‘...if storying Legends tell aright, Once fram’d a rich Elixir of Delight’1
† storying. to tell as a story
storying what you say, why and how you say it ; how we create the story we tell others.
The oral form is a uniquely powerful and persuasive medium; when you use it are you doing enough of what it is good at?
The oral form creates a very particular construct of meaning or knowledge. As distinct from a text written to be read, in the oral form an extra dimension of meaning is captured. It’s at the moment of expression that sense or meaning is made of what we say; carefully chosen words come to life in the ‘hands’ of the performer and minds of the audience when all sorts of possibilities are created - the oral form becomes an art form.
Traditionally when communicating orally the genre we operate in requires that we remove the personal and report information as facts. If ideas are ‘reported’ to an audience as pieces of information then that’s all they’ll see...at best, disconnected pieces of information.
Oral communication is a relational act: the relation you have with the material you’re going to present. If your ordering or storying denies this relationality your audience, whilst they may not understand why, will know immediately that something is being withheld.
The key to communicating complex and difficult concepts to an audience orally is in the way you order the ideas for your audience; how meaning is constructed and knowledge is created.
Where the oral predetermines the particularity of the form storying is the form.
