March 2004

The Art of Storytelling

by Paul N. Luvera

Why Storytelling?
Recently, literature about trial skills has been full of articles about lawyers becoming storytellers in court. None of us needs to be reminded that the way to capture a listener's attention — either a child or an adult — is through storytelling. It is not just Native American culture that traditionally was oral. Alex Haley, in Roots, reviewed the African oral tradition, which has many similarities to the Native American. Scripture is replete with examples of storytelling as the chief means of communicating. We were brought up with storytelling by our parents, in the books we read, on old radio programs, and by television and movies. All mankind's history has involved storytelling. How many times have we heard someone say: "Did I ever tell you about the time..."? Throughout history, we have communicated our heritage by telling stories and singing songs. While today we may not tell stories sitting cross-legged in front of a fire or seated around the kitchen table, we pass on our visions and ideas from generation to generation through written stories, radio, television, movies — all with storytelling.

Parables as examples of storytelling
Why are stories so compelling? The parables of Jesus in Scripture are excellent examples of storytelling. One important aspect of parables is that they communicate a message concretely. It is difficult to grasp abstract ideas. If you are going to teach people about things they don't understand you need to begin with things they do understand. Most people think in pictures. Parables turn messages into pictures people can see and understand.

Parables begin with things people understand from their own experience, and the objective is to lead them to things they need to understand. Parables enable people to discover the message for themselves. They all contain this question: What does this mean to you? The impact on people hearing a parable is immediate, because it is spoken, not read. The message flashes upon a person right away. Some things are best left to be discovered, and creative storytelling allows you to create that possibility for the listener. Parables usually have only one point to make. The messages are simple, and easily understood. All great parables begin from the here-and-now in order to get to the there-and-then.

Effects on the listener
Some therapists believe that listeners routinely enter a trance-like state when listening to a well-told story. This has been explained as listeners being mesmerized by the unfolding story. People suspend outside awareness and concerns as they focus on the story. This allows them to be touched at the deepest level, resulting in emotional responses, even tears. That is why storytelling is such a powerful tool.

Storytelling simplifies and focuses. When people receive random, unstructured information, they become anxious and soon stop listening completely. This happens when information does not tell us what we want or need to know. Henry David Thoreau said it takes two people to speak the truth — one to speak and another to hear. What counts is not so much what is said, but rather what is heard.

Words alone play a minor role in communication. What actually is said accounts for only eight percent of the impact. Our vocal message (inflection, resonance, tone, etc.) accounts for 37 percent. The most significant impact on the listener is nonverbal, which accounts for 55 percent. Keep in mind that storytelling is a complete package.

Storytelling as a trial technique
Gerry Spence emphasizes storytelling at the Spence Trial College. He has argued that the most important trial technique is to transfer one's case into a story, because people are used to storytelling and because it is an effective technique of persuasion. He says to feature your client's story in all aspects of the case: jury selection, opening, direct, cross, and closing. Repeating your client's story will help to persuade the jury.

In an article published in the American Bar Association Journal (April 1986), Spence wrote: "Of course it is all storytelling — nothing more. It is the experience of the tribe around the fire, the primordial genes excited, listening, the shivers racing up your back to the place where the scalp is made, and then the breathless climax, and the sadness and the tears with the dying of the embers, and the silence . . . . The jury wants to hear a story. They're hard wired for it."

Albert Einstein rightly observed, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Since a trial is a war of impression, not logic, successful trial lawyers must become masterful storytellers who engage jurors on a visceral level with the magic of storytelling. It is at that level that people decide all important issues and reach opinions.

The how-to's of storytelling
The beginning
The beginning is important because of the need to capture attention and to take full advantage of the short time when everyone is paying attention to what you are saying. The storyteller should engage listeners immediately. Their attention span is short — we should not waste their precious time or fail to tell the story itself in concise form right away. The first 30 seconds should capture attention, and the first two or three minutes are the precious time we have their undivided attention — after that they may begin to drift off. In Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, he describes how, after a prosecutor's voice has droned on for awhile, even the sloppiest housekeepers on the jury find themselves wondering why the city would allow the windows in the courtroom to get so filthy. People quickly lose concentration and begin thinking about other things. Only a well-told story with a compelling beginning can overcome this.

