zurichstorytellers.ch blog

From ZST to The Moth: Six Months That Made a Storyteller

Joel Blom — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:49:35 GMT

Linda Soriton came to her first StorySLAM to forget a bad day. She left with a story—and eventually told it to hundreds of strangers in New York City few weeks ago.

The host reached into the bag, unfolded a slip of paper and squinted at the handwriting.

“I can’t really read this because there are a lot of squiggles,” he said to the crowd gathered at Domino Square in Brooklyn, NYC. “I think it’s Linda.”

Sitting beside the East River in Williamsburg, Linda Soriton could see hundreds of people spread across the open-air plaza. Behind them stood the preserved remains of the old Domino Sugar Refinery. Across the water, Manhattan formed the backdrop; overhead, residents of the new Brooklyn waterfront towers listened from their balconies.

The free Moth Community StorySLAM had also attracted people who happened to be walking through Domino Park that warm July evening. Some stopped at the edges to listen. Linda had come with friends intending to do exactly the same.

Now her name had been drawn from the hat.

“Shit,” she thought. “What have I done?”

This was not how she expected her holiday evening to play out.

Zero intention

Linda had brought her friends to an outdoor Moth storytelling event because she wanted to listen. At registration, someone asked if she would like to tell a story. Her answer was an immediate no.

Her friends kept nudging. Linda kept resisting. “This is New York,” she told them. “This is not Zurich. This is crazy.”

Then she heard the first few stories. During the break, The Moth host announced there were still a few spaces for more storytellers. Linda reconsidered. With so many names going into the bag, what were the odds hers would actually be drawn?

Long enough, apparently.

She walked onto the stage and told “If Women Don’t Lower Their Standards ,” the story she had developed at a Zurich Storytellers workshop. The crowd laughed at her encounters with the dating pool in Zurich, and the special horrors of middle-age dating. Her use of a French accent when recalling a Frenchman’s foibles travelled particularly well.

Photo: Linda performing at the storySlam in Brooklyn

A difficult day in January

Six months earlier, Linda was not a storyteller. At least, she didn’t think she was.

Her colleague Emilija Arsabaite had heard Linda entertaining coworkers with stories about re-entering the dating world after her 16 year relationship ended. She suggested Linda come to a Zurich Storytellers show.

As it happened, Linda’s first StorySLAM fell on a particularly difficult day. She had scheduled a counselling session with her former partner to explore whether they could remain friends. Knowing she might leave the session carrying emotions she didn’t want to take home, Linda put the StorySLAM in her calendar immediately afterwards and brought a friend along.

One story that night stopped the churn in her head. That was a story by Laura Badertscher, a veteran storyteller and Board member of Zurich Storytellers Association, our non-profit organisation. She told about waiting for the day someone might knock on her door and say, “Hi, I think you’re my biological mother.” Linda couldn’t forget it. “It took me away from everything bad in my own life. I thought: what a vulnerable, authentic story.”

Linda was comfortable speaking publicly; she had lectured at university. But personal live storytelling asks for something different. “I had never had to be vulnerable and talk about myself in front of total strangers. I just didn’t do that.”

When ZST advertised a workshop, she hesitated, then registered. What was the worst that could happen? She might learn how to tell a story—or not.

From workshop to stage

The workshop began gently: say something about your name. The prompts became more personal before anyone had time to summon their usual defences. Within half an hour, strangers were sharing experiences that truly mattered.

“Suddenly, we had revealed something we had kept hidden,” Linda remembers, “and it didn’t seem so hard.”

During the workshop, she shaped “If Women Don’t Lower Their Standards ..” into a fledgling 5-minute StorySLAM. Afterwards she practised it in an unlikely circuit of informal venues: whenever conversation stalled at a meetup, Linda told people about Zurich Storytellers—and then demonstrated with her story.

Photo: Linda at the storytelling workshop, March 2026

Her first ZST stage appearance in April was another accident. The show needed an additional storyteller, and Emilija mentioned to the co-hosts that Linda had one ready. It was nerve-racking, but Linda found familiar faces in the front row and told the story to them. That hack would later follow her to Brooklyn.

The story she had not prepared

Photo: Linda (winner) with fellow performers at the May StorySlam

Then in May, Linda stepped onto the ZST stage again. This time she told a very different story: the friendship with her friend Kat, who chose to end her life with Dignitas.

Linda had never written the story down. It had simply lived in her heart for a long time. She feared she might cry, but also felt the story was important to tell.

