What Kinds Of Stories Connect?

In his address at MES West, Ashlock pointed to story lines from popular TV sitcoms of years gone by (for example, "Gilligan's Island" in the 1960s and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in the 1990s) as examples of stories that open with relatively normal, happy situations. Then things take a wrong turn, before some event sends the story back in a positive direction – probably even better than the original state.

The sequence goes like this: "Once upon a time," followed by "but," then "until" and then "at last."

Even some notable business technology stories follow that pattern, such as the rise, fall and second rise of the late Steve Jobs at Apple.

"All of our favorite movies, all of our favorite books, follow the same arc," he said.