AI is telling more stories these days.

But what does a robot know about gut feeling?

How can it truly resonate when it’s never had tears in its eyes

and a tingle down its spine?

AI can do performance. It can’t do experience.

Make your stories human and you’ll leave a lasting impression.

Here are 11 tips for telling them well.

Call them rules and you can break them.     

1. Bring yourself

It can be selfish to make it about you
if your only aim is to polish your reputation.
But you’re as much a part of your story as anyone.
Sharing flaws, doubts, mishaps, experiences and lessons learned
creates empathy and understanding.

2. Pity the reader

Kurt Vonnegut was a great writer.
This is one of his many sensible tips.
Respect the audience’s time and attention.
Get to the point. Cut any fluff that might bore them.  

3. Use moments, not summaries

Find a specific detail.
Use it to carry the story.
It’s easier for the brain to picture
an empty chair at the table than it is to envisage loss.  

4. Start from end

Figuring out the end gives you something to work towards.
Stick to the characters and details
that get you your goal, mission or pay-off.
Ditch anything that’s not relevant. 

5. Open on a scene

The job of the first sentence is to make
the next sentence a must-read.
Drop your audience right into the action.
Here’s a good example by Raymond Carver:
“A man without hands came to the door to sell me a photograph of my house.”
Novels are a valuable source of inspiration.

6. Keep your shape

Structure feels restrictive,
but the story arc keeps people interested and makes them care,
even if the ending isn’t a happy one.
A classic story arc goes:
– exposition (characters and setting):
Scrooge is a bastard, visited by Jacob Marley
– rising action (obstacle or conflict):
Ghosts’ past, present and future force a reckoning
– climax (peak chaos):
Scrooge sees his broken relationship, his gravely ill son and his death no one cares about
– falling action (ripple effect):
Scrooge wakes up a changed man, makes amends for being horrid
– resolution (new normal):
Scrooge vows to uphold the Christmas spirit (socks, Turkey, Gavin and Stacey)

7. Tell it like you would to a friend

Write like you talk. Speak how you speak. Always. 

8. Say what you mean

Don’t complicate the message.
Use simple language.
See #2.

9. Say less

Your audience is intelligent.
Don’t spoon-feed feelings, meanings or lessons if the details carry them.
When readers fill in the gaps, conclusions become theirs.
People don’t argue with their own conclusions.
Example: “I read the letter three times before putting it down
clearly overwhelmed with emotion.
I picked it up again
unsure how to process what I’d just learned.” 

10. You don’t have to be thought-provoking

Sometimes the only point to a story is that it needs to be told.
If it matters to you, the right kind of people will enjoy it. 

11. If you can, be funny

Humour makes us human
which makes stories relatable
which makes them stick.
Stand-up comedians make a living out of this.