Storytelling

Western storytelling has a formula: introduce a hero, give them a problem, make it worse, then resolve it through struggle. Conflict is everything. Heroes need villains. Protagonists need obstacles. Stories need tension. But what if there’s another way? What if you could tell a compelling story with zero conflict, no antagonist, and no struggle-and still keep your audience completely engaged? Welcome to kishotenketsu (起承転結), the East Asian narrative structure that’s been creating beautiful stories for over a thousand years without relying on conflict at all. ...

You’re watching a movie. A character reaches for a doorknob. Just as their fingers touch the metal, you wince-because you know what they don’t: someone is waiting on the other side with a knife. Or you’re reading a novel. The protagonist is about to make a terrible decision based on incomplete information. Your chest tightens. You want to shout at them, warn them, stop them-even though they’re ink on paper. ...

Have you ever missed your bus stop because you were engrossed in a podcast? Stayed up way too late because you needed to know how the book ends? Felt your heart race during a movie scene even though you knew it wasn’t real? That’s not a character flaw. That’s neuroscience. Stories don’t just entertain us-they hijack our brain chemistry. And understanding how this works can transform you from someone who tells stories to someone who creates irresistible narratives. ...

There’s a specific kind of dopamine hit that comes from watching someone who is exceptionally good at something solve a problem with elegant precision. Sherlock Holmes deducing a person’s entire backstory from their shoelaces. Tony Stark building a suit in a cave with a box of scraps. Elle Woods demolishing a witness with perfect legal maneuvering. Dr. House diagnosing the impossible case through sheer diagnostic brilliance. This is competence porn-and it’s one of the most satisfying character types in storytelling. ...

Two headlines compete for your attention: A: “Multifaceted approaches to ameliorating socioeconomic disparities” B: “Why poor people stay poor” Both convey similar ideas. But you clicked on B, didn’t you? Or at least your brain wanted to. This isn’t about intelligence or laziness. It’s about cognitive fluency-one of the most powerful forces determining which stories spread and which die in obscurity. What Is Cognitive Fluency? Cognitive fluency is the subjective ease with which our brains process information. ...

In genre fiction, plot is external: solve the murder, defeat the villain, fall in love, escape the threat. In literary fiction, plot is often internal: realize you’ve been lying to yourself, understand your mother’s choices, recognize you can’t go home again, see beauty in what you once took for granted. Nothing explodes. Nobody dies (usually). No crimes are solved. But everything changes. This is the art of the quiet epiphany-the moment when internal transformation becomes story. ...

A corpse. A locked room. No way in or out. The locked room mystery is the purest distillation of detective fiction-an impossible crime that demands a logical solution. It’s also a covenant between author and reader more sacred than any other genre. This is fair-play detective fiction, where the writer makes an implicit promise: You have all the clues you need. The solution is possible. I am not cheating. Break that promise, and your reader will never forgive you. ...

Your character walks into the story chasing the wrong thing. They’re convinced that if they just get the promotion, win the competition, or reach the destination, everything will be fixed. They’re pursuing their Want with laser focus. And the entire story is about why they’re wrong. Because what they Want is not what they Need-and that gap is where character transformation lives. The Want vs Need Framework This is one of the most powerful tools in character development: ...

Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey has dominated storytelling advice for decades. Seventeen stages, archetypal characters, mythological resonance-it’s the blueprint for everything from Star Wars to The Matrix to Harry Potter. But there’s a problem: it’s complicated. Most writers don’t need a 17-step formula. They need something practical, intuitive, and flexible enough to apply to everything from sitcoms to space operas. Enter Dan Harmon’s Story Circle-an eight-step distillation of Campbell’s monomyth that’s simpler to use, easier to teach, and just as powerful. ...

“We should talk.” Three words. Grammatically simple. Literally: a suggestion to have a conversation. But everyone who hears them knows: Something bad is about to happen. A breakup. A confrontation. A revelation that will hurt. How do we know? Because of subtext-the meaning beneath the words, the real message hiding under the literal one. And it’s arguably the most important skill in dialogue writing. What Is Subtext? Text: What is literally said Subtext: What is actually meant ...