Telling the story you want to tell

A while back, my friend, Eric, won a StorySLAM competition at The Monti. Eight people compete. Each goes on stage and tells a story for five minutes. Three groups of judges award them points. The winner is the person with the most points. I didn't get to see the stories that evening, but I did later hear Eric's story online, and he did a swell job with it. (I'd give you the URL, but I can't find it online any longer.)

Earlier tonight, the Monti held its championship event, in which eight winners, including Eric, competed. I was able to attend this one.

I had a grand time. All eight storytellers delivered commendable performances. Humor generally reigned supreme this evening, but a few of the talks, including Eric's, were on the more serious side.

Eric didn't win this time. As I said, humor was in favor this evening, and though his talk contained many funny moments, it also held many serious ones.

Eric knew going in that he was unlikely to win if he told this story, but it concerned something that had just happened, and the event was important to him. He decided to tell the story he wanted to tell, no matter what. He did it well, and he deserved the loud ovation he received.

Any of us who tell stories face choices all the time, and many of those choices have the potential to affect the tales we tell. I don't think it's at all a problem to choose to work in a particular area, such as a genre or sub-genre, but I do believe that when it comes to the actual story itself, you will do your best work only when you tell the story you want to tell. I'm proud of Eric for doing just that, and I'm glad I got to see him do it.