More interesting to talk to: a story from a word
You have things to say, but they come out flat and people drift off. Here you get an ordinary object and two minutes to turn it into a story someone would want to hear to the end.
- 1An everyday object appears on the screen.
- 2For two minutes, tell a gripping story about it. Not a description, but a real story with a character, a conflict and an ending.
- 3Make it up as you go. What matters is that it's interesting to listen to.
tip · In real life you'll talk about projects, ideas and products. If you've learned to make a shoelace interesting, a business idea will definitely come alive.
check yourself · A listener would hear your shoelace story through to the end.
Why it works
Interesting people rarely have more interesting lives. They tell things as stories: someone wants something, something gets in the way, and it ends somehow. A plain list of facts, even good ones, sounds like a report.
A fork or a shoelace has no story of its own, so you have to build one: give it a character, a problem and a turn. Once you can do that with nothing, a story about your weekend, your project or your trip gets easier, because the material is already better than a fork.
Common mistakes
- Describing instead of telling. “It's a metal fork with four prongs” is a description. A story starts with someone who wants something.
- Skipping the conflict. If nothing goes wrong, the story has nowhere to go.
- Not ending it. Trailing off with “so, yeah” wastes the build-up. Land on a turn, a twist or a line that closes it.
- Waiting for the perfect idea. Start with the first one that comes; you'll find the story while telling it.
Questions
- How do I become more interesting to talk to?
- Tell stories instead of reporting facts, and ask about the other person as much as you talk. This drill trains the first part: turning any material into something with a beginning, a problem and an end.
- How do I make a boring topic interesting?
- Find a person in it and something that went wrong. Even a tax form becomes a story when someone is filling it in at midnight before the deadline.
- How do I make a story interesting?
- Get to the problem fast, keep one vivid detail and aim for an ending early, even if you change it on the way. A listener can feel when the speaker has no idea where the story is going.
More exercises
- Tell a good story in 60 secondsA 2.5-minute storytelling drill: build a story from a prompt part by part, hook, context, conflict, climax and takeaway, then tell it in one minute.
- Cut down a presentation: the elevator versionTell one detailed story in 5 minutes, 2 minutes, 30 seconds and one sentence, then cut a talk of your own the same way. A 10-minute drill.
- Debate practice: both sides in 60 secondsQuick debate practice: argue a statement hard for 30 or 60 seconds, then switch sides on the signal and argue the reverse just as hard.