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Finding Your Own Voice

When learning to tell stories, it is important to study multiple professionals who have differing performance styles. It is even fun to imitate other tellers—for awhile. Then it is time to discover your own voice, claim it, and market it.

 
When I first began telling, I was insecure and unable to have the confidence to understand my strengths. By trying different telling styles, I was able to understand better what wasn’t my style and eventually feel comfortable in my own skin as a teller. I was able to choose stories that truly interested me and awakened the listener to my perspective of a tale.
 
Following a concert, I was greatly complimented when a listener said I had a natural telling style, that I didn’t change my voice when I began to tell my stories. The listener had said she almost didn’t attend the concert because she had only heard storytellers tell to young children who used what she called a “storyteller’s voice” describing it as having a higher pitch that was strained and unnatural. 
 
Many new tellers try to sound like someone else or how they believe a performer should sound. 
 
 
Tips for finding your voice and style:
 
  • Take advantage of what you naturally do. If you use your hands to speak, use that energy to create interesting gestures.
  • If you are good with voices and dialects, create characters that have fun voices and attitudes.
  • If you are not dramatic, but simply enjoy telling stories, simply tell the stories!
 
Trying to be something or someone you are not will be uncomfortable for you and the audience. Speak using your natural tone, choose stories that represent your perspective of life, and use natural gestures to distinguish yourself as a teller with a personal style.
 
Find a mentor in the art of storytelling, imitate for awhile if you must, then find your own voice, tell your own stories, and grow your own wings as a teller. Finally, become a mentor for someone else and keep the cycle going.