The well-known principle of primacy also dictates the need for a good beginning. People tend to retain those things they hear first. They are slow to change their views from what they hear and believe first. If you can express the essence of your case in the first three minutes, you will take full advantage of primacy.

Point of view in storytelling is critical. The question is this: From whose point of view are you going to tell the story? The story should always start with the defendant's conduct — studies show that to achieve the most impact you should start here. If you start with the plaintiff's conduct, the listeners question why the plaintiff did or failed to do something to avoid what happened.

But that doesn't fully answer the question of point of view. For example, you can start the story through the perspective of one view and then switch to another perspective. You can describe a patient's apprehension about going to the hospital for surgery, and switch to the doctor's thoughts and actions, continuing until the two intersect. Fiction writers do this often, and it keeps the interest of the listener to see what will happen when the two points come together.

The middle
The middle of your story should employ techniques such as themes, rhetorical questions, analogies, and demonstrations. Keep in mind principles of persuasion. We know that positives are more convincing than negatives. Parallelism is another device. For example, trust between doctor and patient, and trust between pastor and church member. Make the client's story come alive. Tell it in a conversational way. Avoid legal terms and big words. Make it human — don't talk about "the plaintiff," but rather "Joe Smith." The story should not be told in the manner of an actor delivering lines from Hamlet, but in an informal, friendly fashion.

Avoid unnecessary or irrelevant detail, and information that is not essential to the story. We generally give too much information. It's as though we don't know what's important from what is not, so out of fear that we might leave something out we include every detail. A good story requires only enough detail to make it interesting. The trick is in deciding which details capture interest, entertain, and inform, and which are simply boring. Be vivid and accurate. Choose words that paint a picture for the listener.

Certainly other devices to enhance the story should be used. A theme is very important and should be woven into the story. To find statements to support themes, you can search proverbs, song lyrics, poems, or even nursery rhymes. Song lyrics are a particularly good source — people are familiar with a song's words and identify easily with a song's mood and message. Poems are powerful because they are often stories in themselves. Proverbs resonate with people, because they ring with truth.

Use everyday examples to explain difficult concepts. In defending against a toxic tort case where causation was a major issue, the defense lawyer had the problem of communicating what one part per trillion meant. Busch Stadium in St. Louis was familiar to all the jurors and had 50,000 seats. The lawyer said to the jury: "If you had one ticket and sat in one seat in Busch stadium, you would be one part per 50,000. So what is one part per trillion? Well, one part per trillion would be you if you had one seat in 20 million Busch Stadiums. That's one part per trillion."

One technique of storytelling involves the rule of three. Much has been written about this concept: that we tend to think and remember lists of three. It's been suggested that exhibit charts should list only three items. Studies show that even when the actual number is more than three, we tend to remember only three. For example, Winston Churchill, in his first speech as prime minister of Great Britain, told his Cabinet that he had nothing to offer but "blood, toil, tears and sweat." Yet the collection of his World War II speeches is titled Blood, Sweat and Tears — Churchill's publisher understood the rule of three — and it is that series of three, not the series of four, that most of us remember.

Another technique is the use of mnemonic devices such as acronyms. Louisiana trial lawyer Russ Herman gives the example of "POP" — "preventable, obvious, and predicable" — a theme that can be repeated throughout your story and the trial.

Mesmerize your listeners. A well-told story engages the senses, the emotions, and the intellect of the jurors. Make the characters in your story come alive by incorporating the techniques of master storytellers: use different tones of voice to demonstrate the different characters, exaggerate your gestures, use expressive body language, and pause to create drama and suspense. Do not simply tell the audience that there was a "loud noise" or an "awful smell." Describe the frightening shattering of glass, the squeal of the tires, the violent shredding of metal. Describe the acrid smell of burning rubber and chemicals. Make it real and tell it with sincerity. The jury will resent acting, but will enjoy hearing the truth in story form.

