Traveling can sometimes be so exciting or memorable that you may have the desire to share your experiences with the people around you. Unfortunately, sharing a story with other people can sometimes be harder than it seems. Remembering important details, keeping listeners engaged, and accurately getting your point across can all be challenging if you don’t approach it with a good strategy. Luckily, if you choose a compelling story and take the right steps to recite it in an exciting, relatable, and engaging way, your travel stories will be a big hit with your audience.
StepsMethod 1Method 1 of 3:Choosing a Compelling Story
1Keep an updated log of your travel adventures. Make it a habit to keep a notepad so that you can jot down different experiences you have while you travel. This will make it easier to remember experiences that you can later use in your stories. Jot down the most important points of the story rather than trying to chronicle all the details during your travels.XYou can also take photos or video of your experiences to help you remember them, or you can even integrate them into the telling of your story.X
2Select a relevant story. A natural way to start telling a story is to relate it to your current experience. For instance, if you’re at a Mexican restaurant with your friends, you can talk about your travel experience in Mexico. Relating it to what you’re currently doing and making it relevant will cause people to be more interested.XIt will also help create banter between the people that you’re sharing the story with.
3Pick a strange, dangerous, or unique event. The more out of the ordinary your story is, the more memorable and entertaining it will be for people. Avoid mundane stories with no moral or point. Instead, choose a story that is unique in order to pique their interest. Don’t be afraid to slightly exaggerate to make your story more interesting.XIf your story isn’t extraordinary in any way, you can weave humor into it to keep it interesting.
4Choose a story that you can remember. When you are telling a story, make sure that it’s one that’s fresh in your memory. If you have to stop to try to remember details or large plot points in the story, it can break up the story’s flow, and people could lose interest. Choose a story about a recent trip or something that was so memorable that you could never forget the details. Method 2Method 2 of 3:Describing the Details
1Create a hook for the introduction. Introduce the story with something shocking or mysterious that can help pull your audience in. Start off your story with one of the most exciting or interesting aspects of the story, instead of boring details. Telling a story like this will keep your audience’s attention.XAvoid cliche story introductions like “Once upon a time” or “It was a sunny Tuesday morning when…”A good hook would be something like, “Yeah, well, I’ve eaten wild boar before, on one of the islands of Hawaii.”
2Talk about the circumstances leading up to your hook. Once you’ve drawn them into your story, they will pay closer attention to what you have to say. Start explaining the events that led to your hook, but don’t get bogged down in detail. Talk about larger actions or events and how they made you feel. Create imagery for the scenario and try to get your listeners to understand the unique aspects of the situation as well as the cultural differences you may have experienced.
3Keep a natural momentum with the story. Keeping a natural story arch to your story will help keep listeners engaged. For more boring or mundane parts of the story, make sure to inject humor so that it feels like the story is progressing. Recite the story like you are heading on a distinct path with a well-defined destination. The more mysterious you make the hook, the more the listener will want to know about the circumstances that caused it.X
4Reflect on the overall meaning of the story. Ensure that your story has an overall point or a core moral or value. This doesn’t always have to be something with significant meaning. Your story can be an anecdote or a humorous story about a relevant situation. Regardless of what kind of story you’re telling, you want it to spark conversation after you tell it.XTrustworthy SourceHarvard Business ReviewOnline and print journal covering topics related to business management practicesGo to sourceTo emphasize the moral of the story you could say something like “So at the end of the day, while there are alligators down the Nile, sometimes people can be more dangerous than wild beasts.”Method 3Method 3 of 3:Keeping Everyone Interested
1Relate the story to the people. Choose a story that enables you to connect to your listeners on a human level. The more that they envision themselves in your shoes, the more engrossed they will get in your story. Think about the audience that you have and what they are interested in. If your experience was in a different country with distinct customs, you could relate to people on an emotional level. Talk about feelings of fear, triumph, joy, anxiety, and sadness. Put an emphasis on how you felt during the experience.For instance, if your audience are foodies, you can tell them a story about a unique dining experience in another country.Find commonalities that you share with the people you’re with, like being in a new unknown place, not understanding a language or your confusion with foreign customs.Even when you are in a unique experience, try to translate the experience to something that your listeners or readers can relate to and understand.
2Be excited and energetic when telling the story. Your audience will mirror your energy and excitement level. Maintain a healthy level of enthusiasm and excitement in your voice, but don’t force it or you may come off as inauthentic. Change the levels in your voice as the story goes on depending on the mood that you want to create.XFor instance, you can use a lower, spookier voice for scary portions of the story.Speak louder during portions of the story where you were frustrated or angry.
3Use photos to enhance the story’s imagery. You can show off photos or images that you took during your travels with a cell phone. Make sure that you organize the photos so that you don’t have to fumble with your phone looking for them when the time comes. Pull up images to help explain the scenery or situation that you were in.X
4Keep the story simple. Getting bogged down in the details or adding too much superfluous information will not only confuse people, but it can also cause your audience to lose their attention on the story. Instead, try to create a story that’s easy for everyone to understand and doesn’t require a high level of comprehension.For instance, if you were in a country with different customs, don’t list all of the customs that differ from yours. Instead, select the most interesting and relevant customs to the story.
