I debuted a story at Miss Spoken last week, and my take-away from the experience was at once gratifying and unsettling. Gratifying, because it was received very well, I got laughs, sympathy and judgment in all the right places from the audience. It was a good crowd and I was grateful for their attention :) Unsettling, because I’ve never told a story at an event that wasn’t 100% mine before.
The story I told is one that I won’t be posting online since, like my Guts & Glory piece, it is of a more confessional nature and I hold those a bit too precious to share when I cannot do it with my own voice and see you with my own eyes. However, the big difference between this story and my G&G piece was that the latter was my story alone. Yes, other people were in the G&G story, but the main action was comprised of events that happened to/because of me in a way that made it definitely my story to tell.
The piece I wrote for Miss Spoken centered on a relationship, so it was only half-mine: it involved another person. This was their story, too, and I was telling it to a room full of strangers without that person’s knowledge. Now this story didn’t reveal any horrific things about that person, or necessarily cast them in a bad light, though it did highlight both of our youthful cruelties that young adults go through. But the story was mostly about a terrible thing I did to them. I was the bad guy, they were painted as a largely forgiving and mature character. I even changed their name. So why did I feel bad telling this story without letting that person know? It has been on my mind for days. I doubt I’ll tell that story again, or anything like it, without running it by any fellow major players in the story first. Hell, they might remember details that I don’t, and help make it that much better! Just because I featured in a story, doesn’t mean it is mine (alone) to tell.
The story I told is one that I won’t be posting online since, like my Guts & Glory piece, it is of a more confessional nature and I hold those a bit too precious to share when I cannot do it with my own voice and see you with my own eyes. However, the big difference between this story and my G&G piece was that the latter was my story alone. Yes, other people were in the G&G story, but the main action was comprised of events that happened to/because of me in a way that made it definitely my story to tell.
The piece I wrote for Miss Spoken centered on a relationship, so it was only half-mine: it involved another person. This was their story, too, and I was telling it to a room full of strangers without that person’s knowledge. Now this story didn’t reveal any horrific things about that person, or necessarily cast them in a bad light, though it did highlight both of our youthful cruelties that young adults go through. But the story was mostly about a terrible thing I did to them. I was the bad guy, they were painted as a largely forgiving and mature character. I even changed their name. So why did I feel bad telling this story without letting that person know? It has been on my mind for days. I doubt I’ll tell that story again, or anything like it, without running it by any fellow major players in the story first. Hell, they might remember details that I don’t, and help make it that much better! Just because I featured in a story, doesn’t mean it is mine (alone) to tell.
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