When we tell personal stories we often forget there are other people in the story with us. Those people are just as important to the story as we are and shouldn’t be given short shrift. I forget this rule a lot. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.

This may be my favorite part of the entire series. Ira plays a tape of a story he did during his 8th year as an NPR reporter. He breaks it down, minute by minute, and shows us why it’s so horrible. This took a lot of courage and I’m glad he did it. Can you think of another artist with the guts to do this?

It takes a lot of work to gather enough material to have something good left over after you get rid of the crap.

Everyone interested in storytelling should listen to Ira explain how it’s done. This is a 4-part series that I’m posting here because it helped me a lot with stories I’ve been struggling to write. Maybe it’ll help you too.

Mary is one of those gifted storytellers who knows how to get laughs without telling jokes