And he took him aside and told him three things. And that's it.
Narrative is used only when absolutely necessary.
Where some of the mnemonic devices come through in these texts, even in translation from their original languages, we tend to apply a literate analysis. Our capabilities for oral transmission is vestigial at best in the same analogy as the loss of our appendix, tailbone, or limbic structures. We would probably be surprised to find that orally transmitted material was more accurately original to the source than written transmission. It has been, and is still my suspicion that a better understanding of the mechanisms and devices of oral transmission would lead to a better understanding of Thomas and Q and their relationships to the gospels. In some respects, I suspect that when that rubicon was crossed, accuracy fell victim to diversion and scribal variation.