I love my comfort zone. I want to never leave it. I’m not exactly sure where it is, but it’s probably somewhere between the couch and the kitchen. That’s my happy place, on my way to one of those areas in the house.

Sadly, there are still things I want to do in life, and they all seem to exist outside my happy place. Such a paradox! I work so hard to find comfort and after about 20 minutes I’m ready to be uncomfortable again. Luckily, being uncomfortable can lead to some great stories, and that’s what were after this month. 

Come tell a story about a time when you left your comfort zone. Did you do it on purpose or was discomfort thrust upon you? Do you rush in with excitement or get dragged in against your will? Did you quit a soul-crushing job? Jump into marriage after 50 years of living on your own? Maybe you learned to drive a car in your 40’s when you left NYC and moved to Boise.

Did you conquer your fear of mice by covering yourself with peanut butter and hiding in my pantry? It might work. I have a lot of mice in there. 

Whatever you did to get out of your comfort zone, we’d love to hear about it. Or maybe you have a story about something else entirely. That’s fine too. Our themes are just suggestions designed to evoke memories. You can tell a story about anything as long as it follows our usual rules and guidelines.

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

Remember, all stories need to have something at stake. Ask yourself what obstacle you were trying to overcome, and build the story from there. 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, October 16, 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:

We had money left over in Mr. Coffee last week, so I get to give away three more annual memberships to the Swedish Club 🙂

Thank you all for your generosity. It’s what keeps our show going. I put your donations right back into annual Swedish Club memberships that I give away both after the show and later in the month.

So email me directly at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com if you’d like to be on the list to get a free membership. You have until Sunday night at 6pm to get your name in. After that, I’ll roll some of my son’s D&D dice and choose three people to get an annual membership to the club that has the best view in town of Lake Union and tons of free parking.

Paul

freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

Thanks to everyone who came out to last Thursday’s show. I was thrilled to see so many first-timer tellers! They were a big part of the show that night, and I hope they all come back and become regulars. 

Once again, I am writing this without my notes so I won’t be able to talk specifically about how each story touched me. So if you missed the show, you’ll just have to believe me when I say there were a lot of magical moments on stage that night. 

We even had a surprise visit from our friend Kent Whipple from Unexpected Productions. He was there to support two of his students who had just graduated from his storytelling class. Did those students do a great job? Of course they did! There were actually three former students of his onstage that night and they all did great. Thank you, Kent, for sending such great tellers out into the world.

If you can’t wait for our next show on October 16 (theme: Comfort Zones) you can hang out in the audience with me on October 4 at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center, where I’ll be watching two of my favorite tellers, Emily Pitts and Paul Barach, do their solo shows at the very first Umbrella Fringe Festival. These two are FGS regulars, and I’m so happy to see them get spots in the Umbrella Festival doing full 45-minute shows. Tickets for both shows are free.

Paul’s show: “You Will Forget This” – A Pacific Crest Trail Journey @ 3:30 pm

Umbrella Fringe Festival

Emily’s show: Rock Paper Scissors: A Brief History and Tournament @  5pm

https://www.facebook.com/events/s/rock-paper-scissors-a-brief-hi/871149339054902/

or https://kirklandartscenter.org/kirkland-fringe-festival/

I hope some of you are working on stories for the next FGS show. I’m looking forward to hearing stories of how you got out of your comfort zones. I’ll get the official meetup invite out as soon as I can. I’m always happy to help with stories over the phone, so write me directly at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com to set up a call.

See you next month!

Paul

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all working on stories for this Thursday’s show. If you’re looking for a place to work out your story in front of an audience, I highly recommend my new favorite open mic in South Seattle. It’s this Monday at the Royal Room at 5000 Rainier. This is one of the places I work on new stories. The audience is great, the emcee is wonderful, and you get a full 10 minutes to work with. 

https://www.meetup.com/the-artists-way-accountability

If you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a story from one of my favorite tellers, Micaela Blei. I’ve never seen her live and don’t know anything about her, but I always look for new stories from her.

I worked with three FGS tellers today, and I had a great time hearing stories from their lives. I can’t wait to hear them live. I’m free until Wednesday to help anyone over the phone with a story you’re working on. Write me directly at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com to set up a call.

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

See you this Thursday 🙂

Paul

One of the best tellers and coaches anywhere just opened up his latest storytelling class, and you should sign up ASAP cos this thing fills up fast. He didn’t ask me to share this, but I can’t not tell you about it.

Kent Whipple has sent dozens of amazing tellers to our show after graduating from his eight-week class. I have no idea what he does in those eight Saturdays, but everyone who attends comes away a better teller.

If you want to save years of sweat and strain trying to figure out the art of personal storytelling, take this class.

As much as I love helping people one-on-one over the phone, and how much I’ve seen people grow from going to our free monthly online workshop, there’s nothing that compares to spending eight weeks with a master storyteller sharing everything he knows about stories.

Sorry for the pushy sales pitch, but this class fills up fast because it has a great reputation in Seattle. I get no kickback or reward from sending this other than knowing that a bunch of folks are going to go out into the world two months from now and tell some sweet, funny, beautiful stories.

I hope to see a bunch of you at FGS on the 18th. The theme is Lessons Learned (although themes are just suggestions, and you can tell a story about anything as long as it follows our usual rules & guidelines)

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

Have a great weekend!

Paul

freshgroundstories at gmail dot com