Steps for Telling a Story

Choose the story

Stories are everywhere. You hear them on the radio, read them in books, and hear them in conversations. You even can get stories from events that happen in your own life. For the exercises in this class, you will choose a story from the Bible, but these same steps can be used for any other story. When looking for a story in the Bible, don't just use the familiar ones like David and Goliath or Noah's Ark. There are many stories in the Bible that people in the church may have never heard. Here are some suggestions for Bible stories, but there are many besides them:

• Adam and Eve
• Cain and Abel
• The flood
• The call of Abraham
• Lot escapes Sodom and Gomorrah
• Jacob and Esau
• Joseph and his brothers
• The golden calf
• Jethro helps Moses
• Korah
• Baalam and the donkey
• Joshua and Jericho
• Ehud the judge
• Deborah and Barak
• Gideon
• Jephthah’s Vow
• Samson
• The life of King Saul
• How David met Abigail
• Solomon's wisdom
• Ruth
• Josiah the boy king
• Elijah and the prophets of Baal
• Naaman the leper
• Rebuilding the Temple
• Esther
• Jonah and the whale
• The birth of Jesus
• John the Baptist
• The temptations of Jesus
• Feeding the five thousand
• The woman at the well
• The good samaritan
• The man that built his house on the rock
• the prodigal son
• The rich man and Lazarus
• The Transfiguration
• Lazarus lives again
• Judas betrays Jesus
• The resurrection of Jesus
• The day of Pentecost
• The death of Stephen
• Peter and John heal the lame man
• Ananias and Sapphira
• The conversion of Paul
• The ministry of Philip
• Peter and Cornelius
• Paul and Silas sing in jail
• Onesimus and Philemon

Make sure the story is good for the audience that you are talking to. Most stories in the Bible will work for all people, but some may not be best for children, such as the story of Judah and Tamar.

Exercise: Choose a story from the Bible that you will eventually tell to the whole class. You may use one from the list abouve, but you could also choose a different one.

Try the story

Now that you have chosen your story, you need to get familiar with it. Read it several times so that you will know that main characters and the plot. After you feel like you understand the basic idea of the story, you should tell it to someone to make sure it is a story that you will enjoy telling and that you know the basic parts of the story. You do not have to memorize every part and you should not worry about how you present the story to your listener at this time.

Exercise: Pair up with someone in the class and tell them your story without looking at the Bible. You do not have to worry about all the detail, but should focus on getting the basic plot of the story right. After you tell your s htory, listen to your partner's story.

Envision the story with present-day feelings and concerns

If you are going to tell a story that connects with the audience, then they will need to relate to the characters and situations in it. Take some time to quietly sit, close your eyes, and think about the story. What emotions does the text say the the characters had? Were they angry, sad, happy, or something else? The Bible will not always tell the exact emotions of the people in the story, but we can imagine some of their feelings if we put ourselves in their place. If the situations in the story happen to you, how would you feel? For example, any parent would feel great pain if they lost one of their children, so if you are telling the story of Job, make sure to include this sorrow in your presentation. Many things will change with culture and history, but emotions are still the same, and you can use these to make a story that is over two-thousand years old seem new and relevant. Your listeners will not likely be fighting actual giants like David did, but the anger that David felt about someone mocking his God is still something we will feel today, as is his faith in God to do the impossible. Try to picture yourself in the scenes of the story and answer the following questions:

• What do you see?
• Are you in a city, a farm, a castle, by the ocean, or somewhere else?
• What are the characters wearing?
• What do they look like?
• Are there any smells or sounds?
• What time of day is it?
• What is the weather like?
• Are there any characters that would be there who are not specifically mentioned in the story, such as members of a crowd, servants, or family members?

Exercise: Close your eyes and imagine yourself in the story. Tell your partner what you see. Let them ask questions about what you see.

Find the scenes of the story

A scene of a story is when the setting of the story changes, such as when the characters move to a different place. Other times, a new scene might be in the same location, but on a different day. You should look over the story and make note of the different scenes. Sometimes contrasting these different scenes is helpful in a story. For example, the palace that David found himself in when he was playing his harp for Saul was very different from the sheep fields he grew up around. Sometimes long periods of times occur between scenes in stories. Try to imagine what happened during that time.

Exercise: Read over the story you have chosen and find the different scenes and write them down. Think about how things change between the scenes and make note of anything that will help the story progress.

