The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to Professionals

By: Hannah B. Harvey, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Hannah B. Harvey

An absolute treat for the heart and mind, these 24 lectures demonstrate how to master the art of storytelling, offering insight into the process of crafting and delivering a tale to enhancing the stories you tell everyday - to your children at bedtime, in your conversational anecdotes, and in your presentations at work. Teachers, lawyers, clergy, coaches, parents, and anyone who wants to understand the power of stories to capture hearts and minds will benefit from these lessons.

You'll discover practical methods for building dynamic tension and capturing - then maintaining - your audience's attention. You'll acquire tips and techniques for finding, selecting, and preparing stories, whether they're based on your own experiences, time-honored folk tales, or beloved family yarns. You'll also learn to choose expressive language, craft compelling characters, refine your narrator's point of view, shape your story's plot, structure, and emotional arc, use body language to connect with your audience, and more.

Part how-to workshop, part intellectual study of the history of narrative, these lectures feature exercises that literally get you moving to develop your stories and make them more enjoyable. Professor Harvey's interactive activities and "side coaching" sessions are designed to make you comfortable enough with your story to tell it naturally and make impromptu changes as needed. You'll even learn what to do if the unexpected occurs while telling a story to a roomful of kids or giving a presentation, and about the practical considerations of using props, PowerPoint, and microphones in various scenarios.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

Outstanding course!

What did you love best about The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to Professionals?

Professor Harvey gave me countless insights that enhanced my abililty to tell a good story. She explained each component eloquently, gave examples, and told compelling and captivating stories to capture each point.

Any additional comments?

I purchased this program, and listened to it, to enhance my ability as a professional speaker. I highly recommend it for anyone who is a speaker, a Toastmaster, or who just needs to make presentations.

Fanastic Story Teller and Informative Teacher

What did you love best about The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to Professionals?

Ms. Harvey was enjoyable to follow, addictive to listen to actually.

Which scene was your favorite?

The authors story telling, she made every story the greatest ever told, hard to describe in other words.

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

The importance of oral stories and their diverse meanings to each person.

Any additional comments?

I've read so many books in my life, listened to thousands of hours of college lectures throughout my years. This stands out, that is rare for me and maybe you...it's worth the credit and time to try it.

A good introduction to storytelling

As someone who speaks for a living, I have made it a discipline to learn from other speakers in their fields and see how I can apply their wisdom to my own field. I found this course full of examples of stories, and the basics of storytelling. At 12+ hours the last 1/3 of the course was an exercise discipline to finish, but it also had a higher percentage of the author’s practical advice. If you want to try your hand at storytelling but aren’t sure where to start, this is a great introduction. If you speak in front of others often, this might not be the best course, but there will certainly be some good reminders and alternative perspectives to what you may likely already be doing.
This was originally free, but I went ahead and purchased it because I saw the value and wanted it to be in my resources.

Really missed out with no video

My rating is as low as it is because this course was obviously a video series first and some chapters are sourly missing that portion. Other chapters do just fine with just the audio but it really feels like it is missing something.

Some good tips and annoying mannerisms

I bought this hoping to improve my own storytelling skills. Professor Harvey did have some good suggestions for preparing stories that may prove useful to me. She also had quite a few annoying habits that set my teeth on edge.

In many of the lectures, she asks us to "give ourselves permission to play" by changing the stories around. After the dozenth time of hearing this inane phrase, I wanted to swat her.

She also seems to be sabotaging her own authority by negating her instructions with a concluding snort (as if she is saying "Can you believe I said that?").

I was also annoyed by her frequent use of the word "faery", pronounced "FAEEEE- REEEEE", which she tells us she learned in Scotland is the correct pronunciation. I think actual Scots might beg to differ with her.

This course did provide some ideas worth pursuing, but I think the cost (in time and annoyance) was not worth the benefit (a few good ideas). A list of bullet points would have served me better.

Great course

The course is worth the time, even if you don't have anything to do with story telling explicitly.

Kept my attention

Instructor kept me engaged, attentive and ready for more. Many topic are covered which weave into the story-telling process.

Good pointers

This was an enjoyable listen with many good pointers on verbal storytelling from phrasing and pacing etc., to body language, using voices, and other similar aspects. The narrator presents points and their importance clearly, and is easy to follow.

Superb, insightful but limited by audio only

'The Art of Storytelling' by Prof. Hannah B. Harvey is probably one of the best courses in 'The Great Courses' series. Not only does it deals with something no human being can get away from - the telling of stories - Harvey's presentation is absolutely exquisite, she has a way to draw you in.

So why don't I give it five stars throughout. Because you loose out tremendously by buying the audio only version. While listening to Prof. Harvey gives you the basics, there are so much more that is just not accessible when listening to the audio version of the course. I would have loved to not only hear, but also to see the storytellers, including herself perform by telling a story. You only hear the example 'stories' while it is used to help you with gestures, movement etc. She also gives valuable exercises on body posture and warming up your body and vocal chords before an performance. In the audio version you miss out on a lot of these.

That said, being a minister of religion that often preaches to various audiences, I was able to incorporate some of her ideas in one of my recent sermons. I was astounded with the reaction.

Prof. Harvey covers al the components of a good story, how to write or think up or identify a story as well as how to present or perform it. It is absolutely worthwhile and the self-help exercises (cross-training) she gives helps a lot.

Unfortunately you will want to have more. I found that the audio version of this lecture left me with a feeling of being cheated out of the most important part of storytelling - body language... maybe it is better to wait for a Great Courses 70% off sale, pay a little more (or a lot) and watch the video version. If you don't have that kind of money, the audio might just help you getting started.

Great Course (Doesn't understand bad reviews)

Excellent material for anyone interested in expanding their story telling capabilities or even public speaking skills. The only limiting factor is this is in audio format and doesn't allow one to visualize what some of her examples are. I have bought a copy of this for a friend/relative. I will be purchasing her other lecture series on children story telling next.