Even here, at its emotional centre, life made room for humour. When Kat said she planned to end her life, Linda cried and asked, “Does that mean I’m not going to see you again?” Kat replied, matter-of-factly, “Linda, Dignitas is closed on the weekend.” It was Friday. Kat knew Linda was coming back on Sunday.

The audience laughed—and stayed with her through what followed. Linda’s honesty and control earned her ZST’s Best Storyteller of the Month.

The dating stories and Kat’s story may seem worlds apart, but Linda had discovered what connects them: “In the midst of pain, there is always a moment that can break it.” A story can hold grief and laughter at the same time. Most lives do.

Find your people

Back in Brooklyn, Linda looked past the size of the huge crowd and found her friends in the front row. She kept her eyes mainly on them and told the story from her heart. The park began to feel quieter. Heads nodded as New Yorkers recognised the universal indignities of dating. The audience was with her.

What changed between the woman who came to listen in January and the woman standing before hundreds of strangers six months later? Linda’s answer is refreshingly free of jargon: “I got braver.”

She also learned a few things about the craft. A hook gives people a reason to follow. Structure makes a story recognizable and memorable. Descriptive words let an audience see the person you see. And stories written for speaking should sound spoken—not like literary journal essays.

Her advice for the person sitting in a ZST audience with a story but fearful of putting their name in the hat? “Go to one of their storytelling workshops. If that isn’t possible, go to a StorySLAM show and speak to a storyteller you admire. Ask how they assembled the pieces. Listen for how a strong ending often returns to the beginning.”

Most importantly she said, “Feel the fear and do it anyway. So what if you get it wrong? Getting it wrong is practice, and you can always tell the story again.”

Linda travelled to New York expecting to remain safely anonymous in the audience. Instead, a few stories, some persistent friends and one improbably selected piece of cursive handwriting placed her in front of hundreds of strangers. When she left the stage, she felt amazed—not because everything had gone perfectly, but because she had faced her fear, allowed herself to be vulnerable and discovered that her story could connect with people far from home.

To conclude our interview, I asked Linda to complete this sentence: “Six months ago, I never imagined …”

Without hesitation, she replied, “That I would be a storyteller.”

Six months earlier, she could not have imagined saying those words. Now she knew they were true.

***

Find your place in the story

Zurich Storytellers is more than a stage. It’s a community where people come to listen, experiment, find their voice and sometimes surprise themselves with where a story can take them.

By becoming a member of the Zurich Storytellers Association, you help us keep creating spaces for stories like Linda’s — while becoming a closer part of the community yourself.

Membership is CHF 50 per year.

BECOME A MEMBER →

5 Ways How AI Can Help Make the Process of Crafting a Story Easier

Maria Barikhina — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 20:08:40 GMT

First things first, AI is not a tool to write a story FOR you. Authentic imperfect style and unique life experiences is what makes us human. And it's beautiful.

In the past few months, everyone has witnessed the rapid spread of AI into all areas of our lives. Every new tool seems to be AI-powered, and ChatGPT frequently makes its way into news headlines. Some artists and teachers have raised concerns about AI replacing the skills of creation and writing. We’ve received many questions about what this means for storytelling, and we believe that AI should not be used as a tool to write a story for you. Instead, it provides numerous opportunities to relieve the challenges faced by storytellers.

Here are five ways AI can help make the process of crafting a story easier.

Every good story takes time to craft. Writing it before the show and rehearsing is key to a successful performance. However, a story doesn’t need to be perfectly polished. Sometimes a quick draft, outlining the key characters, important elements of the described world, and the arc is enough to kick off your preparation for the performance.

So step 0, write your quick draft. Who is the main protagonist? What is the main conflict of the story and the resolution?

Here’s how AI can help address the key problems storytellers face:

Problem 1: The theme didn't inspire me

Ask AI to elaborate on the Theme: If you're struggling to develop a story for a specific theme, let AI spark new angles and ideas.

👉 Prompt to ChatGPT: "Suggest different perspectives on the theme of [THEME] that could help me remember other experiences related to it," to uncover hidden memories and fresh ways to explore your story.

Problem 2: I don't have enough references of goo stories on the theme

Ask AI to Find Stories for inspiration: When looking for ideas or inspiration, ask AI tools to find similar true stories that have resonated with audiences and get a sense of what makes these narratives impactful..

👉 Prompt to ChatGPT: "What are some of the most powerful stories about resilience shared on The Moth?"

