These are some excellent insights into the elements of storytelling from Ira Glass of NPR's "This American Life" (which has featured some amazing storytelling, including Un-Cabaret performances by Julia Sweeney).

In this rap, Ira lays out some important building blocks of oral storytelling for radio or TV. It's also good advice for one-person shows, standup or spoken word.

Even if it's not your end goal, think about using stage or any way of talking out loud to 'write' because then you are generating material from the 'right' side of your brain.

It's easy to get caught up in telling a story from A to Z. But there are lots of different ways to structure a performance or a piece of writing.

Here are a few metaphorical suggestions courtesy of Andrew Davidhazy. The same string vibrating different ways (at different frequencies) tells a very different story.