Once you start telling though, you must add a slightly different kind of listening skill - you must listen closely to your audience. The relationship between you and your audience is one of the most important parts of the storytelling triad. The audience will tell you what you need to know. Where you need to go, where you need to slow down, speed up, shift gears and much more. 

Listening while telling is a learned skill, and not easy, so you must start right away and practice. Listen not only with your ears, but with your eyes, all your senses, your entire body. If you are telling and you get that strange sensation in the back of your neck, that little tenseness that tells you something is not quite right. Listen closely! Then take action.

Here's a story. - When the Marx Brothers were about to make a film, they took the show on the road. Most of their movies started out as stage plays anyway. They toured each show across the country. Each night, one of the things they "listened" for was, "Where did the audience laugh?" When they were finally ready to make the movie, they actually "paused" the dialogue in the places where they knew the audience would laugh. This way, everyone in the movie theatre heard the next lines. It was a brilliant strategy!

Here's another story, even more relevant. At a recent performance I attended at the Salisbury Music and Art Festival, a group of very talented dancers, trampoline artists and clowns did a one-hour show. It started out with a huge crowd, and lots of kids sitting on the ground, down front. After the first, well-paced twenty minutes, the tone of the show slowed. It slowed down to a death march. The kids started to wander about, and then the parents would pull them off to another venue. By the time they were done, almost all of the kids and one quarter of the audience had left. THAT should have told them something!

You may need help at first. Ask friends or coaches to listen with you. Compare notes afterwards to see what you heard, or what you may have missed. It is a skill that will be most valuable as you move along in your telling!