{"id":1366,"date":"2016-07-07T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2016\/07\/07\/rebecca-nesson-i-like-aliveness-whether-its-miserable-or-whether-its-ecstatic\/"},"modified":"2025-01-22T20:21:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T20:21:21","slug":"rebecca-nesson-i-like-aliveness-whether-its-miserable-or-whether-its-ecstatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2016\/07\/07\/rebecca-nesson-i-like-aliveness-whether-its-miserable-or-whether-its-ecstatic\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebecca Nesson: &#8220;I like aliveness, whether it&#8217;s miserable or whether it&#8217;s ecstatic&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-image mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<figure class=\"alignright\" id=\"attachment_124539\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/nesson_IMG-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Rebecca Nesson crafted an oral story for the Moth on her marital crisis.\" class=\"wp-image-124539\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rebecca Nesson crafted an oral story for the Moth on her marital crisis. <small>Rebecca Nesson<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Three years ago, Rebecca Nesson thought her marriage was falling apart. During a bitter argument with her husband, she told him\u2014in an angry whisper, because the walls were thin and she didn&#8217;t want the neighbors to hear\u2014that she wanted to leave him.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>The next morning, she found out she was pregnant. The news was such a shock that, for a moment, she caught herself wishing for a miscarriage.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>It took months for Nesson, who works as a computer programmer specializing in higher education, to accept and then embrace her new normal. \u201cIt was one of the most intense things that I had experienced in my life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>But she eventually&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/themoth.org\/stories\/coming-to-term\">talked eloquently about the experience<\/a>&nbsp;at The Moth, a storytelling organization that hosts live events and a radio show. She spoke with a low-key, almost deadpan tone, and during the story she recounted something she&#8217;d said in a coffee shop that captured the lunacy and discomfort of the experience: \u201cI&#8217;m really sorry, but I think I just had a miscarriage in your bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>During Nesson&#8217;s most recent performance, at Boston University&#8217;s Power of Narrative conference, her husband, Wayne, and two kids showed their support by attending. She spoke with Nieman Storyboard about the process of adapting a personal ordeal into a public performance.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>From the first sentence, the story is pretty bleak. You say you&#8217;re feeling fat after giving birth to your first child, and you&#8217;re making zero progress on your dissertation. How did you decide to start out with so much of that heaviness?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I don&#8217;t think that I ever thought about starting it in any place other than where I started it. It just always seemed to me that this was the story of crawling up from that lowest point.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>For me, confessing things is something that I find fairly cathartic. I could have just let it go away. But I really don&#8217;t like to do something wrong without going through some kind of apology.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>Did you draft the story? Did it evolve over time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Yeah. Usually, I spend a lot of time in my head thinking about the story, and trying to get the arc of it. Then I write the entire thing, just sort of following the outline that I have in my head. And then I try working with the written text to tell it.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Then I edit it, and rewrite it until it&#8217;s fairly close to what it should be. Mostly, it&#8217;s taking out stuff that doesn&#8217;t need to be there. For example, in an earlier version of the story, in the beginning, I basically go through two sets of bad stuff. In the most recent version, I got rid of one of those sets. There was no reason for me not to just take out that repetition.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Before I perform the story, I usually tell it a few more times, and extract out for myself the key moments or phrases that I need in order to remember where I&#8217;m going next. I get rid of the text, because I don&#8217;t want to be telling something that I&#8217;ve memorized.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-pullquote mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\u201cI\u2019m really sorry, but I think I just had a miscarriage in your bathroom.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>It takes about eight minutes before the story starts to feel hopeful\u2014and the whole story is only nine minutes long. How do you keep the audience from feeling total despair?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Huh. To the extent that I&#8217;ve thought about it, there&#8217;s action happening in the story throughout those first eight minutes. I never let anybody sit in stasis.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Each situation is darker than the previous one\u2014but they&#8217;re each a situation where I&#8217;m reacting to significant new information. That&#8217;s probably why people hang with me for eight minutes of the story. There&#8217;s a lot that happens.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>Did it feel cathartic, like you expected it to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Yes. It&#8217;s like the time when you&#8217;re most alive. Telling the story of it, in that completely immersed way\u2014it&#8217;s like reliving it. I like aliveness, whether it&#8217;s miserable or whether it&#8217;s ecstatic.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>And it&#8217;s always awesome to see that the story is actually meaningful to other people. Each time I&#8217;ve told it, there are people there who feel a little bit freed by hearing somebody else share something like that. A lot of people have experienced a miscarriage or near-miscarriage. And talking about relationship issues publicly\u2014it&#8217;s highly relatable to people, but something that people rarely do.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>Is there something about live performance\u2014as opposed to, say, writing\u2014that makes it more cathartic?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I think it would have to be very different if I wrote it, and I don&#8217;t feel at all confident that I could do a good job. One of the things that I find intimidating about writing is that you have no opportunity for back and forth with your audience. I&#8217;m a very critical reader.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I experience live storytelling as a really brave thing that people do, when they get up there and they share something so personal. When you&#8217;re in the audience, it&#8217;s a very friendly, supportive environment where people respect the risks that the storytellers are taking.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>Did this story teach you anything about storytelling?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>When I first put the story together, I felt like it had to be completely told from my perspective\u2014which really was not a generous frame of mind. When Wayne listened to the story for the first time, he didn&#8217;t like how he came out. Hearing that helped me re-evaluate. Over time, it felt like it&#8217;s not just my story I&#8217;m sharing, it&#8217;s mine and his. In the most recent version, he came out more human.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I learned from this one that I don&#8217;t have to force it to be more story-like\u2014like by making Wayne more evil than he really was\u2014in order for it to work. It can just work, just really being true to what I remember happening.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><strong>Truth can be just as eloquent as fiction.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Yeah. I wouldn&#8217;t say that there was ever any part of this story that was fictionalized, but I emphasized things in a way that was less real in the early versions.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Also, telling this story\u2014and having this one be publicly available at The Moth&#8217;s website\u2014has really pushed me to try to tell lighthearted stories. To the extent that I&#8217;ll be known for this, I&#8217;ll be known for this super dark story.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>So that&#8217;s been an interesting challenge for me. Two challenges: to figure out how to tell stories about small things, like not life-changing events. And to tell stories that don&#8217;t have huge gravity. They both require more craft than telling a really serious, really big story, like this one.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A story of marriage on the rocks and a pregnancy unwanted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"topics":[],"authors":[198],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5-questions","authors-daniel-a-gross"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rebecca Nesson: &quot;I like aliveness, whether it&#039;s miserable or whether it&#039;s ecstatic&quot; - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2016\/07\/07\/rebecca-nesson-i-like-aliveness-whether-its-miserable-or-whether-its-ecstatic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rebecca Nesson: &quot;I like aliveness, whether it&#039;s miserable or whether it&#039;s ecstatic&quot; - 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