Rethinking Storytelling Methods

The human mind has always followed the path forced upon us by those original storytellers; Hemingway, Twain, and Disney. I am referring to chronological sequencing.

That is, a child is born, the child grows up, this happens, that happens. This resonates because it mirrors real life. We are born at zero, and so stories generally have been historically attached to our natural sequence. But as with most things, counter-intuition holds the magical key.

Emotional Sequencing is a more effective storytelling method. This means that instead of telling your story in the order it happened, you tell it in the order of what most impacted your life.

Emotional Sequencing says you may start your book at the age of 21, 10, or 50. When you start chronologically, a person reading your story knows something is about to happen, because you just got to Earth. But, when you start emotively, the reader knows something has already happened. They will continue to read to find out exactly what it was. In terms of craft, this is far more interesting. It disallows your reader from disengaging. Emotional sequencing is a light form of suspense.

What is suspense? Your ability to ask a question and take as long as possible to answer. When you talk about emotional sequencing versus chronological sequencing, you engage the part of humanity that is noisy. Imagine I started my book with this sentence:

"Everyone was standing, only she was walking - directly to me. Into my ear she whispered, Sir, please don't ever do that again."

Stylistically, I just used what I call a statement question. Meaning, a statement without a question mark that causes a question. The questions here are, who is the woman? What did I do?

Other methods like emotional misdirection, and emotional redirection will grant your storytelling a fresh, innovative frequency. Emotive crafting elements create reader anxiety, which is incredibly powerful. Anxiety that something has already happened is greater than anticipating something is about to happen. Because when something is about to happen, the reader is in control. When something has happened, the reader is out of control. And they have to get control by continuing to read.

In 2024, rethink your approach to storytelling. Your business depends on it.

Written by: Dennis Ross