Book Surgeon No. 14

Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks is a book about–as you might have guessed–stories. Dicks is one of the world’s best storytellers and a winner of multiple Moth GrandSLAMs, the pinnacle of competitive storytelling. Through a careful analysis of his craft, Dicks shares with us some of his best tips for not only telling better stories, but also finding the stories that are all around us.

Dicks starts off by illustrating the purpose of telling stories, which is “to express our hardest, best, most authentic truths.” And to be a good story, your “story must reflect change over time. A story cannot simply be a series of remarkable events. You must start out as one version of yourself and end as something new.” This is a key insight that Dicks shares throughout his book. The quality of a story is not determined by the simple events of our lives but rather how well we convey the impact of the world on our lives. You do not need crazy things to happen to you to tell good stories. All you need is to learn to pay attention to the seeds of stories that are all around you and to learn how to tell these stories to evoke emotion and interest from the listener.

The best stories are just illustrations of our most important life transformations or realizations, which is why we should always tell stories of ourselves, not of others. Storytellers are “the protagonists, so they are able to bring their own vulnerability, authenticity, and grit to the tales.” This is what makes a story compelling. A story should give us a direct insight into the mental experiences of the storyteller and our ability to relate to the experience of the storyteller will shape our perception of the story. 

With the purpose of a story in mind, Dicks now offers us a few strategies for unlocking the potential for stories that are all around us. As a schoolteacher himself, Dicks’ first strategy is aptly named: Homework for Life. In Dicks’ words, “I decided that at the end of every day, I’d reflect upon my day and ask myself one simple question: if I had to tell a story from today–a five-minute story onstage about something that took place over the course of this day–what would it be? As benign and boring and inconsequential as it might seem, what was the most storyworthy moment from my day? … I would write a snippet. A sentence or two that captured the moment from the day. Just enough for me to remember the moment and recall it clearly on a later date.” Since I read about Homework for Life, I began to implement it in my own life. As Dicks does himself, I began writing down one impactful moment in my life each day in a spreadsheet with two columns, one for the date and one for the memory. Dicks notes that, over time, it becomes progressively easier to notice and appreciate the stories all around you. I love this daily habit because it offers many of the same benefits as journaling, being present, and appreciating the world. Additionally, it has the added benefit of being organized in a manner that allows us to very easily go back to many of our life’s best memories, allowing us to relive the beauty of these moments in our lives. We can begin to observe patterns in our lives, as well as personal change or transformation over time. In doing so, you “start to sense the critical nature of your existence. There are no more throwaway days. Every day can change the world in some small way. In fact, every day has been changing the world for as long as you’ve been alive. You just haven’t noticed.” This is one of the key benefits I hope to derive by engaging in this exercise. I often feel very content with the days, weeks, and months of my life; however, when I consider the specific experiences that contributed to my satisfaction, I often cannot remember. This experience of forgetting our life’s simplest but most precious moments seems to be relatively universal. From the perspective of a parent, Dicks notes how “our lives are filled with beautiful, unforgettable moments with our children that turn out to be entirely and tragically forgettable.” Sometimes photos or talking to others can jog our memories of events, but Homework for Life is an effective strategy for more consistently and explicitly taking the time to appreciate the moments of our lives that contribute to your overall happiness and purpose. Through this habit, I benefit from not only the reflection that the exercise requires throughout my day but also the record of events and memories that I can look back to and relive for the rest of my life. As I write down memories from the present, I also begin to remember events from my past, which I also note in my spreadsheet, and is a further benefit of Homework for Life. 

Even if you do not follow any of the advice within its pages, this book is incredibly engaging and Dicks has some awesome stories to tell. Storyworthy is easily one of the most entertaining books I have read all year–and arguably ever. 

Share with others if you enjoy! Thanks for reading and see you next week!