The other day I was writing about storytelling in business, and how it can be so much easier than you might think.

Today I want to dive deeper into the topic of storytelling. But if that was Storytelling 101, this is Storytelling 102. So in other words, nothing too advanced here…

One thing you’ll see mentioned over and over in pretty much any guide to storytelling is the importance of keeping the question loop open. A story is basically question, answer, question, answer, question, answer. On and on in that cycle. When there is no more open loop, the story is done (or dead). The listener has to always be wondering, “What’s the answer to this question?”

One of the best examples of the story loop is in the Tom Petty song “American Girl.”

Now, mind you, I wouldn’t in a million years count myself a Tom Petty fan. In fact, to my brother I once referred to Tom Petty as “the accounts payable clerk of rock” (in other words, kind of boring). Plus, “American Girl” seems to be using an awful drum machine, and there are so many other things wrong with that song. It also played a starring role in the opening of the movie “Silence of the Lambs,” sung by one of the serial killer’s soon-to-be victims. Sing Tom Petty and die. ‘Nuff said.

So if I hate that song so much, what am I doing holding it up as a golden example here? That’s the beauty of an open loop — even if someone hates something, years later they are going to hold it up as a beautiful example everyone should learn from.

Check out the lyrics…

And for one desperate moment there

He crept back in her memory

God, it’s so painful, something that’s so close

Is still so far out of reach.

Who is the “he”? Father? Brother? Ex-boyfriend? What was the pain, what was wanted?

The loop is never closed. Never, not once, does Tom Petty tell us who “he” is. And so decades later, here I am citing this song to you, even though there are so many things about it that I’m ashamed of, like the drum machine.

So yes, you have to close the question loops, but remember, you’ve always got to keep one open.