How to Tell a Great Story

Telling a great story is an ideal characteristic for dads. It comes in handy in several situations, including bedtime and those awkward times when your child asks a question that you can't answer. But telling a good story doesn't just happen. It takes practice, timing and even a good plot. These tips and suggestions might not make you the next Bill Cosby, but they'll give you a good foundation for creating stories that your children can learn from and enjoy.

1. Prepare! - Nothing will bore your child more than trying to tell them a story you haven't prepared. Their perceptive little minds can tell when you're making things up as you go along. When you're not prepared, most adults also tend to fill silences with fillers like "umm," "ah," and "uhhh." How would you like to hear somebody tell you a story filled with those types of sounds?
   
   
2. Appeal to their senses - Children are known for their imaginations. They have no filter on what goes on in their minds. They typically use all five of their senses when they imagine something. As you tell your child a story, try to describe more than just the appearance of something. Whenever appropriate, use the sense of touch, hearing, smell and taste. Of course, not every story will have scenes where all five senses are appropriate, but use your judgment as you go along.
   
   
3. Hook ‘em at the beginning - Any successful story needs a good beginning. If you like reading, you probably won't read past the first couple pages of any book if it seems boring or if it simply doesn't catch your interest. Create a beginning that will hook your listener right away so they'll want to hear the entire story. An interesting time period, place or character is a great way to generate interest.
   
   
4. Know your audience - This is a fundamental rule of storytelling. And even though you're just telling a story to your children, it's still an essential rule to follow. Know what interests your kids in order to create a story for them. Also, know what they are afraid of. Don't tell a story about monsters in a closet to your five-year-old toddler, for instance. And your seven-year-old daughter doesn't want to hear a story about her dad winning the big football game. Create a story using things they can relate to so they'll want to listen.
   
   
5. Create some conflict - Have you ever seen a movie or a TV show in which one of the characters aren't experiencing some sort of conflict? Probably not. That's because a story isn't really a story unless there is conflict involved. A kid walking to school in the morning doesn't turn into a story until the bully approaches him for his lunch money or until something else happens. Keep that in mind every time.
   
   
6. Include a hero or a villain - Children like stories with heroes and villains. They like to cheer for somebody in the story. If you think of a good plot, the hero's actions and the villain's defeat can even teach a valuable life lesson.
   
   
7. Stay focused - If you've been a father of a toddler for more than a day, you know their extremely short attention span. And if you tell a story and go off on a tangent about how the princess's dress was on sale when she bought it, you'll lose your audience's interest. Stay laser focused and present the most amount of information in the fewest words and amount of time possible.
   
   
8. Keep ‘em laughing - Humor is a great way to keep your toddler interested in the story you're telling. Suspense is good, too. But laughing will help them remember the story the next day and they might even remember long enough to repeat it to their children.
   
   
9. Decide on the pace - Pace is an important part of the story. But different situations call for different paces. For instance, a bedtime story should have a slow pace that lulls your child to sleep. A fast-paced story is ideal for other times of the day.
   
   
10. Create a happy ending - An ending has three purposes in a story. For one, it has a climax. It also shows the consequences of the villain's actions and the rewards of the hero's actions. Finally, it also provides closure. A good story leaves no loose ends when it's over. Keep the end brief and to the point and make sure it serves the purpose of the story.

Every dad can benefit from a few storytelling tips. Kids like stories and the old standards are sometimes boring or even outdated. With some practice, you might be able to come up with a story that fits the many situations your toddler finds themselves in during their childhood. Keep the above suggestions in mind and your child will remember your stories and the lessons within for years to come.