6 Storytelling Lessons From Devin Nickelson

Devin Nickelson runs Its Media Production and lives inside story structure. We covered the full conversation in how Devin Nickelson builds stories that keep you watching. This is the playbook version: six lessons you can use on your next video, each one short enough to act on today.

1. Split the story, but make the B plot fight its way back

The cleanest way to add depth without losing people is an A storyline and a B storyline. The main group stays on the main objective. A second group breaks off. The rule that makes it work is that the B group is never just off doing its own thing, it is solving its own problems so it can rejoin the main line.

"B group is doing their side objective so that they can make it back to the main objective. They have their own conflict, their own issues, and everything that they solve before they can make it back."

2. Resolve in the same lane you started

A story has to land where it took off. If you open on a question, close on the answer. If you set up a tension, pay it off. Drift to a different theme at the end and the viewer feels like they watched two half-videos.

"Everything usually has to resolve in the same way that the story starts."

3. Never edge the audience and skip the payoff

You can pull viewers closer and closer to a promised payoff, then never deliver it. It feels clever. It is not. An unresolved story leaves a bad taste, and the real cost is the next video, because people stop trusting your payoff and bail early. This is retention at the story level, and it pairs with the tactical retention techniques that keep people in the frame moment to moment.

4. Swallow your pride and learn fast

Devin's first piece of advice for getting into production had nothing to do with gear. Get over your ego and learn from people ahead of you. Protecting your pride is the slowest way to get good.

Post to all your platforms in one click

Socialync lets you cross-post to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, and Bluesky — with AI-powered captions for each platform. Free to start.

"Swallow your pride."

5. Make it for yourself, and trust that the niche exists

Stop killing ideas because you think no one will care. Someone will. Make the thing you actually love, because that is what comes out good, and the audience finds it even if it takes a while. Just make sure you find your content niche so the right people can find it.

"If you have an idea that you truly love, don't worry about what other people think. Create what you want to create because you will feel fulfillment out of it. Don't make things for other people's enjoyment, make it for your own."

6. Post the finished edit everywhere with one upload

This is the one you can copy this week. Devin makes story-driven video, and a finished edit deserves to be on every platform. The old way is exporting the cut and re-uploading it to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X one app at a time, four sets of captions, four chances to quit. Socialync kills that. You upload once and it posts to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X at the same time, format and caption adapted for each. Same edit, same effort, four times the reach. If you still post to each app by hand, read how to post to every platform at once.

6 Storytelling Lessons From Devin Nickelson