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Leave it to Brené Brown to turn research on vulnerability into a must-watch video. Her TEDxTalk on the topic is one of the idea-sharing platform’s most viewed of all time, and over the years, she’s written several data-based New York Times bestsellers. What could be a totally dry topic is thrilling by her pen, so when she was recently asked what it takes to be a great storyteller, I sat up and paid attention.
Her answer was simple: Specificity. “We think that the stories that will resonate are not very specific so they reach more people, but if we want other people to see their lives reflected in our stories, we’ve got to be specific,” she says. “A story about how the screen porch sounds when it closes. A story about the smell of my grandmother’s beer bread. … The more specificity in a story, the more our lives feel connected to it.”
The more vivid the picture you paint, the better. You don’t have to share her exact experience, but you can relate to moments of it. Plus, you’re not expecting your audience to fill in all of the gaps with their own details, which can feel tedious pretty quickly.
It makes sense. Taylor Swift, for example, has been heralded for her songwriting. You don’t need to be a teenage girl in Pennsylvania to connect to the story of a first crush:
“Our song is a slamming screen door,
Sneaking out late tapping on your window,
When we’re on the phone and you talk real slow,
‘Cause it’s late and your mama don’t know”
Those details make the song come alive. It’s a scenario you can insert yourself into, feeling what she’s feeling. Connect that relatability to an argument you’re trying to make, statistics you’re trying to share or research you need to present, and it makes all the difference in whether people not only pay attention, but think about it for days afterward.
Lead Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
