Stories

sto·ry ¹  (stôr, str)

n. pl. sto·ries

1. An account or recital of an event or a series of events, either true or fictitious, as:

a. An account or report regarding the facts of an event or group of events: The witness changed her story under questioning.

b. An anecdote: came back from the trip with some good stories.

c. A lie: told us a story about the dog eating the cookies.

2.

a. A usually fictional prose or verse narrative intended to interest or amuse the hearer or reader; a tale.

b. A short story.

3. The plot of a narrative or dramatic work.

4. A news article or broadcast.

5. Something viewed as or providing material for a literary or journalistic treatment: "He was colorful, he was charismatic, he was controversial, he was a good story" (Terry Ann Knopf).

6. The background information regarding something: What's the story on these unpaid bills?

7. Romantic legend or tradition: a hero known to us in story.

tr.v. sto·ried, sto·ry·ing, sto·ries

1. To decorate with scenes representing historical or legendary events.

2. Archaic To tell as a story.

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[Middle English storie, from Old French estorie, estoire, from Latin historia; see history.]

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sto·ry ²  (stôr, str)

n. pl. sto·ries

1. A complete horizontal division of a building, constituting the area between two adjacent levels.

2. The set of rooms on the same level of a building.

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[Middle English storie, story, from Medieval Latin historia, picture, story (probably from painted windows or sculpture on the front of buildings), from Latin, history; see history.]

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Stories 

See Also: BOOKS, WRITERS/WRITING

1. All circumstances in a tale answer one another like notes in music —Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners —Virginia Woolf
3. A good story compels you like sexual hunger but the pace is more leisurely —Robert Hass
4. A good story is like a bitter pill with the sugar coating inside of it —O. Henry
5. A poor story is a good deal like a grist, the oftener it is told, the less there is of it —Josh Billings

   In Billings’ dialect this reads: “The oftner it iz told, the less thare iz ov it.”

6. Stories are like snapshots … pictures snatched out of time with clean, hard edges —James Crumley
7. Stories, like whiskey, must be allowed to mature in the cask —Sean O’Faolain, Atlantic Monthly, December 1956
8. Stories that meandered along like lazy streams —George Garrett
9. A storyteller is like a ship’s captain. He takes the passengers places where they might laugh or cry, but they always feel safe —Michael Parent, storyteller, New York Times, May 19, 1986
10. A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience —O. Henry
11. A tale without love is like beef without mustard —Anatole France

    See Also: INCOMPLETENESS