Why Can’t I Win at The Moth Every Time?

From hero to zero and I’m not sure why

It’s tough to analyze why a piece of writing is successful or not. Oral storytelling is even harder to pin down because you can’t watch yourself.

There are similarities. Audience response offers clues — after you put yourself out there first. That’s why impartial feedback in the early stages — often hard to come by — is so valuable.

At the end of the day, we storytellers — print and oral — do our best and sometimes scratch our heads over the results. Art is like that.

That’s me in the spotlight

Last winter I got into live storytelling. I performed at small open mic events, listened to The Moth Radio Hour, and dreamed of telling a story in front of a large audience.

Last December, for my 64th birthday, I told one of my favorite stories and won a Moth Story Slam. It was a magical experience.

When I learned the theme for February would be Love Hurts, I worked on a story I had written a year before. I rehearsed it to death, just as I had the previous story, and thought I had a good chance of doing well with it.

I slept poorly the nights leading up to the second Story Slam, even for a chronic insomniac like me. Going…