Category Archives: Storytelling

From Melanie Anne Phillips Gathered all my best articles on storytelling techniques onto one web page You’re welcome. Melanie Need personalized story development help? Click below to learn about my story consulting service:

The great masters of plot create dramatic moments that multi-task. For example, a novice writer might reveal the story’s goal in a line of dialog, but a master storyteller might reveal it in such a way as to also add … Continue reading →

Trick 7 Out of Sequence Experiences (Changing Temporal Relationships) With this technique, the audience is unaware they are being presented things out of order. Such a story is the motion picture, Betrayal, with Ben Kingsley. The story opens and plays through the … Continue reading →

Trick 3 Meaning Reversals (Shifting Context to Change Meaning) Reversals change context. In other words, part of the meaning of anything we consider is due to its environment. The phrase, guilt by association, expresses this notion. In storytelling, we can play upon audience … Continue reading →

Trick 2: Red Herrings (Changing Importance) Red herrings are designed to make something appear more or less important than it really is. Several good examples of this technique can be found in the motion picture The Fugitive. In one scene a … Continue reading →

Trick #1: Building Size (Changing Scope) This first technique holds audience interest by slowly revealing the true size of something over the course of the story until it can finally be seen to be either larger or smaller than it originally … Continue reading →