When I was 23, I moved to Spain to teach English in Madrid.

3 months later, I’m in a rental car in a vacant parking lot in Valdepeñas, just north of the southern province of Andalusia.

It’s broad daylight, but during the holy week of Semana Santa, so the streets are silent and empty.

The car is full of empty beer cans, 3 wasted foreigners, and a bag of cocaine, and I’m watching a police car slowly drive towards us.

At that moment, all I can think is:

“I’m about to go to jail for the rest of my life.

At least I might finally learn Spanish."

This is a true story.

I told the full thing, plus all the context from my life that lead me to that point, on a podcast this week.

But the reason I’m sharing it here, is because in preparation for this podcast, I got a list of extremely helpful storytelling reminders from the host.

I want to share them with you, and give you an example of a masterclass use of these.

So first, the reminders:

6 ways to tell better stories:

1. Use present tense — makes it feel more alive

2. Add sensory details — what can we see, hear, feel?

3. What are the stakes — what would “failure” or “success” mean?

4. How can you surprise the audience — twists, pauses, etc?

5. Are you effectively building suspense? — read more here.

6. And are you using any humour??

Obviously, Will, you jackass!

(God you guys are so mean to me).

Now, that was my reaction to these reminders at first, and it might be yours.

BUT I really took my time in preparation for this story, and made sure I incorporated these 6 elements into my telling of the story, even number 1:

“Use present tense”

Even though I used to find it corny and unnatural.

And this was the lovely message I got as a result:

Now, the podcast won’t be out for another week or so (in the meantime, check out Into The Story Podcast with Bree Aeslie).

BUT if you want a masterclass of these 6 storytelling elements in action, check out The Moth, and especially this one (long but extremely entertaining!):

So, TL;DR:

To tell better stories:

1. Use present tense — makes it feel more alive

2. Add sensory details — what can we see, hear, feel?

3. What are the stakes — what would “failure” or “success” mean?

4. How can you surprise the audience — twists, pauses, etc?

5. Are you effectively building suspense? — read more here.

6. And are you using any humour??

That’s it for this week! Please reply with a NUMBER (1, 3, 6, etc) if you’d like me to do a deeper dive into any of those storyrtelling tips.

I kept it light on purpose for this week, to see if you guys care, so lemme know!

For now, Greenblast… out 🚀