There was this one time...

Some people have hundreds of great stories to tell, and others seem to live lives in which nothing happens. The story tellers, if given a chance to utter the words, "There was this one time," will talk your ear off until they are shushed. I have actually heard people of the other type claim that nothing interesting has ever happened to them.

I don't buy that.

I think the difference has to do with what you find interesting yourself. This morning my son took off his diaper, climbed into the dishwasher, and pooped in it. To another person this might simply be the kind of annoyance you put up with as a parent. To me, it's a funny and interesting story (and after all, cleanup was a breeze. I just threw some detergent in and started it up.) It might be a great start of a scene in a novel or a short story, or just something to make a scene more interesting. Take for instance, the story of Faust. The devil comes to see this guy to make an offer on his soul. Ok, a potentially interesting scene. What if, when the devil shows up, Faust was on his hands and knees trying to fish a turd out of the dishwasher? How might the conversation go? It seems like my more successful attempts at writing have made use of my own experiences. The only story I've been able to sell so far was almost entirely made up of my own memories. Nothing is ever as strange as real life.