A story at it's simplest is one person delivering information to another person. The thing that might be misleading is that it seems that the receivers don't interact. In fact being told a story is a conversation of sorts where it fails if it doesn't elicit a strict set of retorts from the listener. The physical reaction you want from an audience is to keep watching, reading, or listening. Even though most of these reactions to a story are inaudible doesn't mean they don't happen and are not a crucial part of the storytelling process. Here are a few reactions an audience might have that would keep them interested in this story conversation.

Then What Happens

The most simple reaction you want from an reader or audience member is for them to want to know what is coming next in the story. This means they are interested in what you'd said so far and are telling you to continue. If people don't care what happens next you are going to need to have them react another way.

Why

When something happens in a story that doesn't seem to make sense the audience will quickly become curious. She was such a nice lady why does she need to buy a gun? Not every part of your scene will have the suspense of "what happens next", sometimes it will be a matter of wondering why something that just happened did happen.

Where

In general an audience member that is asking questions is one that is engaged, so that's a plus. One of them might be about the setting. If characters are doing compelling things and put in interesting situations, soon the audience may want to know where this is all taking place. What kind of place is this where such and such can occur?

Who

If you introduce a character without telling too much about her the audience will quickly become curious as to her identity. This will keep their minds busy coming up with possible answers, going over previous story points looking for clues. They will take the paltry amount of info you've given them and try to piece together some kind of identity for the character but will still hunger for more information. For certain they will wait and hope for more information.

A story is a conversation where you give them info and they react to it. They take in what you've given them and try to make sense of it. They will ask questions about things that don't make sense and wait and hope for the answers. A story isn't just you say whatever you want. Your boss can make you have a boring conversation with him but that doesn't mean you'd pay for the privilege. Consider the reactions an audience member would have to your material and it might help craft it in better.