How to keep your stories engaging

On [#dicks-storyworthy], chapter 9

The author offers 5 examples that help him on keeping audiences interested:

Elephants

Start the story by presenting something to wonder about. Then keep changing the perspective around this fact. The author says that we should only change the color of the elephant, not change the entire animal. He uses "laugh laugh laugh cry" to refer to perspective changing throughout the story.

Backpacks

It's the classical "setup -> payoff" proposition. The author comments that this works better when the outcome of the setup is negative.

Leave hints about the future, but don't fully disclose them. Leave the audience wondering until the right moment. This resembles 202106030853 The mystery box

Hourglasses

At the tensest moment, slow down your timing. Savor the moment, that's what your audience has been waiting for, so you (and them) will enjoy it more the longer it lasts. The author shares some tactics like spacing words, lowering the volume, engrossing descriptions, etc.

Crystal balls

This is when you make a wrong negative visualization, so you keep your audience on their toes. It's similar to the idea of when says "we need to talk". It's possible that you've projected the worse (when usually it's nothing bad and/or special).

Also look at 202106262319 But & Therefore for building narratives

[#dicks-storyworthy]: Dicks, Matthew. Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling. Novato, California: New World Library, 2018.