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Hey friend!
When it comes to becoming a better storyteller, what’s the first thing you think you should do?
Write more?
Study frameworks?
Ask AI to “help”?
Yeah… same.
A few weeks ago, I sat down and went through a pile of emails and captions people had sent me to review.
Different niches.
Different platforms.
Different experience levels.
But I wasn’t looking for clever lines or formatting mistakes.
I was looking for friction.
Where people hesitated.
Where the story fell flat.
Where things felt… off.
So I started tagging patterns.
And one question kept popping up again and again.
Some version of:
“Can AI just write this part for me?”
It showed up so often I stopped being surprised.
Which is why I’m writing to you about storytelling today.
Not how to make it faster.
Not how to make it cleaner.
But how people accidentally kill it.
Before we get into the system, I need to tell you something embarrassing.
There was a stretch where I let AI write full story emails for me.
They looked fine.
Good flow.
Nice pacing.
Nothing technically “wrong.”
But when I hit send?
Crickets.
Replies slowed.
Energy dropped.
Nobody quoted lines back to me anymore.
My first thought was:
“Well… maybe stories just don’t work like they used to.”
Turns out, that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was this:
I had outsourced the thinking.
It’s like expecting to get in shape by watching someone else work out.
Once I noticed that, a few things became painfully obvious.
People weren’t craving smoother stories.
They wanted real ones.
They didn’t want better structure.
They wanted tension.
They didn’t want polish.
They wanted presence.
Same ideas.
Different execution.
So I kept the tool…
But changed how I used it.
And almost immediately?
Replies came back.
Messages got longer.
People started saying things like:
“This felt like you again.”
Here’s the simple system I use now to build real storytelling muscle without letting AI hijack my voice.
The 4 steps I follow every time:
Step 1: Separate thinking from writing
I never start by asking for a finished story.
I start with questions.
What almost stopped me?
What was uncomfortable to admit?
What did I believe before things shifted?
Step 2: Find the moment before the lesson
Stories don’t move people because of insight.
They move because of contrast.
Write the moment before you figured it out.
That’s where the emotion lives.
Step 3: Let tools assist, not decide
AI helps me explore angles.
It never gets the final say.
If it feels too easy, it’s usually too shallow.
Step 4: Watch replies, not applause
The stories that work aren’t the prettiest.
They’re the ones people recognize themselves in.
Every strong reply leaves a trail.
Follow it.
If you do one thing today, start with step one.
Write the story without help.
Then add the one line you almost deleted.
That’s usually the line that lands.
If you want, send me your before and after.
I’ll reply with one note to help you sharpen it.
Talk soon,
Stephen
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