Found in 3 comments on Hacker News
jonsen · 2013-02-04 · Original thread
Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence:

http://www.amazon.com/Wired-Story-Writers-Science-Sentence/d...

bhntr3 · 2012-11-30 · Original thread
http://www.amazon.com/Wired-Story-Writers-Science-Sentence/d...

Wired for Story is a great book about the science of story. I think it applies to a lot more than writing.

bhntr3 · 2012-11-19 · Original thread
This is not "storifying" because the output is not a story. It's metadata and visualization attached to an album.

I make the distinction because story is important. I'd suggest reading http://www.amazon.com/Wired-Story-Writers-Science-Sentence/d... if you haven't already.

A storified album will only be a story if the user curates the album that way. There is a kernel of story in the demo but there will not be in every album. Questions to ask about a story: Who are the characters? What do they want? How are they changing? What is the dramatic tension? If you can't answer these questions, I submit that it's not a story.

So, you can't automate storytelling (at least not now.) Encompassing photos in metadata about their context IS valuable. Context is important. So you're on to something.

But storytelling is very very powerful. I'm sure you have a laundry list of features to implement but I think you should consider if there are ways to refocus on making it easier for album owners to author real stories around their photos. These are the types of narrative that compel us and resonate with us biologically.

Put another way: Where, when, what and how help us understand but why pulls us in. If you can focus less on automation and more on empowerment to enable authors to weave in the why, then I think you will really be on to something. Your site will also not be about travel and instead be about life. Because we are all living a story every moment, not just when we get on a plane.

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