Fledgling writers are taught to show, not tell.  Don't simply tell the reader what is happening; rather, carefully choose words and craft sentences to create a rich visual. Make the reader work a little bit.

I saw a TED Talk once with Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Toy Story.) He talked about how to write a great story, but his advice struck me as invaluable to storytellers using any medium.

"Don't give them (the audience) four; give them two plus two." 

Once, as part of a workshop, the assignment was to tell a story using only images. To make it more challneging, we had to use a limited number of images. That meant each image had to lend something to the story. It meant I had to play with angles, composition and perspective. It meant my husband, who portrays the man in the story, had to understand the story I wanted to tell, and he had to use his face and body to suggest meaning. All of this made more difficult by the fact that the other character in the story is portrayed by an inanimate object. 

Here is the story I shared with the group. When you've finished, I'd love to hear what you understand to be the story. It doesn't have to match my intention exactly! That's one of the beautiful things about art.

"The Man and the Blue Balloon"

The End.

Final Thought

"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery." -Francis Bacon