Last Thursday was a perfect mix of laughter, drama, and all-around sweetness. Thanks to everyone who came out and helped make it happen. One of my favorite parts of the night was seeing so many people hanging out in the bar before the show, laughing and chatting. That is the perfect way to start a storytelling show 🙂

If you weren’t able to come out, we heard stories about exploding baby formula, the unspoken terror of the local blood drive, naked fishing in Australia, the excitement of applying for a job when no one will tell you what it is, a job where you spend more time documenting your work than doing your work, and a beautiful story of an unsung hero of 9/11.

We got to know the weird thing Jamie’s mother did as a nurse down at the old broccoli fields, and we found out how Abby discovered the greatest way to get out of a shoplifting arrest. What made these two stories even better was that Jamie’s mom and Abby’s dad were in the audience to hear them. I’m secretly hoping one day their parents will come and tell their own stories.

Craig told us about the fear of holding an 18-day-old baby, Carmen told us about the time she found just what she was looking for in an RV bathroom, and Brian closed the show by telling us why you should never try to cut down a tree with just your 10-year-old son and 80-year-old dad as backup.

Special thanks to everyone who let me extend the show a few minutes to tell my own story. I don’t like taking time for myself if we have a full show, but that night it seemed like I could squeeze in a little time for a story that I’ve been working on for a few months.

I don’t say this very often, but the real reason I run this show is to connect with people I would never meet otherwise. There’s something about sitting 20 feet from a stranger telling a true story from their life that makes me feel like they’re talking just to me. We have people who have been coming to FGS for years who have never told a story, but keep showing up to listen. I think part of why they come out is to feel like they belong. I hope everyone who comes to FGS feels like they’re right where they should be.

Our next show is February 19, and the theme is “Unselfish – Stories of doing the right thing”. Think about a time when you didn’t want to do the right thing, but you did it anyway. It could also be about a time when you wanted to do the right thing, but didn’t. Remember that we don’t talk about politics or current events at FGS, so these stories will have to be about the smaller moments in life where we were faced with a choice of doing the right thing or the wrong thing. Write me at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com if you have any questions.

Our good friends at 7 Stories in Burien are having their first show of the year this Friday. 

https://www.meetup.com/7-stories/events/312673307

They hold their shows at the Highline Museum, where you get to tell stories standing next to the DB Cooper exhibit 🙂

Our free online story workshop is coming up on February 1. 

https://www.meetup.com/fresh-ground-stories-storytelling-workshop/events/312722495/

It’s a great place to share a story you’re working on and get good feedback. It’s run by two FGS tellers who are great at getting to the core of a story and helping you figure out how to finish it.

Have a great rest of the month, everyone. I hope to see a bunch of you on February 19!

Paul

Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

Gretchen, one of the wonderful tellers from our show last week, wrote a play! And you can see it February 5-8 at the Kenmoor Community Club

It’s a “dramedy about what happens when the skeletons in the closet meet the ashes in the jar.” If you’ve enjoyed her stories at FGS over the years, you’ll want to catch her play.

Ashes Ashes We All Fall Down

Congratulations, Gretchen!

Paul

Hi Everyone,

Our next show is tomorrow! The theme is “Pressure – Stories of getting talked into things.” I hope a bunch of you bring stories to share 🙂

Themes are just suggestions, and you can tell a story on almost any topic as long as it follows the usual rules and guidelines.  Here they are if you haven’t seen them in a while. Every now and then I update them.

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

If this is your first time coming to FGS, we hold the show on the top floor of the Seattle Swedish Club. The show starts at 7 pm, and there are 109 spots of free parking, so you won’t have to walk far.

If you want to tell a story, show up before 7:00 and throw your name in Mr. Coffee. I give away three free memberships to the club after each show so put your name in the old Folger’s can if you’d like a chance at winning one of those.

Here’s a fantastic story from Kevin McGeehan to get you inspired.

I love all of Kevin’s stories. I might do a line-by-line breakdown of this one next month to show you why.

I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Paul

freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

It’s December 30, 2025, and I’m happy to announce that I’ve just completed two full weeks of saying no to people. It’s fantastic. I’m a no machine! No’s have been flying out of me left and right.

You should go keto. No.  

You’re looking sad. Have a piece of cheesecake. No.

You should turn your house into an Airbnb. No.

Buy a dozen Blackwing Palomino pencils even though you still have six left from the last pack. No. (I almost caved in on this one because Blackwings are the Kerrygold butter of pencils.)

I wish I could say I’ve been this good about saying no to bad ideas for years, but for much of my life I got talked into ridiculous things every other day. 

Climb up Suicide Peak with nothing but two cans of Coke and a Cliff Bar? Sure!

Try to swim across Lake Padden in Bellingham to impress a woman and have to get rescued in the middle by a 10-year-old in an inflatable Snoopy raft? Why not?

Buy a flip phone in 2024 in an attempt to break my smartphone addiction? Technically, this was a great idea if you don’t ask friends, family, or girlfriend. Not only did it break my smartphone addiction, it also broke off all contact with everyone I wanted to stay in touch with. I call this only half a bad idea because at least I got a story out of it.

