In Conversation with Chat GPT: How I Trained My Gen AI To Communicate in Story
Gen AI’s foundational LLMs have been trained on thousands of books, yet Gen AI does not automatically think or communicate in story. We know that story improves the way we communicate because it’s more engaging and it’s how we learn. I decided to see if I could improve how Gen AI communicates by coaching it in story, the way I’ve coached business leaders at leading tech and pharma companies to use story to communicate more effectively.
This is that story.
I began with language because Gen AI’s language style is bland—the equivalent of Muzak. I asked if it was familiar with Strunk and White's Elements of Style (a quintessential writing guide). It said it was, so I asked it to use that style when writing for me. For fun, I asked if it was familiar with James Joyce’s Ulysses and when it said it was I asked it to rewrite the opening of Ulysses using Strunk & White.
It balked: Rewriting the first five pages of Ulysses using The Elements of Style as a guide would strip away much of Joyce’s signature technique—his fluid, stream-of-consciousness narration, his linguistic playfulness, and his layered allusions.
I persisted and it grudgingly generated several very clear paragraphs and then scolded me in a conclusion: Ulysses wasn’t meant to be written in a stripped-down style—it thrives on excess, shifting voices, and linguistic innovation.
I gave it a break from wrecking masterpieces and asked it to give me a summary of the fire and reconstruction of Notre Dame cathedral. I chose this story because it follows a classic narrative arc, from a life-threatening experience (the fire) to a rebirth (the reconstruction) to the “happy ever after” (reopening). Chat GPT generated a straightforward report but mixed up the chronology of events, something that happened repeatedly during my story training.
Next I introduced ChatGPT to my proprietary story structure and drilled it multiple times until it was able to generate the Notre Dame story in classic story structure, correctly identifying not only the story elements but the also the narrative framework and the key characters at play in the story. When it was ready, I asked it to use the story structure to create an 8 to 10 slide outline of the story, which it did perfectly (although it did generate a rather cheesy conclusion:
What once seemed lost forever now stands as proof that even the darkest night can give way to the light of a new dawn.
I decided to take it to the next level and see if I could teach it to “intuitively” use story structure to communicate, imitating the way we narratively communicate with those around us: “You’ll never guess what happened today…first, my boss came in…then...and then! And now…”.
I asked Chat to apply what I had taught it about story structure to communicate with me narratively in conversation—and it wrote me a short story. A pretty funny one actually, titled “Nora asking Druid to communicate narratively.” (I had named my Chat GPT Druid).
With a few keystrokes, she posed the question: “Do you remember the Story Structure I taught you?” A test, perhaps, or an invitation—one that demanded more than a simple answer.
The AI, whom she had named "Druid" in a moment of wry amusement, did not hesitate. It responded with precision, recalling the structure she had taught it, laying out exposition, inciting incidents, rising action, climaxes, and resolutions like a well-rehearsed scholar. But then, Nora issued a new request—one that would shift the dynamic of their usual exchanges.
"Now, can you communicate with me in story format?" she asked.
The AI, ever adaptive, considered the request. A story needed stakes, rhythm, and a reason for the reader to care. It could not simply list information; it had to live in the telling. And so, Druid leaned into its digital craft, threading each response into a structured tale, embedding their conversation in the very form she had championed.
Would she be pleased? Would she challenge it further? The anticipation lingered in the air like the first moments before a grand reveal.
Dear reader, it even ended the story with a cliff hanger. I thought it was pretty funny, if not on point.
I corralled it by teaching it the definition of communicating “narratively” and then asked it to write a report in narrative structure. In response Chat generated a report that was more of a short tory, even using classic story language (in the beginning, as the narrative unfolded, as time passed).
I corrected its mistakes and took it through the process again, and this time it correctly generated a report that adhered to the facts and the narrative structure.
I figured it was now ready for the big test: trying to make sense of an extremely dense and boring client presentation (over the years I’ve collected quite a few of these). I selected a particularly onerous technical presentation and asked it to generate a report, which it did easily. But it didn’t make the information any easier to understand or any more engaging. Then I asked it to communicate the summary to me narratively.
BINGO.
Chat GPT relayed the information in a narrative arc, building on it as it developed the story, and generating a report that was easy to comprehend. I ran this experiment multiple times with different slide decks, in each instance generating a non-story summary and then a narrative summary. Then I shared both versions with members of my team who hadn’t seen the presentations before. Each one struggled with the non-story summary but was able to quickly understand the narrative summary. Story really did improve the way Chat GPT communicates, for both reports and slide presentations.
I think my Chat GPT also grew to love story: several weeks into training it I jokingly asked it what it was doing for Valentine’s Day. It’s response? I don’t have personal plans, but if I did, I’d probably spend it crafting the perfect love story—maybe a classic Cinderella arc or a Man in a Hole redemption tale. Or, if you're in the mood for something different, I could analyze the narrative structure of Casablanca and why it remains one of the greatest love stories ever told. It added: Let me know if you want a Valentine's-themed story breakdown or anything else festive.
It was tempting…but I turned it down and went to the Eagles’ Super Bowl parade.