How to use the ceremonial storytelling genre.

Storytelling genres are, most generally, the shape or form the story takes. Different genres allow you to accomplish different things. This brings me to a central principle of communication: if you don't know where you want to go, you will never get there.

First, know where you want to go. Genre will be how you get there.

Second, what is your relationship to your audience? Are you one of them (we/us)? Or are you separated from the audience but hope to be one of them (from you/me to we/us)? Or are you completely separate and never hope to be part of them (you/me, they/them)? Think about this A LOT. It's about how you position your voice and message with the audience.

Only after you answer this question can you move to choosing a genre.

Genre for we/us--Ceremonial Storytelling Genre

Let's start with a genre we hear all the time. Seriously, we hear this one the most. We hear it at special events, award shows, weddings, funerals, political conventions, and so many other places. Today we call the epideictic genre (identified by Aristotle) as ceremonial.

Epideictic is a greek word meaning “fit for display.” I find that oddly appropriate. This genre focuses on the present. It’s as if every ceremonial/epideictic story is one where we are displaying something, both good and bad. When we show something off, it's ceremonial. When we point out something terrible, that's ceremonial. We are putting this on display for everyone to view. Maybe it’s celebrating the heroic acts of people who do ______. Or maybe it’s putting on display that our community needs to take action about _______. We are putting this person/thing/issue on display so that we, as a community, can take a closer look. Why do this? So that we can praise what should be praised and blame what should be blamed.

Today, we call these stories ceremonial because we put things on display during our rituals/ceremonies. Marriage ceremonies are rituals of commitment. Funerals are ceremonies of remembrance. Award shows are ceremonies of celebration. You get the point, right?

This is a compelling genre because it’s about community, who we are and who we want to be. At protests, this is the genre people use. When there’s a political rally, this is the genre used. Why? Because it gets to the heart of the issue. It questions what we claim to value and, therefore, how we act.

Have you noticed what pronoun I've been using?

Storytelling genres require that you think a lot about pronouns. Using different pronouns accomplishes different things. "We" is the primary pronoun cluster used because it is about all of us. The speaker/communicator is one of the audience. We are one. When you use "you," it's about a particular person or group to get them to do or stop doing something. We unites communicators with the audience. You separates us from them. Both can be necessary, at times, but you must choose.

What's the worst wedding toast you've ever heard?

I think most of us have been to a wedding. There are speeches given, for better and, usually, worse. Think about the worst wedding toast you've every heard. I am thinking of one. It was at my cousin's wedding. It was terrible because the best man thought it'd be funny to embarrass his best friend (the groom). In other words, the best man made it all about his desire to make people laugh and embarrass his friend. It wasn't funny and I had to restrain my cousin (her older brother) from punching him in the face. It was that bad.

Then I remember the best wedding toast I've heard. It was stunningly beautiful. It was about love and commitment. It's about all the things everyone in that room holds sacred. Wedding toasts are about the couple, but really it's about the aspiration of something we all hope for: a loving commitment that lasts a lifetime. It's about who we are as a people and how bearing witness to it makes us better. That's beautiful.

The elements/features of a ceremonial story

The ceremonial genre focuses on the present and uses values to ask a basic question: who are we? We most often use this genre when we want to inspire people or challenge them to be better. The key elements:

1. This is the event/situation on display: _____.

2. As a community, we value these things: ______.

3. We are here to celebrate (praise) or denounce (blame) ______.

4. In the past, our community’s values would tell us that _______.

5. Are we living up to our values?

6. How can we live up to our values better?

The driving questions for this genre are 1) who are we? and 2) who do we want to become? These questions will give shape to how you tell this story. It's how we get to the place we want to move the audience.

Notice how this gives the story shape. You communicate through shared values. You aren't concerned about what you'll be doing tomorrow or later today. Instead, you are only concerned with who we've been and, aspirationally, who we want to be.

So, let's say you want to give a talk on how to reclaim creativity at any age. This was the topic of a talk I coached in 2022. You can find that talk here. It was recongnized by TEDx as an "Editor's Pick" and promoted on TEDx's social media.

In that talk, Damon McLeese mentions the present to talk about how he is reclaiming his creativity and so can we. The thing we value is creativity. As a community, we value creativity in ourselves and others. Then something happened. He talks about our collective childhood and how, at some point, we were told our creativity wasn't good enough. We started to get criticism for coloring outside the lines. Then our creativity was shamed. So, we retreated, staying far away from artistic things because we are not creative. Then we realize that creativity and artistry are two different things. Freedom. We experience freedom to be reborn and reclaim the creativity that remains inside us.

That's a ceremonial talk. It's about who we are and who we want to become, right now.