There's one class of stories I both tell and write -- certain performance pieces. "Paul Bunyan and the Photocopier" (in the recent Say...) was told aloud a handful of times before I wrote it down -- to make sure I got all the plot wrinkles in order. I got started writing as a storyteller, and still do it occassionally.

That said, that's the only oral piece I've sold. Most of them make better tales than stories. And an actual story, once outlined or told, I don't get very far.

---L.