The Little Details In A Story

I was recently helping a friend with a public speaking engagement. He had a story at the beginning of his talk as his hook. It was a good story that kicked off his topic. There was one thing though that was missing. Honestly it's missing in a lot of stories people tell. It’s one of those things that even I know can enhance a story but seem to forget 50% of the time. Maybe writing about it will help me (and you) remember it the next time you tell a story that matters.

Ready for it? What he was missing in the story were a couple boring details.

Boring=Better?

Hang with me here. We are typically so excited to get into the meat of a story that sometimes we skip the world building that is required to truly bring someone into the story. When we just get straight to the meat, the listener becomes a judge looking over the story with a microscope. Is this right? What does that mean? I don’t believe that.

However when we build a world, they take off the judge hat and feel more like a participant in the story rather than hovering above it. It feels like they are there, in real time, taking it in. Not wondering if it’s true but seeing that it is true.

Let’s see if I can give two examples here:

1. One morning, I watched my brother jump onto his bike seat, land on one foot and roll down the hill outside of our house.

2. One morning, I was in my power ranger PJs watching cartoons when I looked out and saw my brother riding his new, green Huffy bike he got for his birthday the night before. We lived on a hill that would make San Francisco blush which made it all the more surprising as he came down the hill to see him suddenly leap up and land one of his bare feet on his seat, standing for a few feet before he plopped back down on the seat. He saw me staring out the window and gave me a wink.

You may be reacting, well I like the first one better, just get to the point. In some cases you might be right. Brief can be better, but where you are wrong is how many audience member connections you missed out on with option 1.

Option 1’s availability to connect with someone:

• Brother

• Bike

Option 2:

• Cartoon PJs

• Morning Cartoons

• Bike (Huffy, Green)

• Brother

• Sibling Birthday Parties

• Living on a hill or any topography that is unique

• Bare feet living as a kid

• (over)Confident Siblings

These small, seemingly unimportant details matter.

Little details that remind them of their own life and say “hey, he’s like me.” An audience who feels connected judges less, and listens more. If you are looking to punch up your next speaking engagement or story, see where you can sneak in a couple details that will enhance your ability to connect and help your audience world build with you.

Bonus: I had a detail in my original post about him standing as still as a greek statue. It was to give him that over-confident feeling but didn’t really seem to be a connection detail, so I added the wink instead which felt a little more relatable to other scenarios. Did this happen? What I have found is with the best storytellers, you never question the validity of the stories, you're too into the world and connected to care ;). But no, it didn't.