How to… tell a story
10 tips to help you tell a story at an event
The magic of stories is made in the space between the storyteller and the storylistener. When you step onto a stage you’re offering more than a simple story. Really, you’re inviting a connection.
When you decide to speak up and share scenes from your life that shaped you, you have an opportunity to create change - for yourself and others. This change might be in courage, creativity, inspiration, compassion… the ripple effect that stories spread are incredible.
At Welltold, we help people do this every day, in a myriad of different places. Here are ten essential ways to prepare a story that meets the moment and your audience with intention.
1. Choose a story with stakes
A meaningful story isn’t a timeline or a sequence of events; it’s a turning point. A place where something shifted, a moment in which something mattered. According to The Moth’s guidance: “Have some stakes… What do you stand to gain or lose? Why is what happens in the story important to you?”
Ask yourself: What was at risk? What changed? Why does this story matter now?
2. Start in the action
Don’t ease in, step in. Begin where the energy moved, where something started, slipped, surprised or snapped. Your opening line is your invitation into the room. Make it count. Avoid the temptation to open with a backstory or a long lead-in. Instead, begin where the wheels start turning. Your first line is the hook.
For your audience: lead them right into the lived moment so they feel present, right there with you.
3. Know your reason and your takeaway
Every story has a reason for telling, it might be to clarify, reveal, connect, challenge, inspire… What’s yours?
Be clear on your purpose - why this story, why now? What do you want listeners to feel, remember or even do after your story? Your ‘why’ will underpin every choice you make around structure, detail and delivery.
Ask yourself : Why am I choosing to tell this story now, and what truth about myself, my life or my work am I trying to shine a light on?
4. Be vivid—use sensory details and real moments
Texture, sound, light, weather, breath. It’s the small things that make scenes real. Great storytelling is about detail. Stories live in the small things: the texture of the landscape, the hum of the room, the taste of a morning coffee. Bring us with you, step by step. Make your story have full colour, not just black and white.
What did you see, hear, feel, smell? Include vivid detail so your listeners are transported, not just told.
5. Memorise the beginning and the ending - you know the middle
The beginning hooks us. The ending holds us. Know both. Let the middle breathe.
The Moth teachers suggest memorising your first and last lines, and knowing the endpoint so you don’t drift.
In practical terms: have your opening ready, have your closing ready, and keep the body of the story flexible.
6. Remove the fluff but keep the focus
It’s tempting to include every detail, every nuance. But a story that meanders loses its audience. If it doesn’t move the story forward, cut it. If it doesn’t reveal something essential - cut it. Clarity is respect for your audience. Simplicity creates impact.
As you review your draft, ruthlessly ask: Does this advance the stakes? Does it develop me, the protagonist, or the conflict? If not, let it go.
7. Be authentically yourself
Your story works because you are the one telling it. Don’t imitate someone else’s voice or tone. Be 100% you, warts and all.
In your preparation: practice with your own cadence, your own authentic leaps of emotion - that’s what makes the connection genuine.
8. Practice out loud
Stories live in voice, breath and body. Record yourself. Practise in front of someone you trust. Notice where you rush, where you hesitate, where you lose your place. Rehearsal isn’t about perfection, it’s about comfort in your own story.
Also know your time and shape your story to fit Most people underestimate how short five minutes is and how long ten minutes feels. Time discipline transforms storytelling.
Rehearse aloud. In front of a friend, record yourself, feel the pacing and the gaps. This builds confidence, and gives you a greater sense of how your story lands
9. Prepare for the unexpected, then relax into it
Events can throw curve-balls: technical issues, a different room layout, an audience with a restless energy. Preparation means having a structure and an anchor in your story. But then you need to breathe, step into presence and respond. Storytelling isn’t scripting every word, it’s about mapping the key points on your journey, then showing up and letting go.
Trust your preparation - and your story.
10. Define what success looks like and reflect afterwards
Before you tell your story, decide what will count as success for you. Is it: one person coming up to you after and saying that they felt something? Is it that you feel more confident in your voice? That you get braver?
After the event, take time to reflect: What worked? What didn’t? What surprised you? What will you try differently next time? Your growth as a storyteller is in this reflection.
Tell your real story and let the world listen.
Story-craft is not about performance, but about communicating with presence, authenticity and connection. When we prepare with intention, selecting stories with stakes, practising our voice, anchoring purpose then we don’t just tell a story; we invite others into a shared moment
Tell the story only you can tell.
Stand in it fully.
And let the room lean in.