Simply Put, Never Let Your Credibility Suffer from Fake Storytelling
An important part of storytelling is having a reputation for being truthful. If you’re telling wild stories that really did happen, people will be amazed because it was real. A made up story can be okay in certain situations, but you shouldn’t try to pass it off as real.
You might not always have a real story that conveys a point you’re trying to make, and in these cases, you can make one up as an example that could plausibly occur. This isn’t as good as a real instance, of course, but it can suffice to get your point across.
It’s a bit of a dangerous game to start spinning a web of lies with your stories, though. If you start embellishing stories or making them up, you can start to quickly get confused on what you said to whom, and get mixed up.
If you make a habit out of lying in your stories, people are going to catch on quickly. While they won’t call you out on it, they will certainly talk amongst themselves about how you’re always making stuff up in your stories.
This is especially true if you have someone else talking about the same story that you are, but they tell it differently. If you and a friend both tell a story about the both of you having a great talk with a client, and you embellish it a lot, the friend might not.
If people can’t trust what you’re saying as a storyteller, they’re not going to be willing to listen to your stories much. They might not interrupt them, but they probably won’t pay attention and will pass it off as nonsense.
By keeping yourself credible and still telling great stories, people will be locked in on whatever you start talking about. Part of the appeal of a great story is that it’s true and really happened to the subject of the story.
If you still feel the need to embellish your stories, there are smarter ways of doing it than outright lies. If you feel your story is too boring, you can add in humorous elements about something you were thinking or feeling when the situation was going on.
Since nobody can really tell what you’re thinking and when, they won’t be able to call you out and say that you didn’t think something or feel something. This can add some flair without going over the top being a liar.
Credibility is crucial not only as a storyteller, but in business in general. Nobody is going to want to do business with someone who blatantly lies to their customers or clients, because you can’t be deemed trustworthy at all.
Instead, Keep Your Stories Up to Date and Relevant to the Current Day
Maybe you don’t have a fake story, meaning, it’s entirely fabricated. Maybe, instead, it’s just really outdated. While that’s still a real story, it must be made current if you want it to still resonate.
One of the problems with telling the same story the exact same way over and over again is that over time, it becomes stale and needs to be updated. There are two main reasons that you’ll need to update your stories.
First, there’s updating it when a certain piece of technology or part of the story becomes so outdated that modern audiences no longer know what you’re talking about. Second, it could be about your life and new things have occurred in your life that you should add.
Keeping your stories up to date technologically is important, especially when you’re talking to children or younger audiences. Technology has advanced quickly, and there are plenty of products that are completely alien to younger people today.
For example, you might have worked in an office many years ago and had a story involving the use of a typewriter or an adding machine. Nowadays, these have both been replaced completely by computers, and you’ll need to explain briefly what they did.
Even more recent tech products like having a completely separate GPS device in a car could still not make sense to young kids today, since most of them now see people use their phones for it.
By elaborating a bit more on the technology you’re talking about, you won’t see anyone in the audience getting hung up on that detail. This is especially true if part of your story directly involves something with the item in question.
Part of keeping your stories up to date is also accounting for new things that have occurred since you originally formulated the story. This is usually most relevant to those who are telling stories about someone’s life, including their own.
For example, if you were talking about how a certain decision has impacted your career path, you’re naturally going to need to talk about new parts of your career as you change jobs and get promoted at work.
You want to incorporate these new changes in your life into your story fully. If you try to absentmindedly add them in at the end of your story, it might sound rushed. By plotting it out fully, it will sound much more natural.
Keeping your stories current and relevant is crucial for ensuring that you’re constantly giving your audiences all the information that they need to understand your story in full. Without the right information, they can get lost easily.
