Story Length: How to Make a Story Shorter
By Marya Morris
The first time I told a story in front of a live audience the producers asked me to keep it to 7 or 8 minutes. I spoke for 16 minutes!
In my defense, the story itself—about how I got married for the first time at age 46 and adopted my husband’s three kids—was an epic personal journey. It took me months to write it all down. Each chapter of the saga was more crucial for the audience to hear than the next. Every hilarious anecdote and poignant moment had to stay in there, I thought, otherwise the audience wouldn’t get the entire picture.
But here’s what I’ve learned since that long-story-even-longer moment: The job of a storyteller is to entertain the audience, and better yet even amaze some of them and maybe get them to think about the world in a new way. Nobody needs or wants to hear every detail or tidbit or part of my or your backstory.
Here are a few suggestions on how and why to resize your story:
Respect the producer’s rules and recommendations because, it’s their show! A typical storytelling show has 8 to 10 tellers. The producers give the performers the parameters for the show including the theme, the call time, the order in which everyone will be appearing, and how many minutes each person has do their thing. You owe it to the producers and to your fellow performers to stick with the time frame.
Time yourself. I was a newbie when I got on stage and rambled for 16 minutes. The producers said it should 7 or 8 minutes, but I didn’t know what to do with that information! I was thrilled when somebody told me about built-in app on your phone called, “Voice Memo” (on iPhones at least). I’ve never run over my allotted time since then.
Count your words. For me, 5 minutes is equal to about 750 words. I always try to stay under the time allotted because I always add asides when I’m in front of an audience and my pace is goes from fast to slow to fast. Keep an eye on the time it takes you to say your story out loud relative to the number of words on the page (assuming you write your stories down) and tweak the length to fit your spoken voice.
Prepare a story for The Moth. You get about 5:30 to tell a story at a Moth Story Slam. I started throwing my name in the tote bag at story slams more than 2 years after I did my very first story. I wish I’d done it sooner for no other reason than it forced me to edit my work. Not every storyteller wants to compete against other tellers, but the process of whittling your story down to 5 to 5½- minutes is the perfect exercise in storytelling discipline.
You need help! If you’ve got a show coming up, don’t be shy about asking the producer for input. Most producers will ask to see the written version of your piece when they book you for the show and would be happy to listen to you rehearse it to help you fit it into their allotted time. Many producers are storytellers themselves and will have firm ideas on what you should cut out to make it the right length. I am a firm believer that producers should require tellers to workshop their stories out loud.
Get peer feedback at The Cocoon. Story Jam offers The Cocoon, an open mic workshop held online, where tellers bring their stories to try them out on other tellers and receive feedback in a kind and constructive manner.