I’m a terrible storyteller at parties. They often go like this:
“Sometimes I’ll start a sentence, and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way. Like an improv conversation. An improversation.”
Michael Scott, The Office (Season 5, Episode 11: “The Duel”)
I often include either too much context (get to the point!) or too little (sounds like you had to be there). I often get interrupted, or my listener loses attention, because my stories are too long, boring, or seemingly irrelevant. I also have, in recent months, been stopped by my own laughter when telling a story. You may think that’s bad news for a writer, but I do have an exception to this trend that gives me a little hope: my best-received stories are those that I’ve told more than once.
The more I re-tell a story (and I only do so when it elicits laughter—if a story isn’t funny, it’s usually not worth telling), the better I get at telling it: I know where to pause, what to emphasize, what details to exclude, and, most importantly, what impressions to do. It’s like a natural selection of storytelling: only the best of the best of the best make it into the rotation I pull from when talking to strangers. My friends, on the other hand, are often at the receiving end of my Michael Scott drivel.
writing is rewriting is re-wording is really exhausting
It is good news that my edited anecdotes do considerably better than my first-time stories. Acclaimed authors Roald Dahl, Truman Capote, and Ernest Hemingway were all thought to have said some version of “Much of writing is rewriting.” I know this firsthand while working on my short story: I feel like I’m drawing a circle freehand and, after I’m done, going back over it again to make it more proportional. I know at some point, I’ll have to stop editing and be okay with an odd-looking oval of sorts.
Writing the short story has been difficult. I didn’t think I’d have to circle back and fix so many things. Every time I wanted to add or change one little thing, I had to make sure it fits with the rest of the story. There’s no way to Ctrl+F and replace your way out of it, either.
When I was younger, editing was the most annoying part of writing. Creating was the fun part. I loved scribbling down the nonsensical details of my imagination and not caring if it made sense to anyone else. I would seldom even re-read what I wrote, eager to move on to the next story, the next adventure. I guess that was better than not having any imagination at all.
As an adult, I try to not silence my inner child as she screams ridiculous ideas in my head: “WHAT IF the character could talk to CATS? Wouldn’t it be COOL if her parents were ANCIENT GODS? The story would be better if she was a WITCH GHOST MURDERED IN SALEM!” Even though we’re perhaps less imaginative as adults, it comes with a tradeoff: you get a capacity for higher-level thought, and more persistence when it comes to carrying out your ideas. You learn to enjoy editing (but still not nearly as much as you enjoy creating and inventing).
There were many ridiculous plot lines for this short story I entertained as a creative exercise. None of them made it in the story; but in exploring these avenues, I broadened the potential of the current narrative. Allowing myself to fully indulge my imagination made me more confident in the path I eventually decided to take.
I guess this is kind of like life: we have to make our own mistakes to know what’s right or wrong for us. And it’s different for everyone: You’ve decided to take your life in a different way than I have, so you might have some thoughts on how I decided to take the story. I guess you’ll wait until I finish this thing to find out.
This Week’s Top 3
- “L to the OG” 💸 – the last thing I expected to see on Succession– watch for Greg’s reaction (Content warning: white male rapping)
- “Million Pound Girl” by Fuse ODG 🎶 – pounds like the money, not the weight. Either way, it’s an unrealistic expectation for women.
- “TIL” reddit thread 🧠 – I’ve known about this for years, but was never a casual scroller until now (I’ll admit I will try and fact-check a lot of these, but the ones I’ve seen seem to hold up)