Anecdotes vs. Stories: The Powerful Difference

Pop quiz for you. What’s the difference between a story and an anecdote? The answer might surprise you and storytelling is so important to humanity that I don’t care what you do for work, you’d benefit from being a better storyteller. 

Take this on for size:

I pulled into Whole Foods hastily, as always. This time I only needed strawberries, so I parked and walked with purpose to the produce aisle. Once I secured the berries, I made my way to self-checkout. No bag needed. On the ride home I looked over at the strawberries and thought about how good they’d taste. That’s when the light turned green and off I went.

This isn’t a story. It’s an anecdote.

Depending on who you’re hearing your storytelling advice from, it might be called a climax, an inflection point, an “explosion,” or something. But, the signature of what makes a story is that it takes you somewhere different. 

Let’s try again:

“I pulled into Whole Foods hastily, as always. This time I only needed strawberries, so I parked and walked with purpose to the produce aisle. Once I secured the berries, I made my way to self-checkout. No bag needed. On the ride home I looked over at the strawberries and saw movement in the container. Without much time to process, a massive unfamiliar spider crawled out of the plastic. I knew I was in trouble because it wasn’t just big, it had fibrous hairs on it. I didn’t know what it was called, but I knew it was poisonous. Trapped in a metal box with this thing, I wondered, “will I make it home?”

Now, that’s a story. And, what makes it a story is that there’s nothing about the first part of the story that reveals that you’d be hearing about a deadly spider attack in the second part. It’s the change of direct that makes it  

Knowing this critical piece of storytelling is the first step. The next step is putting it to action. Practice this the next time you have a chance to tell a story in any context. I dare you!