There’s a story-essay continuum, in which pure story is Action & Drama and pure essay is Ideas and Emotions, but most are a mix. For stories, action and drama are in the foreground, ideas in the background. Stories have plots, characters, dialogue, conflict, tension, surprise twists. They do more telling than explaining.
But a story should also be about something — love, loss, survival, courage.
For WhyWhyWhy! events, stories need to be relevant to the theme, but they don’t need to be about the theme: An Aliyah story can really be a story about the breakdown of a relationship; a story for the theme of “stolen” can be about overcoming fears or loss; and a story for the Chutzpah theme can be about coming home.
Good stories have strong tension and high stakes, meaning there is the potential for great loss and/or great gain. Good stories are unusual or surprising. To start a short story, it’s often best to begin from within the action, without preamble or intro, and the story should end with some kind of resolution — not necessarily victory or success, but a coming to terms with whatever was the central tension.
Back Porch Kaddish
Bill Slott brings us a personal story of a community gathering closely together while safely keeping its distance.