Problem 3: Is my story arc good and clear?

Test the Story Arc with AI: A strong story needs a clear narrative structure with a beginning, middle, and end. Use AI to test you story arc by inserting your text and prompting to describe the structure to help you see whether your experiences shaped a compelling journey.

👉 Prompt to ChatGPT: "Take a look at the story and describe the structure in simple words".

Problem 4: Some facts are not correct

Fact-Checking: Even with personal stories, accuracy matters. Use AI tools like to verify details and context surrounding your experiences. For example, recently i wrote a story about climbing Mt. Fuji and used AI to quickly check what's the exact altitude as well as some historical facts, eg. until when women were not allowed to the summit.

👉 Prompt to ChatGPT: fact-check the important details of your story

Problem 5: I have no clue how long it will take to tell my story

AI can also help you estimate how long your story will take to tell on stage. We always recommend to rehearse yourself so you know how the story flows and what pace fits it best, but if you'd like to get a sense of time before rehearsing yourself, ask AI to help.

👉 Tools like Speechify or text-to-speech platforms can convert your written text into spoken word, giving you a clearer sense of timing. Typically, a natural speaking rate is around 125 to 150 words per minute, so AI can quickly calculate the expected duration of your performance.

8 Practical Tips for Finding the Story Ending That Feels Right

Maria Barikhina — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 19:58:25 GMT

In the Zurich Storytellers community, we observed a common issue many storytellers face when crafting their story - finding the right ending.

Many storytellers have engaging journeys and rich experiences to share but aren’t always sure how to wrap it all up. The ending is where you give meaning to the experience you’re sharing, creating something that sticks with the audience.

Here are some straightforward tips to help you land on a satisfying conclusion for your story:

1. Reflect on Your Story's Beginning
Tip: Look back at how your story started. Ending with a similar theme or setting will make it feel complete.
Example: If you began with a memory of your grandmother’s kitchen, try to close with something that brings you back to that kitchen, even if it's just the smell of fresh bread. It brings the audience full circle.

2. Keep the Theme Consistent
Tip: Stick to the main idea or feeling of your story throughout. An ending that aligns with your theme is more memorable.
Example: If your story was about the courage to try something new, end with a moment that reflects that bravery, like signing up for a dance class or going to a new city alone.

3. Resolve Key Conflicts
Tip: Wrap up the main conflicts or questions in your story so your audience isn’t left hanging.
Example: If you told a story about a tough decision between two jobs, finish by explaining your final choice and how it worked out (or didn't), so the audience knows where you landed.

4. Show Character Growth
Tip: Show how the main character (often yourself in personal stories) has changed by the end.
Example: If you started with a fear of public speaking, end with how you felt after giving a big presentation. Even just sharing how you now look forward to small speaking opportunities highlights growth.

5. Choose the Right Type of Ending

Resolved: Tie up loose ends neatly.
Unresolved: Leave some things open if they don’t need a firm answer.
Ambiguous: End in a way that lets the audience draw their own conclusions.
Twist: Surprise the audience with an unexpected but fitting conclusion.

Example: Let’s use the conflict of someone deciding whether to move to a new city for a fresh start after a difficult breakup. Here’s how different types of endings might look for this scenario:

Resolved Ending
Example: After months of indecision, you finally decide to make the move. You end by describing how life in the new city has given you a renewed sense of purpose and independence. You’ve made new friends, discovered new hobbies, and feel happier than you have in a long time. The audience knows that the decision paid off and that you’ve found peace.

Unresolved Ending
Example: You decide to spend part of the year in the new city to test it out, but keep your old apartment just in case. You end by saying that while you’re enjoying the change, you’re still not sure if it’s permanent. The audience understands you’re trying to start fresh but haven’t fully committed, leaving some questions about your final decision.

Ambiguous Ending
Example: The story ends with a scene of you sitting on a train, looking out at the landscape passing by, thinking about the life you’re leaving behind and the possibilities ahead. You’re full of mixed emotions—hope, fear, excitement—but leave it unclear whether you’ll stay in the new city or return. The audience is left to imagine what happens next.

Twist Ending
Example: You finally decide to move and start fresh, only to bump into an old friend in the new city who’s going through a similar experience. You realize that what you really needed was a strong support system, not necessarily a new city. The two of you become each other’s support network, and you find new happiness right where you are. The twist shows that sometimes we don’t need a new place to heal, just the right people by our side.

