Style

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Style is the unique way a storyteller uses language when telling a story – the combination of sentence structure, word choice, rhythm, and voice that makes their way of telling a story recognizable. Whereas other elements, such as plot or theme describe what a story is about, style is about how that story is told. Done well, it makes an audience feel as though they’re hearing from a specific person rather than someone off the street.

In personal storytelling, style tends to develop naturally as it’s based on the storyteller’s pattern of speech, their sense of humor, and the way in which they see the world. Some storytellers favor short, direct sentences that provide clarity while creating a sense of urgency. Others prefer longer, even meandering sentences that mimic the way memory actually unfolds. Neither is more effective than the other – but it’s important that the style feels authentic to the person using it.

Style also includes smaller, more specific choices: a tendency toward understatement, a pattern of asking rhetorical questions, a tendency to use concrete nouns instead of abstract ones. These small, consistent choices have a way of accumulating within a story and become recognizable as a signature. It’s similar to how a person’s handwriting is reads the same, even though each letter is written a bit differently each time.

Developing a personal storytelling style is never about copying someone else’s voice, but about noticing and refining the patterns already present in how the storyteller naturally speaks and writes. The strongest personal styles often emerge by removing or rewriting passages that don’t sound like the storyteller rather than by adding something new.