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If you look at “A Formula For Telling A Good Story” over at DumbLittleMan.com, you’ll see how you can draw people to you through good storytelling. However, after the story has finished, what do you do? You might tell another story, or let another person tell a different story. Or… the dreaded may occur:

The Awkward Silence.

Yeah, that’s uncomfortable.

But there is hope. You can avoid The Awkward Silence by creating Multi-Threaded Conversations.

The Multi-Threaded Conversation works like this: you start one story, and in the middle of that story, you start a new one. Eventually, you end the current story, and go back to the previous story.

By using Multi-Threaded Conversations, you are creating a conversation that lasts longer than telling a single story.

When a story ends, a social interaction will usually shift to:

• a new story
• a new action
• a new Multi-Threaded Conversation
• The Awkward Silence.

By using Multi-Threaded Conversations, you can keep an interaction going without any awkward stops or interaction shifts.

How To Start A New Conversation Thread

Ever part of your story is an offer. If something in the story reminds of you of another story, jump into it. Don’t complete the first story! If that second story reminds you of another story, feel free to jump into that!

Here’s an example:

TECHNICAL NOTE: I would advise not starting a new thread immediately at the offer. I would get into the first thread, and then track back to the offer to start the second thread.

The levels of stories can go as deep as you like (to the limits of your memory), but you should always finish the stories you have started.

An effective and complex Multi-Threaded Conversation may look like this:

Here’s something that I discovered recently. Other people can start new threads for you. They may pick up on an offer you make in one of your stories, and start a new thread. Let them continue their story, and when they’ve finished, come back to your original story.

Multi-Threaded Conversations takes and a good understanding of how to recall and tell stories. But with some practice an persistence, you’ll be a expert before you know it!

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