You—meaning the narrator you, the storyteller you—are a character in the story just as much as the version of you at the center of the story. I tell a lot of stories about my childhood and I started performing personal stories in my fifties; both the child protagonist me and the fiftysomething narrator me are characters. Careful characterization is important. The narrator needs to be trustworthy, and trust is largely about reliability and authenticity. Your narrator’s character will be conveyed by the voice you use and the tone of your comments. If you want to be snide and cynical, no worries, as long as you are really funny while you’re at it. People can appreciate caustic humor, sarcasm, and irony. But if you want to take people on an emotional journey, they will want to feel like they are in safe hands and that there will be a pot of wisdom, or at least a token of insight, at the end of the rainbow. If your tone is about being forthright and thoughtful and self-aware and compassionate, and then you get snarky even for a moment, your audience may find this jarring. At the same time, the tiniest observation, something that feels like a throwaway line, can add to your narrator’s credibility.

Excerpted from the Lions and Tigers and AIDS! Oh, My!.

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