Choose the perspective of the story

Stories can be told from different views.

First person

This is when you tell the story as if you are a person in the story. It can be the main character, but it could also be someone else in the story. You could be very creative in this. You could tell the story of Jesus through the eyes of Judas, tell the story of David through the eyes of Saul, or tell the story of Noah's ark as if you were one of the animals.

When you are telling a story in the first person, you must remember that as storyteller, you will only have knowledge of what that character knows. You will know his thoughts, but not the thoughts of others. You will only know the things that he or she has personally seen or heard.

Third person omniscent

This is when you tell the story as a person that is not in the story. You are a narrator that knows all that everyone has said or thought. Since you are not limited to following a single character, you can know what all the characters are doing at the same time even if they are in different places. In the story of Joseph in Genesis, the author tells us both what is happening in Egypt with Joseph and what is happening in Canaan with his family.

Third person limited knowledge

This is like the previous option. You are still talking as a person outside of the story, but you follow closely to one person. You will limit yourself to only that person's thoughts.

Exercise: Choose a perspective that you will use in telling your story. You may want to try telling the story from different perspectives before you decide on one. Make sure that when you choose a perspective that you use it through the whole story so that you don't confuse the audience.

Establish the central truth of the story

Most stories have a reason for being told. They are trying to communicate a certain truth. You may not always state this truth to your listeners, but you should still know it. This will help you ephasise certain aspects of the story that relate that truth.

Exercise: Write down the central truth of your story.

Find a memory hook

If you are telling a story, it is good to have something that is repeated throughout the story that will help people remember the story. It can be a word, a phrase, or even a short song.

Look over your story and see if there is a certain phrase that sticks out and is applicable to the whole story. It might be a phrase that come directly from the Bible. You might also come up with a simple song that the audience can sing along with you.

Exercise: Chose a memory hook to use in your story and practice telling the story with it.

Plan your first words

You should not memorize the whole story word for word. That would make it difficult to tell easily and could even make the story seem stiff. But there are two parts that you should know exactly what will be said. These are the beginning and the ending.

Don't waste time getting started. Some people like to talk before they start the actual story, but the first few moments of speaking is when you will have the most of the audiences attention. If you lose people's attention at the beginning, it will be very difficult to get it back. Don't start saying, "Once upon a time" or "I want to tell you a story." People have heard words like this many time and they will not be new and fresh, and so they will not get the attention of people.

Excerise: Take time to think about how to start your story in a way that will get people's attention. Write it down when you think it is ready. Memorize it and say it aloud in practice.

Know how the story ends

Many people do not know how to end a story. If you do not specifically think about it, you will not do it well. The ending should tie together all the parts of the story leaving nothing for the audience to wonder about. Don't drag the story on too long.

Exercise: Decide how you will end your story. Write it down and practice it.

Reseach the facts

If your story takes place in a different time, culture, or country than you currently live, then there may be some thing that you can learn from research that will help you.

Exercise: Do some research about the historical and cultural details of your story.

Eliminate needless details

Not everything should be in your story. Many times the Bible will leave out details, including dates and some characters' names, in a story if they are not important. Some people like to give every detail when they tell a story, but you should ask yourself about each part, "If I leave this out, can the story still be understood?" If the answer is yes, then do not include that part in your story.

People have a hard time remebering proper nouns such as people and places. You should only use a few proper nouns in your stories. There is a reason that most times in the Bible it says only "the disciples" instead of listing each name specifically. Only if one of the disciples says or does something special do we see their specific names.

You do not need to tell someone's whole life story, but can tell part of it. There are many chapters in the Bible that talk about certain characters such as Joseph, Moses, and Jesus. You could pick a certain part of their life and talk about that instead of going from birth to death of these characters.

Excercise: Think over your story and see if there are any parts or details that could be left out to make the story better.

Add description

A good story should not be just a list of actions and events, but should make the listener feel as if they are a part of the story. You should involve some description of things (but not too much) and also add some emotions to bring the story to life.

Exercise: Using the historiacal and cultural research you have done and your imagination, add some description to your story.

Find a practice audience

The first time you tell a story, it will not be very good. The more times you tell a story the better it will be. This is why we should practice our story in front of real people.

Exercise: Find some people to tell your story to. Let them ask questions afterwards and make comments on how things could be better.