How I Became a Master Storyteller With THIS

Add this to your stories and watch engagement climb fast.

Author

Stephen Stanberry
December 2nd, 2025

In partnership with

Hey friend!

I’ll be real with you…

For a long time, my stories felt like soggy crackers.
Dry. Flat. Zero crunch.

I’d sit there writing paragraphs of “insights”…
Explaining everything…
Clarifying everything…
Over-explaining everything…

And wondering why nobody cared.

Then something clicked.

One tiny shift flipped everything for me.
The shift most creators ignore because they think storytelling is about “being deep.”

Ready?

Dialogue.

Yeah… I know. Sounds too simple.
But hang with me for a second.

Dialogue is the cheat code.
It turns a summary into a scene.
A moment into a movie.
A reader into a witness.

And before you think, “Okay Stephen, whatever”…
Let me show you two concrete examples.

Example 1: The tired recap

Before:
“I was overwhelmed trying to create content every day. It felt like nothing was working.”

After:
“Bro… are you posting again?” my friend asked.
I stared at my phone. “I don’t even know why I’m doing this anymore.”

Tell me which one you feel more.

Exactly.

Example 2: The generic lesson

Before:
“I learned the importance of slowing down and focusing on one platform.”

After:
“Pick one,” my friend said.
“One platform?” I asked.
“One. Because right now you’re sprinting nowhere.”

Same point.
Different punch.

Once I started adding lines like that, everything changed.

A Reel I posted with a single conflict line jumped off the floor.
A Threads post I expected to flop became my highest reply count that week.
Even LinkedIn, the stiffest platform alive, showed more saves and shares.

Why?

Because stories without dialogue feel like reports.
Stories with dialogue feel like moments.

And moments are what people remember.

Not summaries.
Not lessons.
Not perfectly polished tips.

What people remember are the words someone said that changed you.

So here’s your weekly assignment:

Add one conflict line to your next story.
One moment of tension.
One honest sentence.
One lived interaction.

Send me your before + after.
I’ll reply with one note to sharpen it.

Till tomorrow,
Stephen “stories live in what people say” Stanberry

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