The art of storytelling

Storyteling is a skill beyond just art and writing, it is a skill that can make you more social and preferable in the eyes of others. Think about it this way, you sit down with a random person, and the very first thing that comes naturally is to tell things about themselves . But doing this part wrong can make the other party dislike and lose interest really quickly, or actually like you more. We're more

Storytelling is a skill beyond just art and writing; it is a skill that can make you more social and preferable in the eyes of others. Think about it this way: you sit down with a random person, and the very first thing that comes naturally is to tell things about yourself . But doing this part wrong can make the other party dislike and lose interest really quickly, or actually like you more. We're more prone to hearing people who are great storytellers than those who just drop information with no purpose.

But how can you actually become a great storyteller? Well, first, you need to choose your medium of storytelling. Is it through visual art, writing, speech, or even sign language? Everything works for as long as you can convey emotion and transfer information through it. Once you pinpoint down your medium, try and find the strongest points of that medium.

For visual arts, the strongest point is being able to communicate a lot of emotion and information in a single frame. You can mix visual art with writing for a stronger outcome, such as comics or graphic novels.

For writing, it would be being able to inform the reader about everything while being able to pace the timing as desired. The pacing of the words is a powerful tool in writing, where longer sentences give the reader ease and certainty, while shorter ones give them energy and a faster pace.

For speech, the tone of the voice helps a lot to convey emotions without showing or telling the audience, and the slowing or speeding up in speech can convey urgency.

Pacing, information, and emotions are probably the most important parts of storytelling. Everything needs to be done precisely so the reader can almost feel themselves in the story. A famous saying that goes by "show, don’t tell" and for most of the time that is correct. It is not a rule that should be strictly followed, since there are moments when you would need to tell the reader more than just showing the reader. Sometimes things aren’t as easy to understand, or some information should be quickly uncovered in order for a scene to make sense. These are times when telling becomes helpful.

Usually in the very beginnings of a story, your pace should be faster, the amount of information you’re putting out should be lower, and the emotions should be somewhat in the middle. It is once you go at the apex of your story that you actually slow down. Why? Because the audience is already hooked. the pace is slowed down, and now you give people more information, information that you withheld from the start. And then build the pace back up and do this all over again, but don’t forget to reward the readers. And what better reward to give them than to show emotion, or reaction in your story. If there’s one good reason why we love telling other big news, is because we love seeing their reaction to that information, so make sure to give them a little bit of emotion at every apex.

For comics this is translated as, having barely any dialogue in your first chapter. Write small dialogue that can quickly be read but just looking over it and worry more on the visual part. If you show a police car in front of a house, and the police knocking, and a woman opening the door, greeting the officer, then the officer greets them back and asks them their name and they respond and after that the officer says you’re under arrest, well you almost lost the reader there.

Do it like this instead. 'The sky was a dark blue color, and the rain had just begun. A police car parked just right in front of the porch of what seemed a normal house. The policeman climbed the small stairs in front of the house and knocked 3 times on the door. A woman opened the door with a seemingly innocent smile. 'Anna James?' asked the officer. 'Yes, that’s me,' she responded. 'You're under arrest,' the policeman said firmly. At that moment, her whole figure almost fainted.

Or show one small panel of the sky with the blue color and it raining. Then the car parked outside, then the officer going up to the door, then knocking on the door. The woman opens the door, the officer asks, she responds. Then the officer gives the news in one big panel, and her reaction on another big panel.

Paneling for comics is a way to pace the story, and an art form in itself, so use it correctly.

In the future, I might write more about paneling and how to become better at it, where we use some examples from known authors. Till then, have a great day.