I am a whitewater kayaker. When I first started to learn kayaking, my instructor said, "Anyone can 'bomb' down the center of a river and make it to the end of the run. But if you want to do it with finesse, you can use the ebb and flow of the river, the curves, the rocks, the eddys and the water itself to maneuver the kayak and make it a more interesting and enjoyable experience"

In the same sense, one can tell a story from beginning to end by merely relating the sequence of events. "This happened, then this happened, then this happened, ..." A more creative way to tell a story is to use the plot, the characters, their emotions, YOUR emotions, and the essence of the story itself (the 'main stream') to relate what you want the audience to know and feel. 

When do you slow down? When do you speed up? When do you pause, take breath, look to the side, look back, look ahead? How do you deftly maneuver the audience to experience the ebb and flow of the story, and the ebb and flow of their emotions?

You can examine this process by placing sticky notes on the wall to represent scenes, characters, objects, and even music, poetry or famous quotes. Start with the events of the story in chronological order. Then ask yourself, "What if?" questions. What if I reversed the order? What if I started with a different character? What if I told the story in flashbacks? What if I used music or poetry?

Using the metaphor of a river, and using sticky notes to "map out" the flow of your story can assist in viewing it from a different perspective. You can then make conscious decisions about how you want to tell the story, or even run the rapid!