Using Non-Verbal Triggers to Make Your Stories Memorable

Article by Doug Stevenson

There are four types of language: verbal, vocal, physical and emotional.

Verbal language is your words. The words are only one component of communication. If you use only words when you tell stories, you are missing out on the transformational power of your story. Vocal language is the musical score of your presentation, the way it sounds. It includes rhythm, tempo, volume, inflection, attitude and silence. Physical language is what the audience sees; what you show them. It includes behavior and non-verbal cues as well as your movement. Emotional language is your feelings and reactions.

Our expression, on and off stage, is often a mixture of these types of language. Physical language can occur with verbal, vocal or emotional language, and often occurs in silence. In the Story Theater Retreat, 56 wall signs decorate the room. They denote different techniques and concepts. One of them states, “Silence Speaks.” At the end of the retreat, I ask my students to choose a few signs that mean the most to them. “Silence Speaks” is almost always chosen, and for good reason. Many of the speakers that I coach have never considered silence as a form of language. They think of silence as a pause – a vacant space – but the silence I’m suggesting is filled with thoughts and emotions.

Silence that is filled includes physical and emotional language that speaks as eloquently, if not more so, than words. This is what you see and experience during a “close up” in a movie. Actors use physical and emotional language when they act “between the lines.”

Consider a story in which you receive startling good news… Simon and Schuster is going to publish your book and give you a 0,000 advance. You could simply tell your audience of the startling news and then describe your reaction. “When I heard the news I was blown away; I was ecstatic. I knew my life would never be the same.”

Using Story Theater technology however, you would use all four types of language. You would verbally share the good news, and then show the reaction in silence. Further words are not necessary. You would go into an IN moment and re-enact the scene.

First, you feel the natural emotional response and then communicate that response with your body. What does ecstatic exuberance look and feel like? To find the natural expression, you don’tthink about exuberance…you recall the moment when you received the good news and let your body react naturally. Just for grins, let’s say that your body interpreted ecstatic exuberance likethis: you do a little dance that propels you in a circular motion while you shake your hands above your head. Your body is arching up as you do this, your head thrown back and you’resmiling. This reaction, shown rather than spoken, is physical language.

Now lets add vocal language to the same reaction. What sounds do you make? Do you shriek, holler, or shout “yippee”? Do you moan, stammer or say “Ohmigod” twelve times? Your vocalized expressions of emotion are vocal language. Vocal language includes all of the non-word sounds that we make as part of our expression.

After you come down from the emotional high of your celebration dance, you could talk again, or you could go one step further: you could employ a deeper level of emotional language. Let’s say you do your dance, stop, and then you stay IN. You stay in your private moment, and just stand still. As you stand there, you realize that this is a lifelong dream come true, a dream that you’ve had since you were sixteen years old. No one in your family has ever written anything, much less had a book published. You’ve struggled through years of hardship and pain, much of that time living from paycheck to paycheck. And now, you’re going to be a published author; you’re going to have 0,000. As this realization hits you full force, you become overwhelmed with emotion.

The audience watches as you…in silence…complete the reaction with a tender moment of reflection and tenderness. When you feel the emotions that are appropriate to the moment, your audience feels them too. They don’t feel your emotions; they feel their own emotions “as if” the moment was theirs. I call this a sympathetic experience.

This last reaction – felt rather than spoken – is powerful emotional language. After the reaction is complete, then you could step OUT and say, “I knew my life would never be the same.” The delivery of this line, however, will be transformed by the underlying emotion. This is the “theater” aspect of The Story Theater Method, complete with all four types of language.

I want you to pick one of your stories for review. Look for a place to add physical, vocal and emotional language. Rehearse the moment at home. Slow down and feel. Get used to taking thetime to speak without words. Look for a moment for silence. Trust me – silence speaks – and your audience will see, feel and hear you loud and clear in the silences. But now you’ll be speaking to their hearts and souls, as well as to their brains. You’ll move them to tears and laughter.

Speakers who use all four types of language connect at a deep level and leave a lasting impression. They are authentic and real. The connection they create is the intangible that separates one speaker from another. Learning to use these four types of language – to move beyond left-brain content to a more natural and holistic approach that speaks with and to the whole person – is the work we do in Story Theater. It has to be experienced to be integrated.

Making the transition from talking to emoting, from sharing intellectual concepts to creating the emotional and even spiritual connection that I am referring to, takes practice. This method is not for everybody. It is an alternative choice to narrative storyelling. It is the next level – the highest level of speaking and presenting.

From now on as you practice your stories, stand up and walk and talk. Practice expressing your words with your whole being, but remember, it never has been and never will be words and concepts alone that connect us as human beings. It is our relationship to our content, communicated with our entire physical instrument, that connects us with others.

Can you tell when someone is lying? How can you project confidence or sincerity? What does your handshake say about you? It’s all about body language. Jan Hargrave nationally recognized body language expert revels these secrets and many more in her entertaining and informative presentation “Let Me See Your Body Talk”. Author of several books on body language and featured on some of the counties most popular television programs Jan has been teaching audiences how to read body language signals for over 15 years. Jan teaches audiences how to use body language to gain a competitive advantage is sales, business negotiations, job interviews and even romance.It’s valuable practical information that can be used everyday. “Let me see your body Talk” to book Jan for your next event, visit janhargrave.com.
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