Ask HN: I'd like to learn how to tell stories better to friends
Practice makes perfect! Tell a lot of stories! Also read and listen to stories. Watch good storytellers and see what they do.<p>Find interesting angles to mundane ideas. I&#x27;ll ask people &quot;What did you do this weekend?&quot; and they&#x27;ll say, &quot;I went to the store, saw a movie. What about you?&quot; and my version will be &quot;I was in the store parking lot, and I saw this awesome muscle car from the 60s, so I waited for the owner to come out, and the guy is a street car racer!&quot; Most people just think of mundane things -- good storytellers find ways to spin those mundane things into something more interesting! Embellish things, exaggerate experiences. So yeah, the parking lot was full, but did you drive around for 5 minutes to find a spot, or did you drive around UNTIL THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE!?!? Leverage hyperbole and exaggeration.<p>Any time you get someone to smile, capitalize on it. Take note of what you said. Smile right back. Crack another joke. Find another part of the story to do the same thing you just did to get them to smile.<p>One thing good storytellers do is modulate their voices. Go to a church and listen to a preacher do his preaching. He&#x27;ll start telling a story, and his voice will be normal. Then he&#x27;ll get to a serious or important point and soften his voice, getting you to lean in a little bit. Then, once he knows he has your attention, he&#x27;ll boom, &quot;THE ARISTOCRATS&quot; and your brain just eats that shit right up. Watch Penn from Penn &amp; Teller, and he&#x27;ll do this. Any good comedian does it. Watch any Shakespearean actor on stage. Voice modulation is <i>key</i> to a great story.<p>Think about how to build suspense to draw people in. Don&#x27;t give the punch line or the plot twist right away, instead entice people to stay around and listen to your story. I have a ton of ideas. Thread -&gt; (:) (click to see more)<p>Inject humor and physicality whenever possible, even if it&#x27;s a sorta boring story. Remember, &quot;I went to the store&quot; is boring, but &quot;I found myself standing in line at the cashier for the seventeenth time this month because my family hasn&#x27;t discovered shopping lists yet&quot; is funnier. Widen your eyes to act surprised, narrow them to act angry or tense. Practice facial expressions.<p>For one particular example, look at Hank Green on TikTok. He&#x27;s engaging and funny and exciting. He&#x27;s telling stories about himself, about science, about the world. Watch his facial expressions, listen to how he structures his videos. His excitement about just about anything is palpable. He&#x27;s not the most attractive dude in the world, he&#x27;s not the smartest guy ever, he&#x27;s not even the funniest, but he leverages his own skills to tell compelling stories all the time. (His brother, John Green, is also a great storyteller, but in a totally different way. Worth checking out!)<p>But above all, practice, practice, practice.<p>Good luck!