

Storytelling is one of the most underrated skills anyone can have. It lies at the center of our lives—even if we don’t notice it. Storytelling is how we teach, learn, and evolve. Narrative helps us focus. It is everywhere.

• Do you want to impress girls? Tell them a good story.
• Do you want to be successful in a job interview? Connect with your interviewer by telling a good story instead of mindlessly spitting out facts.
• Do you want to teach programming so that your students learn and remember? Tell them programming-related stories.

In this series of articles, I aim to share the basics of what I have learned about starting your journey as a storyteller.