In my early years, when I was learning how to use a pen instead of a pencil we had a swimming instructor called Bill. He would tell us stories when the weather was not favorable to take a swim.
The story that stuck with me was when he narrated Prison Break to us. At the time we thought he must have been creative to have thought about the story himself. That's how impressive his storytelling skills were. Well, he might have been good then again, I had a Donald duck-themed umbrella so my definition of interesting might have been a tad heightened.
The important thing is whenever he narrated we were all hooked and whenever we almost ended the class he would leave us in a cliffhanger moment.
Storytelling is universal which mainly involves fiction, which is using a lie to tell truths. Stories mainly have three main components:
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the characters: who act as a bridge from an audience to a storyteller thus making the audience relate to the story,
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conflict: the lesson the character learns or a challenge they overcome,
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resolution: the end of the story mainly with a call to action feature.
Good stories mainly are:
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entertaining in terms of getting the listener hooked,
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educational, they add knowledge to the listener,
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universal, everyone can relate to it,
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organized and memorable.
The main lessons I learned from Bill's narration of Prison Break were:
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plans do not always work out,
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people always look out for themselves,
-never lose faith.
Wherever Bill is, I hope he is having the time of his life. He played a part in making my childhood interesting.