Hey friends,

Thank you for all the kind words from last newsletter. We are back in LA now and are safe. The fires still aren’t fully contained, but a lot of progress has been made since last week. It's been taxing, but we are thankful that we are okay.

Tomorrow at 10 AM PST (Thursday), I will be hosting a free workshop called How to Frame Your Story (So People Care). In just one hour, I will show you how you can present your story in a compelling way. Hundreds of people have registered to attend; to join us, enter your email here.

With the enrollment window for Thinking In Stories closing in just 1 week, I wanted to share a big post on the art of storytelling. I published this back in mid-2020 (well before Thinking In Stories was a thing), but it does a good job distilling the craft into a guide that you can highlight and follow.

Even though this post is 6,500 words long (with over 40 drawings), it touches just a tiny fraction of what we cover in the course. This guide will give you a broad overview of the various storytelling techniques you can use, but it’s only through the live 4-week experience where you’ll truly put everything into practice. The cohort is already more than halfway full, so join today to secure your spot:

With that said, let’s delve into the step-by-step walkthrough of how you can create a visual story of your own. Enjoy:

​The Ultimate Guide to Visual Storytelling​

An Illustrated Insight

This is from today’s post, and is what I refer to as the Visceral Journey.

At its core, a story is nothing more than a series of movements across the Fear - Clarity axis. There’s the descent into chaos, the epiphany that allows a ray of order to seep in, and the application of these lessons to enter a higher plane of clarity. The sequence of these events may vary, but what matters is that you’re guiding the reader through the domains of Fear and Clarity throughout.

While this is common knowledge in the realm of fiction, what’s interesting is how applicable it is to non-fiction as well. Thinking In Stories focuses a lot on this untapped area, where narrative arcs and visuals can be used to present non-fiction ideas in novel ways.

A Thought I’ve Been Pondering

I’m often asked about audience-building, and the potential strategies that could be used to attract attention. Whenever I receive an inquiry like this, I default to the one thing I know best: Focus on the craft over anything else.

Here’s the thing. If you want templates, social media tactics, and a list of growth hacks, I’m not your guy. There are many people out there you can learn this stuff from, but I’m not one of them. That’s because what I care about most is how you can have a healthy relationship with your creativity, which must come from a love and respect for your art. Call me a purist, but this is the only way to cultivate longevity in what you do.

The thing about relentless growth is that it puts the tactics before the craft. The strategies before the art. And if this is the lens you view your creativity through, it’s only a matter of time where the colorful playground of ideas becomes reduced a dull spreadsheet of numbers.

The beautiful thing about focusing on the craft is that if you do it well enough, it will find its way to people. Audience-building will come as a downstream effect, which means that you can keep your attention focused on getting better at your art. That’s why I teach storytelling, and not growing a following on whatever platform. Because if you tell better stories and love the process of doing so, then that becomes a natural magnet for the people you ultimately want to reach.

A Brief Parting Question

Take a moment to think of your favorite stories. If you were to distill what makes a great story into one sentence, what would that sentence be?

For me, it would be: “A great story makes you care about its problem as much as its creator does.” It just so happens that this is what I’ll cover in tomorrow’s workshop =).

What would your sentence be?

As always, hit reply to share any thoughts, to respond to the parting question, or to simply say hello. I love hearing from you.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to share this email with anyone who might enjoy it. Have a great rest of your week!

-Lawrence