Rules of the Game (21 page)
Authors: Neil Strauss
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If you're having trouble coming up with eight stories, think back on recent conversations you've had with friends and family. Try to recall any anecdotes you told that elicited excitement, intrigue, or laughter.
If you're still having trouble, imagine that you have a chance to pitch a movie about yourself to film producers. What key stories from your life would you need to include to interest them?
If you're still stuck, call a parent, sibling, or friend, and ask them to share a few favorite memories about you.
Select Your Stories
Your next task is to scan the qualities you listed in Mission 1. Then look over the stories you chose for Mission 2. Mark with an asterisk each story that displays one or more of your eight qualities. Note that an ideal story does not brag or overcompensate but displays both your strengths and your vulnerabilities in an honest, humble, humorous, and engaging manner.
Of the stories you've marked, choose the two that you find most compelling and entertaining. (If you haven't marked any stories with asterisks, it's time to think of more storiesâor more qualities.) List your two top stories here:
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These are the core stories you'll work on today.
Prepare Your Stories
Grab a piece of paper, pull out your journal, or open a new file on your computer.
Write out each of the two stories in their entirety. Anything goesâas long as you don't fib, because it could come back to haunt you. Here are a few tips:
Have a strong beginning
. Your story needs to make a good first impression, and the best way to ensure that is to have a short, sharp, clear initial sentence. This can be a summary that flows naturally out of the conversation: “Oh, yeah, that's like the time I was forced to eat rancid shark in Iceland.” It can take the form of a question that grabs the listener's interest: “Have you ever eaten rancid shark?” Or it can just be an intriguing hook: “The weirdest thing happened to me while I was in Iceland.”
Have a good ending
. If the story takes a surprising twist at the end, reveals the answer to a mystery posed earlier, has a non-cheesy punch line, or wraps everything up into a neat lesson, this is ideal. Either way, make sure your last sentence leaves the listener with laughter, excitement, shock, admiration, disbelief, or any strong, positive emotion. You may also want to add a question at the end, to elicit responses or similar stories from your listeners.
Add intrigue
. Suspense occurs when a listener knows something is going to happen next but doesn't know either what it is or how it's going to happen. So make sure your audience is aware at all points where you're going with the storyâor at least that you're going somewhereâbut not how you're going to get there.
Include vivid detail
. Play back the experience in your mind as you write. Close your eyes if you have to. Remember sights, sounds, smells, and feelings. The richer the detail, the more involved the listeners will become.
Add humor
. Watch good stand-up comedians and you'll notice that between a set-up and a punch line, they squeeze in several additional jokesâplus a tagline after the punch line for an extra laugh. Find waypoints where you can add humor to your story. Useful devices include making fun of yourself, others, or human behavior;
comical exaggeration; references back to previous jokes; and saying the opposite of what people expect.
Add value
. When illustrating your positive traits, there's a right way to brag and a wrong way. The wrong way is to declare it in a sentence: “I just bought a new car.” The right way is to share it as a casual detail that helps paint a picture: “So I was driving home, and I had to unroll the window because the new car smell was suffocating me.”
Cut the fat
. When you're finished, reread your story. Make sure it's easy to follow and doesn't include unnecessary details and information. Mercilessly remove anything that doesn't contribute to the story. You may need to tell the story to a few people and make sure the pacing works.
Cut the neediness
. Make sure that the intent of the story is to entertain, amuse, or involve other people, not to sell yourself or your accomplishments. One way to prune validation seeking is to look at every instance of the words
I
or
me
, and see how many you can remove without detracting from the story.
Check the final length
. Your story should last no less than thirty seconds and no more than two minutes (that's roughly seventy-five to three hundred words on paper). If it's shorter, add more intrigue and humor. If it's longer, cut more fat.
