Ask HN: How do I learn how to tell a good story?

It's like telling a joke. The ending should be unexpected and inevitable.

Cut it as short as possible. Otherwise they get too confused to anticipate endings or may already get the ending if you give too many details. People sort of want to figure it out themselves and be surprised.

If you put it in an article form, and someone can comment on it without reading the article, it's not a good story.

Inevitable means that the ending was obvious in hindsight.

Three act structure is one way of splitting it into multiple parts to keep them hooked. But you can have multiple tension points within a few minutes, Toy Story is a great example of this.

I have the exact same problem. Never been good at telling stories. I have two recommendations for books:

- Story Craft - Jack Hart

- Story: Substance, Structure, Style - Robert McKee

The first one focuses on non-fiction the other on fiction. I was partway through the second one when I got the first. My immediate want is to be able to write better non-fiction text for my blog-posts etc. So I wanted a more focused book on that subject. But I think I will finish the other as well at some point because there are shared principles across.

What does workshopping something mean?

Learn to lie.

All good story tellers lie.

there is no short path, just try and exercise.