Communication · a life skill
Simple Story Structure
but and so, not and then
Ask someone how the week went and you often get a list: this happened, and then that, and then the other thing. Every fact is true and none of it sticks, because nothing holds one fact to the next. Story structure, at its simplest, is two small words. “But” marks where something went wrong. “So” says what followed from it. Swap them in for “and then” and the same facts become something people can follow, and repeat.
- Easy
- Medium impact
- Learn it: 1 week
- Two words to swap in
An illustration, not data. Hover a step to see where it happens.
The method
List it, then find the but.
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List what happened
Three to five short lines, in the order they happened. No joining words yet. This is the raw material, not the story.
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Find the “but”
Where did something get in the way, change, or surprise you? That's the turn. A telling without one is still a list.
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Add a “so”
What did someone do because of the turn? “So” ties the next fact to the one before, which is what makes it easy to follow.
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Cut what only “and then” holds
If a fact can only get in with “and then”, ask whether the listener needs it. Often they don't.
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Say it in one breath
The setup, but the problem, so what happened. If you only get one sentence, that's the one.
List, find the but, add a so, cut, then say it in one breath.
Example: Not “We had the meeting, and then we looked at the numbers, and then we changed the plan”, but “We planned to hire in May, but sales came in under target, so we're holding hiring until July.”
Joint builder
Join the same facts three ways.
1 · Pick a story, or write your own
2 · Choose each joining word
3 · Read it back
4 · The one-breath version
The setup, the turn, and what followed. If you only get one sentence, say this one.
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The research behind it
Linked words stayed; listed words went.
In 1969 Gordon Bower and Michael Clark gave students lists of 10 unrelated nouns to learn, one list after another. One group was asked to make up a story that carried each list's words in order, so each word had a reason to follow the last. The other group simply studied the words.
When they were tested later, the students who had built stories recalled about 7 times as many words as the ones who had only memorised them. The same words, the same time: the only difference was whether something tied each one to the next.
Two cautions. Their students were remembering lists for themselves, so using “but” and “so” to make a story stick for someone else is our step. And later studies that gave looser “make a story” instructions haven't always found the gap, which fits the idea that the links do the work, not the word “story”.
The idea
Why it works.
A list asks the listener to hold every fact on its own. A “but” and a “so” hang each fact on the one before it, so remembering one pulls up the next, the way the students' stories pulled up the next word.
The “but” also tells the listener why they're hearing this at all. Something was at stake, and the rest of the story is what happened about it. Without one, there's no reason to keep listening.
When it goes wrong
Habits that help.
- One “but” is plenty. For a quick update, a single turn is enough. Three turns in a minute is hard to follow.
- Say the “so” out loud. Don't leave the listener to guess what followed. Name it.
- Start near the turn. The setup needs one sentence, not five. Get to the “but” fast.
- Practise on your day. Tonight, tell someone how your day went in one sentence: this, but that, so this.
Keep this going in the app.
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