I was in Lisbon when the total blackout hit the Iberian Pennisula, removing power from all of Spain and Portugal for the better part of a hot April day. This was interesting! Nothing like this had ever happened to me. Of course I would write about it.
I made notes that day and night to capture the sensual experiences of being without phone or light or access to my rented apartment. I wrote a draft of the story back in Denver.
But then I blundered into territory my clients and I always stumble into. I was three pages into telling the details of the blackout – trams stalled in the streets, all shops dark and locked, no cell phone access at all. Three pages in and still was not even close to getting to why this mattered.
What went wrong? We all think our stories are good – and they are! These tales are interesting to us, but are likely only mildly interesting to a reader. I’ve identified the problem. It’s a case of anecdote versus story. Here’s an example.
Anecdote versus story or boring versus life-changing
Anecdote: On the way here, I saw a performing monkey! It grabbed my beret and put it on and played the accordion! It was so funny!
Story: On the way here, a performing monkey grabbed my beret and played a song on the accordion. The song was the one I always have in my head when I think of my French life. All this time I had been in love with France, thinking the song and the beret made me more French. But my facade was easily taken on by a street monkey. I had never felt so cheap and superficial in my life. Now I question the things I love – am I such a cliche? Or was the song a sign? Did my beret hold the song about Paris but also all my hopes and dreams?
Do you see the difference? A story has a deeper meaning, something more important to the narrator than ‘isn’t that funny?’
We tell anecdotes to fill time and space and share an experience we had. We write stories to understand something on a deeper level and to convey some meaning to the reader. As writers, we have to work to excavate the meaning.
The blackout story was just an anecdote. Until I dug deeper for a reason to tell this story, it wasn’t worth continuing. I was bored adding up all the ‘and then this happened’. (If you get bored writing, chances are your reader will be bored reading.) I didn’t have the bandwidth to really delve in to discover what matters, why it matters to me, and how it might matter to you, the reader.
People telling anecdotes mostly just want someone to hear their story. People writing stories want to move the reader with a new insight, feeling, or idea. They want to be moved themselves.
If you are stuck in anecdote territory, wondering if it’s interesting to a reader, dig deeper.
Three ways to make sure your stories aren’t boring
Check into your values. What is meaningful for you in this story? I couldn’t find many of my values honored in the blackout story. But the piece about speaking Portuguese while in Lisbon? I had at least 8 values in that story. Writing it felt alive and meaningful.
WAIT. After you’ve pecked at the story a bit, take a break. Ask yourself Why Am I Telling this story? Why does it matter to you?
Who cares? When we get stuck, we often think, who will find this interesting? Who cares? If you know who you are writing for – and you should – it will be easier to know if your reader will care and if so, what they will get from this.
What do you want for the reader? Why MUST they read this story?
When drafting my novel, I had to cut many major chapters. Whole sections! I loved these scenes. But they were merely interesting, not essential to the novel. Editing skills are as important as drafting skills.
Get your copy of Her Lisbon Colors here.
I hope this has helped you to improve your storytelling skills. Please let me know what this illuminated for you in a comment below.
Thanks, Cynthia, antidote versus story really helped me clarify those aspects in my writing.
I am writing a chapter in my memoir book, entitled, fierce and graceful movement- this clarification certainly will help me to write the stories rather than droning on. Thx for the tip.
And Congratulations!
Glad this resonated with you, Jane! Anectdotes have their place, but usually not in writing.
Good luck with your book – enjoy it!
I love this, Cynthia! I have never heard it put this way. Bravo!
Thanks, Alyson!
Thanks for showing the difference between anecdote and story! I think a lot of travel writing is boring because it’s mostly anecdote, unless people are looking for a step-by-step direction of how one navigated a certain place or experience. I’d like to see the deeper meaning behind a lot of those experiences!
You are so right, Molly! It’s almost as if we could say, if we find ourselves writing
‘and then’… we are in anecdote territory.
Add that deeper meaning to your writing!
Oh, I love this! As an artist I am also aiming to dive beneath the obvious and pretty to the WHY, why does this scene or color or line move me? And editing…requires clarity and willingness to focus on the one most valuable thing, even though so much else is absolutely lovely and beautiful.
I’m in the process of “editing” my website and how I share my art into a whole new level and this is so helpful.
Thank you, this helped me see more clearly for both my art and my writing! And thank you Alyson Stanfield for sharing this with me.
Glad you found this, Stede! Congrats on getting your website and art to a whole new level. That’s exciting!
Have fun with it. 🙂
Super explanation. I especially appreciate how you identify that stories ought to align with core values. That detail puts a whole new twist on things for me.
I do think some authors add anecdotal moments as they happen to key characters in a novel; these “side moments” can help the reader to engage with the character — when used sparingly. If I could, I’d share an example, but no exact example comes to mind at this moment.
PS. If I were in your shoes in Lisbon during the blackout, it would have been a great segway for me into stories of my childhood in Mexico when power was intermittent and water was shut off daily at 5 PM. As early as 6 years old, I began learning the importance of conserving energy, developing resilience, and planning for not only emergencies but also for life itself.
Suzanne,
Thanks for your comment! You give a great example for how the blackout is meaningful not just to your life, but how you learned how to live with resiliency and awareness of how precious our resources are. See – you could make a great essay from this.
My only connection with the blackout is a belief that this is how things are going to go down – the grid will go down in some way, and we will have to figure out survival without electricity. But that felt too doomy and I didn’t feel a strong connection to write the piece. Still, it was a great exercise for me to see how we can write our way into a boring corner.
Re: our values…I have come to believe as a coach and author that we cannot write anything meaningful unless it’s a reflection/expression of a value or two. They are the engine that drives everything!
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Thank you for this Cynthia. It inspired me to use this formula to write about headaches.
Doing this uncovered a few things about my relationship with pain.
As I strive to write something that somebody other than me would like to read, this helped. A potential reader emerged from the exercise. Maybe a woman laying in bed with a headache or a woman procrastinating on taking action would like to read this essay.
I love seeing your creativity ever-expanding, Carla!
POSTING THIS ON THE WALL ABOVE MY DESK! With a big, bold SO WHAT?!
Noticing as I try to add enough detail to be (credible, engaging, informative), I see how easily I slip into relaying anecdotes, losing the impact of why does it matter?!
Especially if I’m retelling serendipitous events or coincidences, i.e., did-that-just-happen?! I catch myself pointing and narrating: Look! Another one! And another! Instead of asking: What thread connects these? What’s the transformation, the tension, the take-home?
I don’t just want to tell readers to see what I saw—I want them to feel what shifted in me. Thank you!!!!
Do it! It really helps to have a compass for how to choose what stays or goes. What’s relevant or not.
Happy writing, Carolyn!
I’ve recently been dipping my toe into live story telling and have been very curious about the differences between anecdote and story. Thank you for the simple explanation! Very helpful!
So glad you are writing, Laura. Have you read the book How to Tell a Story? It’s by the Moth people.