The rubric "True Stories" has a strict constraint: no invention. The author does not embellish, does not add flashy twists, and does not squeeze out a moral. He works with material that already contains everything necessary — the only task is not to ruin it.
The main filter is paradoxical authenticity. A story enters the column if it simultaneously provokes the reaction "that can't happen" and the confirmation "but that's exactly how it went." This double movement creates the comic effect, which requires no jokes. Laughter arises from the sheer fact: reality is capable of plots a professional playwright would discard as implausible.
The author deliberately avoids the genre of the tall tale or the joke. In a tall tale, the narrator winks: "I know what's funny, and I'm leading you to the punchline." Here, it is different: the narration maintains the neutrality of a witness. The reader discovers the comedy of the situation independently, and it works all the more powerfully for that.
The format is a monthly short story. No seriality, no recurring characters. Only a singular event, a document of absurdity that life dropped into someone's biography.
The main filter is paradoxical authenticity. A story enters the column if it simultaneously provokes the reaction "that can't happen" and the confirmation "but that's exactly how it went." This double movement creates the comic effect, which requires no jokes. Laughter arises from the sheer fact: reality is capable of plots a professional playwright would discard as implausible.
The author deliberately avoids the genre of the tall tale or the joke. In a tall tale, the narrator winks: "I know what's funny, and I'm leading you to the punchline." Here, it is different: the narration maintains the neutrality of a witness. The reader discovers the comedy of the situation independently, and it works all the more powerfully for that.
The format is a monthly short story. No seriality, no recurring characters. Only a singular event, a document of absurdity that life dropped into someone's biography.