Module -Storytelling
Rhythm and timing
Your timing is important, on the one hand to create suspension, on the other hand don´t forget to add pauses during the telling, to give yourself time to relax but also for the audience to take a moment to register what you are saying. Avoid the temptation to rush through the story in order to finish quickly.Rhythm plays a great role. Stories often involve repetitions, if you say them in a certain rhythm, it is easier for the audience to join in, repeating the phrase.
Let’s do an exercise
Say the following sentence in different speed:
“The boy walked through the fields towards the red house. There his mother was waiting.”
Is the boy in a hurry because he comes too late for dinner and his mother is waiting already?
Or does the boy take his time, observing some grasshoppers in the field or searching for something while his mother is just observing him playing?
Or do you, as the narrator, perhaps already know that something terrible is about to happen? That the boy will never arrive home?