A possible yes or no hook question would be "Have you ever been to club voodoo?" So let's add this to the story.. Find a hook question for your example stories as well) I like open ended hook questions more so to start my story in the interaction I would say Me: "Hey guys...how do you deal with people when you just can't get them to leave you alone?!" Group: "blah blah" Me: "Yeah that's interesting so check this out..
I am at club voodoo...(rest of story) Now that you have the hook question down, we are going to rewrite our stories to demonstrate aspects of identity because the next step is to demonstrate personality. There are a number of ways of doing this but for now lets go to our list of 5 things that you want to convey in your identity. Try to fit as many into the story as you can.
My 5 things were: I am a musician I am a very social person I have a high and fun energy I have a good sense of humor I am interested in video and photography Now you want to try to at least fit 3 of your 5 things into the story, but if its awkward and seems out of place then just get at least 1 or 2 in. You need one though, but the very manner you deliver the story may convey a lot about yourself. Other ways to convey personality is to act out your characters.
Bring them to life in your stories. Another important aspect to expressing personality in your stories is by speeding up your voice during moments of excitement and slowing it down during more intense moments to create tension. You should always have tension build up to excitement or your audience will have a feeling of lack of resolution but that is the last component of a story that I will get into shortly. Speeding up, pauses, and slowing your voice down is hard for me to sow you through a newsletter, but when you recite your stories out loud you will gain a natural since of where each belongs and will improve through reactions with your audience.
So now I am going to rewrite my story as it stands to convey my personality.. Me: "Hey guys...how do you deal with people when you just caaaaannt (exaggerated can't to show frustration with the situation and convey more personality) get them to leave you alone?!" Group: "blah blah" Me: "Yeah that's interesting so check this out.. I am at club voodoo and I walk in with a group of my friends and random people we met on the way (social) and there is a decent amount of people in the club, we are all having a great time (fun) and meeting lots of cool new people (social) Well this one guy somehow works his into my "" group" (putting finger quotes around it) and he just has this vibe.
Like he is so out of place, he was walking around with a Harley Davison Motorcycle hat on and like this tainted banana colored polo (Painting this scene gets them laughing and displays humor and some understand of social norms and fashion.) So my friends and I keep trying to away from him but he just won't back down, he would just follow us everywhere we went, buzzing around like a mosquito..(pause)..with a really bad taste in clothing (humor)...you would think he could get the hint when we were practically. Jogging away ( act out slight jogging motion)
Eventually he finally goes away and we start to have a fun night again. As you can see, the story starts to build up but it has no resolution, it just kind of ends. The last component of story is the punch line. A punch line is often used for humor and ties up the story. Its biggest importance is to let the audience know it's over.
It can be one line or much more.. To successfully deliver the punch line to your story, you need to create a dramatic build up by slowing down your words and then once the comic relief or resolution comes, you speed the conversation back up. The punch line can be a small extension of the story to bring further resolution to the issue. This is where you can get creative and give some lamer stories a much cooler ending. The actual ending to my story involves the creepy guy going into the bathroom, some guy that was annoyed by him jokingly bumping into him while the creepy was using the urinal, and the creepy guy pissed on the front of his pants, got embarrassed and left. Now, first off, it was kind of rude on that one guy's part and I don't want to associate myself with friends like that.