What I’m saying is, sometimes getting talked into stuff can lead to a great story, if you don’t have to tell it from jail or a hospital bed. Come out to the Swedish Club on Thursday, January 15th, and tell us about a time when you got talked into something you wish you hadn’t. Or maybe even a time when you almost got talked into something and bailed at the last moment. That could be a great story too. How did it happen, and what did you learn? Did you grow wise or bitter from it? 

FGS themes are just suggestions, so you can come out and tell a story about anything as long as it follows our usual rules and guidelines.

Remember, a story isn’t just a series of things that happened. There has to be something at stake. As you work on a scene or section of your story, think about what you’re trying to overcome in that moment and what would happen if you didn’t. That’s what will pull the audience along. 

Practice the story out loud to as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. Please don’t get onstage if you haven’t practiced your story. The audience is giving you their time and attention. It’s not fair to them if you get up there and try to wing it.

All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want, but not over 8 minutes. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email if you have any questions about that.

The rest of the rules and guidelines are below:

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

Our free monthly online workshop is a great place to get feedback on your story. 

https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop/

I’m also happy to help anyone with a story they’re working on. Email me, and we can set up a phone call.

See you Thursday, January 15, at 7 pm on the top floor of the Seattle Swedish Club 1920 Dexter Ave, N Seattle, WA 98109

Paul
Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

Thanks to everyone who took a break from their Christmas shopping and holiday errands to hang out with us at the Swedish Club and hear stories about secrets. 

Benny started us off with a hysterical story about coming out to his parents, but subtly trying to instruct his family beforehand in how to receive surprising news with grace and patience. I can’t do the story justice here, but I hope he tells it at The Moth one day and we get to hear it on the radio.

Jackie, our first first-timer of the night, was next with a great story of waking up naked in a living room in the middle of an Anna Karenina book club meeting. My secret dream! How does waking up naked in the middle of a book club keep not happening to me?

Dave, our favorite Canadian, was next with a story of learning how to fly a Learjet with flash cards. Yes, I know Canada has 41.5 million people, and it may sound strange that Dave is our favorite out of all those. But if you’d heard the last couple of stories he’s told with us, he would probably be your favorite too.

Craig was our second first-time teller and told a story about breaking one of those fancy nutcrackers in Joanne Fabrics when he was four years old. He never told his mom what he did, and that secret has stayed inside him all these years later. It’s funny how sometimes the smallest things stay with us for decades. If I were Craig’s dad, I would have absolved him immediately since I’ve always felt those nutcrackers were the Chucky dolls of Christmas. If you wanted to terrify me as a kid, all you’d have to do is line up some nutcrackers a shelf in my bedroom and let me spend the next eight hours being chased around my dreamscape by them.

Lisa, our next first-timer, told a beautiful story about her first Christmas without her mom. It was a story about grief and what to do with it. Do we allow others to support us, or do we stick to ourselves as a way of not burdening others? I loved the way Lisa took us on the journey of how she came to decide who to spend Christmas dinner with. It let us know that there’s no right or wrong way to grieve, and the only way through is to put one foot in front of the other, trusting in where that takes you.

Bob was next with a story about a road trip through a blizzard in South Dakota in a cargo van with a weak heater and three on the tree. If you don’t know “three on the tree” means, then Bob and I are older than you by at least a couple of decades. Three on the tree means the gear shift is on the steering column and notoriously hard to operate. There are no numbers or letters on the stick, so you never really know what gear you’re in until you’re going up a hill and realize you are definitely in the wrong gear. Luckily, Bob ended up making it to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD where his parents picked him up. Maybe next month we’ll hear a story about that famous corn palace 🙂

Todd was up next with a story that begins with bar hopping in Ballard and ends with a discovery that we are only as sick as our secrets. And a secret shared is a secret halved. The trick to sharing secrets is finding the right people to share them with. Thank you, Todd, for trusting us with your secrets.

Kate was next with a story about shoplifting from the nickel box at her local thrift store when he was a kid. She felt so guilty afterward that she went back later and snuck the item back into the nickel box. Way to go Kate for doing the right thing! I am still feeling guilty over stealing a pair of 3-inch scissors from a kid in fourth grade in Fairbanks, AK. I still have those scissors. Should I Google him and mail them back? Thanks to Kate, I now have a holiday problem to ponder.

Ashley closed our show with a great story of how to wrestle an alligator in high heals. I’m not going to tell you how it’s done because I want all of you who missed the show to regret not getting this important information. I sure hope you don’t fall into a bayou in your ball gown one day.

Thanks again to everyone who shared a story and everyone who supported them. Next month’s theme is Pressure – Stories of getting talked into things. I’ve already heard from two people who are getting their stories ready for that one. I can’t wait to see who else besides me has a history of getting talked into stuff.

Have a great rest of the holidays. Our next free online workshop is Sunday, January 4 at 1pm. 

https://www.meetup.com/fresh-ground-stories-storytelling-workshop/events/312369421

I’m always available by phone if you need help on a story and can’t make it to the workshop.

I hope to see a bunch of you on January 15th 🙂

Paul

Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com