storytelling

DO YOU HAVE A MEANINGFUL STORY? A. Viktor Frankl would be proud of me.

He taught me that trying to get better at storytelling also meant trying to get better at being a friend, or a son, a boyfriend, a brother, or just a better person.

It’s a human need to be told stories. The more we’re governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible. — Alan Rickman

Matt’s Five Rules of Drinking Stories 1. No one will ever care about your drinking stories as much as you. 2. Drinking stories never impress the type of people who one wants to impress. 3. If you have more than three excellent drinking stories from your entire life, you are incorrect in your estimation of an excellent drinking story. 4. Even the

People would rather hear the story about what happened to you last night than about what happened to your friend Pete last night, even if Pete’s story is better than your own. There is immediacy and grit and inherent vulnerability in hearing the story of someone standing before you. It is visceral and real. It takes no courage to tell Pete’s story.

Having written a blog since 2004, I’ve long understood the power of unbridled honestly and unflinching vulnerability.

Matt’s Three Rules of Vacation Stories 1. No one wants to hear about your vacation. 2. If someone asks to hear about your vacation, they are being polite. See rule #1. 3. If you had a moment that was actually storyworthy while you were on vacation, that is a story that should be told. But it should not include the quality of the local cuisine or

Most importantly, folktales and fables do not create the same level of connection between storyteller and audience as a personal story.

Take the deadly trick played by the killer females of one genus of firefly (Photuris) on the males of another firefly genus (Photinus). Understandably, the Photinus males scrupulously avoid contact with the bloodthirsty Photuris females. However, through centuries of natural selection, the Photuris female hunters have located a weakness in their