Many of the speakers in General Conference used stories to enhance their sermons: from scriptural stories to personal conversion experiences, most, if not all of the speakers shared at least one story.
One storytelling technique that I found particularly interesting was the frame technique. This was utilized by Elder Holland, Elder Uchtdorf, and others.
Elder Holland began General Conference with a quick anecdote about a young child to lighten the mood and warm up his audience, then immediately switched into the story that would frame his whole talk. He began by quoting directly from the scriptures the story of a blind man waiting by the road. After this, he morphed into a more personal storytelling style, embellishing little details like the emotions of the blind man and those around him. Elder Holland then translated this story into a modern context and switched to a sermonizing mode, eventually coming back to the framed story at the end of his talk.
Elder Uchtdorf utilized a similar method of narrative. He alluded to a well-known work by J.R.R. Tolkien, and used the storyline for the sake of his own narrative of the Plan of Salvation. He kept referring to the story throughout the talk, and the narrative was used to keep the audience engaged.
Other speakers shared personal conversion stories, stories of physical and mental illness, and other personal experiences to create an emotional connection with the audience. Some of these speakers used a retrospective perspective on their stories, while others recalled the feelings and descriptions that would have stood out to them as they were having experiences.
I love how you noticed the embellishments to emotion and the character set up that Elder Holland and others talked about. Looking back to what we've been talking about relating to the personal essay, these minor details, or embellishments as you say, are common to Elder Holland talks and crucial for a general audience to connect with a more foreign text such as ancient scripture.
ReplyDeleteI also mentioned Elder Holland but I love how you put this into words how he told his story modernly and that was key. It was good because in a way, he's bringing us from the world of social media and things to conference. At the end of the talk, he says, "welcome to conference" which sets the tone and shows what his purpose was in his talk.
ReplyDeleteHolland's transitioning of stories was really impressive to me now that I was listening for that. I knew that sometimes there were multiple stories told in a talk, but Holland really did an impressive amount. He seemed to illustrate his points more tangibly and didn't get lost while using multiple stores either.
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