ATELIER LMNO
That’s Not A Story
How to turn your anecdote into a proper story
This is part of an ongoing series of workshop pieces for writers.
“It’s not what happens in your life. It’s how you write about it.” — David Sedaris
Years ago, I wrote a short piece about a genius who lived in my attic and smelled of garlic and old sweat. True story. I showed it to Abigail Thomas, the renowned memoirist and former literary agent, and she said she really liked it. She suggested I expand it into a larger story, but I didn’t know how to do that at the time. I’d written everything I thought I knew about the memory. I’d told all the interesting bits. There wasn’t anymore. The memory itself was intriguing because life is strange, but it didn’t go anywhere. It was just a curiosity. It wasn’t even a story, it was an anecdote, which is not the same thing. I didn’t know how to take it any further.
I’m using the word story here to stand for a complete essay with a beginning, middle, and end, where the writer overcomes some obstacle, a truth is learned, or some other sort of meaningful shit occurs. An anecdote is just something that happened — an incident. You go to the dentist and someone says something funny. It might be an amusing bit for the dinner…
