Practice Storytelling Every Day with This Simple Question

Want to get better at screenwriting? Stop waiting for inspiration and start practicing with something you already do every day.

Filmmaker Philipp Humm recently shared a video about an incredibly simple way to sharpen your storytelling skills without sitting down at your laptop. His insight is so straightforward that it almost sounds too easy to work.

Watch his bit of advice below.

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"Every day, people ask you one question," Humm said. "How are you? Now most people answer with, ‘Good, yeah, fine. Oh yeah, nice weather today,’ and the conversation dies. But great storytellers, they use that moment as daily practice."

Instead of giving a standard status update, Humm suggests sharing a tiny personal story from your day.

It doesn’t have to be super dramatic. He gave an example of his own response: "I'm pretty good. Actually, I had a tiny win this morning. Woke up early, didn't hit snooze, made my bed. For 10 minutes, I felt like a Navy SEAL. Well, until it then fell apart."

That's it. That's the exercise.

This practice can improve several things—can you figure out a way to tell a story with a brief beginning, middle, and end? Where is the conflict? Are you leaving a hook or a cliffhanger to get people engaged? Can you capture the voice of someone you may have spoken to that day?

Subconsciously, you're training yourself to write dialogue that reveals character rather than just delivers information. You're learning to show emotion through small moments instead of stating it directly.

The best dialogue in screenwriting rarely sounds like how people actually talk in real life, but it captures the essence of natural speech. When you practice turning mundane moments into micro-narratives, you're developing the muscle for writing subtext and avoiding on-the-nose dialogue.

This technique could also help with character development.

Every character in your script would respond to "How are you?" differently based on their personality, background, and current situation. The way someone answers reveals their voice, their priorities, and what they find funny or important. If all your characters gave the same answer, you haven't differentiated them enough yet.

Humm said that the more tiny stories you share, the faster your storytelling improves. It's like daily writing exercises but built into your existing conversations.

You don't need dedicated practice time or writing prompts. You just need to be more intentional with the conversations you're already having.

Next time someone asks how you are, skip the automatic "fine" and try telling them something specific. Maybe it's about the road rage incident you had to avoid this morning or the song that got stuck in your head that you haven't heard since childhood. You can still keep it short, but make it a story.

What tiny story could you tell today?