Writing a Tall Tale

What a tall tale is

A tall tale is a humorous story that stretches the truth far past belief while the narrator behaves as if every word is plain fact. It comes from oral storytelling traditions, especially in North America, where stories about oversized heroes and impossible feats were told for entertainment. The comedy comes from the gap between the wild events and the matter-of-fact telling.

The main elements of a tall tale

Different teachers list them slightly differently, but most lists include these three or four.

1. A larger-than-life hero. The central character has an extraordinary skill, size, strength or speed, often tied to a trade such as logging, farming, sailing or railroad work.
2. Exaggeration. Events, weather, animals and abilities are blown up far past reality, often in a single vivid comparison.
3. A believable, straight-faced narrator. The storyteller sounds sincere and uses everyday, conversational language, which makes the exaggeration funnier. See writing in first person for more on voice.
4. A problem solved in an impossible way. The hero faces a difficulty, often an ordinary one made enormous, and resolves it with a creative or absurd solution.

Many tall tales also use humor, figurative language such as similes and hyperbole, and a regional voice.

Classic tall tale examples

You can learn a lot by reading a few traditional tales and noticing how they escalate. Commonly cited heroes include:

• Paul Bunyan, a giant lumberjack associated with logging stories, often paired with a giant blue ox.
• Pecos Bill, a cowboy figure whose tales involve taming wild animals and weather.
• John Henry, a steel-driving railroad worker whose story centres on a contest with a machine. Versions of this tale are often treated as folk legend and ballad, and it is more sombre than many comic tall tales.
• Johnny Appleseed, based on a real person, John Chapman, with many exaggerated stories attached.

These are traditional stories with many retellings, so details vary between versions. Read a few and compare.

How to start a tall tale

Strong openings usually do one of three things:

• Introduce the hero through exaggeration. For example, describe the hero’s birth or childhood with an impossible detail, such as a cry so loud it rattled the neighbours’ windows.
• Start in the narrator’s voice. Open with a casual, confident line that claims the story is true.
• Start with the problem. Begin with a difficulty that is slightly too big, such as a winter so cold that words froze in the air.

Skip a formal introduction. Tall tales work best when the voice is established in the first sentence.

Step-by-step: write your own tall tale

1. Choose your hero. Pick an everyday person, such as a relative, a friend or a version of yourself, then give them one impossible talent.
2. Choose a setting and a job. Tall tales are often rooted in work and landscape. A bakery, a school bus route or a fishing town can all work.
3. Pick an everyday problem. A traffic jam, a long walk, a storm or a late delivery is enough.
4. Make the problem enormous. Increase size, speed or difficulty past reason, and add a second complication.
5. Let the hero solve it in a surprising way. The solution should come from the hero’s special ability or a clever, absurd idea.
6. Add similes and comparisons. Phrases such as “as tall as” or “so fast that” are traditional tools.
7. Close with a punchline or a lasting effect. Many tales end by explaining how a landmark, weather pattern or custom came to be.

Tall tale ideas

• A baker whose bread rises so high it has to be harvested with a ladder.
• A school bus driver who can reach every stop in the county in under a minute, until the day the road disappears under fog.
• A young fisher whose line is so long it ends up tangled around a neighbouring state.
• A librarian who shushes so quietly that the whole town falls silent for a week.
• A kid who sneezes and accidentally relocates a mountain.

For more premises across short forms, see imaginative short stories examples.

Making the exaggeration work

• Keep the tone serious. Do not wink at the reader. The narrator believes the story.
• Escalate. Each exaggeration should top the last, rather than repeat it.
• Use concrete comparisons. “Louder than a hundred church bells” is clearer than “very loud.”
• Anchor the story in small, real details. A realistic detail makes an impossible one funnier. Our scene setting examples show how to choose them.
• Give the hero a flaw or a limit. Even an impossible hero is more interesting when something challenges them.

Revising

Read the draft aloud, since tall tales are meant to be told. Mark places where the rhythm drags, trim explanations of the jokes, and check that the ending lands on the strongest image. If the story is meant for children, shorter sentences and a clear repeated pattern help. If you want to practice compressing a funny idea into a few hundred words, try the prompts in ideas for flash fiction stories.