*Why do some stories feel like a movie–and others feel like a meeting that should’ve been an email?*

Because great stories don’t just *tell* you what happened.
They *zoom in*.

Here’s the science:
A 2023 study in *Cognitive Science* found that when people hear **scene-based storytelling** (where the storyteller describes a specific moment in time), their brains show increased activity in the **hippocampus**–the region responsible for memory and mental time travel.

Translation:
When you take your audience into a *specific scene*, they don’t just understand it.
They *experience* it.

Try this:
Instead of saying:
[?] “We had a tough year.”
Zoom in:
[?] “It was 7:42 a.m. on a Tuesday. I was staring at the Slack message that said, ‘We lost the deal.’”

Instead of:
[?] “I learned a lot from that project.”
Zoom in:
[?] “I was standing in front of the whiteboard, marker in hand, realizing I had no idea what I was doing.”

That’s called **scene-setting**.
It’s one of the most powerful tools in storytelling.
Why? Because it creates *immersion*.

One thing to try:
Pick a story you often tell.
Now rewrite the beginning as a *scene*.
Where were you? What time was it? What could you see, hear, or feel?
Start there.

Because the more specific your story gets,
the more universal it becomes.

#Storytelling #BusinessCommunication #LeadershipDevelopment #PresentationSkills #NarrativeStrategy #PublicSpeaking #NeuroscienceOfStorytelling #ExecutivePresence #EmotionalIntelligence #SceneBasedStorytelling