The conclusion
The conclusion should be dramatic and powerful. Connect it to your opening if you can, and reiterate the point of your story as a call to action to your client's case. Some examples come to mind. In 1911, Clarence Darrow went to Los Angeles to defend the McNamara brothers, who were accused of dynamiting the Los Angeles Times newspaper building during a labor strike. Darrow entered a guilty plea to save them from electrocution. After the trial, Darrow was charged with attempting to bribe a juror. He was then tried, and the famous Earl Rogers defended him. After a three-month trial, Darrow made the final argument on his own behalf. After a lengthy and emotional appeal, he concluded by telling the jury: "I have friends through the length and breadth of the land, and these are the poor and the weak and the helpless to whose cause I have given voice. If you should convict me there will be people to applaud the act. But if in your judgment and your wisdom and your humanity you believe me innocent and return a verdict of not guilty in this case, I know that tens of thousands of the weak and the poor and the helpless throughout the world will give thanks to this jury for saving liberty and my name." During this dramatic conclusion the judge and several jurors wept. It took the jury only 34 minutes to find him not guilty.

A powerful and well-worded conclusion stays with the listener. Reverend Martin Luther King used this conclusion to his speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 23, 1963:

"In a sense we have come to our Nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

"This note was promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

"It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check that has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

"But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice."

Here we have classic examples of powerful conclusions from master storytellers. As trial-lawyer storytellers, we can learn from examples like these.

The six maxims of persuasion
Storytelling is a return to our roots, the basic way in which we should communicate if we want to persuade. Russ Herman is a gifted storyteller who has lectured extensively on the subject. He is fond of referring to what he calls "Cicero's six maxims of persuasion":

1. Understand that what reaches the mind moves the heart: Passion, as well as reason, must be used.
2. Understand motives to understand human behavior: The defendant's bad motive is an essential part of persuasion and should come first in the storytelling.
3. Move from the particulars of a case to a universal truth: This important step empowers the jury to take specific action. Demonstrate by the story that the case has more important consequences than just those facing the parties before the jury. The social importance of taking action is an important element in the story.
4. Draw the audience into the story: Tell the story in the present tense as if the jury were watching the events unfold in front of them rather than hearing a narrative of something long past. Engage the audience as participants in the story.
5. Expose the flaw in the opponent's position: Done properly, the conclusion results in a vote for your client. Herman cites the example of Johnny Cochran's "If the glove won't fit, you must acquit" argument, which allowed the jury to ignore all other evidence if they agreed, and conclude that a not-guilty verdict was the proper result.
6. Communicate your passion and logic in words the listener will understand: Communication is what listeners hear and understand, not what you say. Talk in terms they understand.

The basics
The basic steps are these: First, set the stage. The story should have a clear and engaging opening. This includes introducing the characters as well as the background needed to understand the story. Next, state the problem — the catalyst that sets everything in motion. Then, tell the story. The sequence of events should be told in a way that is easy for the listener to follow. Every good story has a hero and an adversary — sketch it out for the listener. You will need to answer the question, what happened? Tell your story through a combination of words, sounds, and images. Words should be descriptive. Use body language where appropriate. Always end with a powerful and dramatic conclusion that stays with the listener.

Fundamentals include the usual skills of a trial lawyer. Speak with enough volume so people can hear. Employ nonverbal devices with your face, body, and gestures. Keep good eye contact by avoiding "grazing"; instead, fix on individuals, each for a short time. Keep the proper distance from the listeners, and do not invade their zone of privacy. Be relaxed, comfortable, and confident. Pace is very important. Talking too fast is a common result of nervousness. Slow the pace of your storytelling and remember the importance of pauses. Silence is a powerful tool in storytelling.

Learning to be a good storyteller should be the goal of every trial lawyer who strives for excellence.

_______________________

Paul Luvera practices in Seattle and Mount Vernon, and is a longtime Bar News contributor.

Back to table of contents >>