The Frustration of Hearing a Great Story.

I attended a military wedding many years ago in which I misbehaved. But it made such a great story!

Oh, I looked proper enough with my terrific hat and pumps, but inside I seethed.

I really should apologize yet again to my Navy wife pal, Anne, who was sitting beside me because I whispered to her throughout the service.

I couldn’t help it. The situation was so over the top ridiculous, I couldn’t keep quiet. It really was a gossipy mess of a marriage.

But that’s not what irritated me. I was frustrated because I’d never be able to write a story in which such behavior took place because everyone would assume I was writing about the couple.

It was just another fine story gone to waste.

I can’t speak for every writer, but I’ve always got a story running through my brain. I’m considering angles, thinking of subplots and wondering how I could translate some event into a bigger story–maybe even one with a moral or a reflection on the goodness of God.

God may have been good that day at the wedding–hey, they got married!–but I wondered how I could shade the tale to tell a story that wouldn’t reflect badly on the couple or on me.

I give up. I’ll confess my own sin and forget all the details of theirs.

Click to Tweet

But it’s a problem I run into all the time. I trained as a journalist, I love to hear stories–and the more irony-filled the better. I love to share the outlandish behavior of people I meet; the absurd situations I constantly find myself in, and the pointed stories that make us all pause and say, “huh.”

I know how to keep a secret; I’ve been trained in confidentiality. But if it’s not clear I’m in a confidential situation, the reporter instincts kick in and I’m taking mental notes and framing the story.

Which is why I get frustrated when a really great story comes my way and I know I can’t share it with someone else. Or, I know I can’t recast it into a novel.

A great story can be used to illustrate a point. It can amplify an emotion. It can teach a lesson. We’re hard-wired to pay attention to stories. Jesus, after all, used parables to great effect in His ministry.

Several of my friends have terrifically romantic stories–but they’re off limits for my writing.

Though maybe the one about the submarine and the shipyard worker . . . she never reads my writing anyway . . .   🙂

If you’re a writer, how do you manage? And if you’re a listener, how do you know if a story is true or not?  🙂

Tweetables

Another fine story gone to waste. Click to Tweet