6. Avoid Adding New Details at the End
Tip: Don’t introduce new people, places, or ideas in the last moments. Stick to what you’ve already established.
Example: If you’ve been talking about a road trip with your best friend, don’t suddenly bring in a third friend at the end—just end on the shared experience the two of you had.

7. Aim to Evoke Emotion
Tip: Think about the emotion you want to leave with the audience—hope, warmth, laughter—and shape your ending to match.
Example: For a story about overcoming a fear, you might want to create an ending with a lighthearted note, like, “Now when I see a spider, I just nod and say, ‘Not today, my friend.’” It keeps the tone light but shows you’ve grown.

8. Test Your Ending with Friends or Peers
Tip: Share your story’s ending with a friend or in a storytelling group. They can tell you if it feels complete or if it leaves them with questions.

By keeping these simple tips in mind, you’ll find it easier to end your story in a way that feels right for you and your audience.

Sources:

Top 10 thoughtful gifts for the storyteller in your life

Maria Barikhina — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 21:34:21 GMT

Storytellers are the keepers of memories, masters of emotion, and architects of connection. Whether they're crafting personal essays, performing on stage, or spinning tales for friends, they thrive on tools and experiences that spark creativity and elevate their craft. If you're looking for the perfect gift for the storyteller in your life, here are ten thoughtful ideas that blend practicality, inspiration, and a touch of magic.

It is necessary to choose a visual aid that is appropriate for the topic and audience.

1. A beautiful leather-bound journal

Every storyteller needs a place to capture ideas, fragments of dialogue, or observations about life. A high-quality, leather-bound journal feels timeless and personal. Consider personalizing it with their initials or a meaningful quote to make it extra special.

Why they'll love it: It's a tactile, classic tool that turns everyday thoughts into cherished memories.

2. Books on the craft of storytelling

Help your storyteller refine their skills with books that explore the art and science of storytelling. A few classics include:

"The Storyteller’s Secret" by Carmine Gallo
"The Art of Memoir" by Mary Karr
"The Moth Presents: All These Wonders"

Why they'll love it: These guides and collections provide insights, inspiration, and real-world examples of storytelling at its best.

3. Tickets to a live storytelling event

There’s nothing quite like the energy of a live storytelling show. Events like The Moth, or Zurich Storytellers, or any other local story slams, are perfect for inspiration and connection with other storytellers.

Why they'll love it: It fuels their passion and exposes them to new storytelling styles and voices.

4. Tell a story about them

One of the most meaningful gifts for a storyteller is to have someone turn them into the subject of a story. Write a heartfelt anecdote, record a video message, or perform a story that celebrates their uniqueness, experiences, and impact on your life.

Why they'll love it: Storytellers spend so much time telling others' stories—this lets them experience the magic of having their own story shared and honored.

5. A cozy writing kit

Put together a comfort-focused writing kit: a soft throw blanket, scented candles (level up the level of detail with a library-scented candle), and a selection of teas or coffee. This kind of gift encourages long, uninterrupted writing sessions in a cozy atmosphere.

Why they'll love it: It shows you understand the importance of comfort and atmosphere in the creative process.

6. Literary posters

Decorate their writing space with posters featuring famous literary quotes, illustrations of classic book covers, or portraits of renowned authors. These visual cues can provide daily inspiration.

Why they'll love it: It personalizes their creative space and surrounds them with reminders of why they love stories.

7. Bath tub book holder

For the storyteller who loves to read or jot down ideas while soaking in a warm bath, a bathtub book holder is the perfect blend of relaxation and creativity.

Why they'll love it: It allows them to unwind and be inspired by stories while enjoying a luxurious soak.

8. Writing toolbox

Equip your storyteller with a creative writing toolbox, complete with prompts, exercises, and tips for overcoming writer’s block. Options like The Writer’s Toolbox by Jamie Cat Callan provide fun and interactive ways to spark creativity.

Why they'll love it: It keeps their creativity flowing and helps them break through mental blocks.

9. A high-quality microphone

If your storyteller shares their stories through podcasts, audiobooks, or spoken-word performances, a quality microphone can elevate their recordings and ensure their voice is heard clearly.

Why they'll love it: It helps them present their stories professionally, whether they're recording from home or on the road.

10. A custom illustration of one of their stories

Bring one of their stories to life with a commissioned illustration. Find an artist who can capture the essence of a key moment or scene and turn it into a unique piece of art.
Why they'll love it: It celebrates their work and immortalizes a story that means a lot to them.