Personal story-telling is the standup comedy of the 2010s.

All across LA, writers (and other humans) are searching their souls, spilling their guts and trying to get a few laughs along the way.

These days, you can't throw a rock without hitting some kind of word event. Theaters, clubs and restaurants are all hosting shows where people read their personal essay and/or tell their story – and there's a new show starting every week.

Each show has it's own particular vibe, rules and flavor, from serious to sensational, literary to licentious. Professional writers and/or performers often mix with inspired amateurs. Some include music. Some strictly enforce time limits. Some are competitive. Some are a lot like therapy – at least for the people onstage telling the stories.

This is all great news for writers, because these events provide hard deadlines and thematic frames to create focused pieces, encourage productivity, provide a sense of community and offer an interesting new kind of showcase.

These are some excellent insights into the elements of storytelling from Ira Glass of NPR's "This American Life" (which has featured some amazing storytelling, including Un-Cabaret performances by Julia Sweeney).

In this rap, Ira lays out some important building blocks of oral storytelling for radio or TV. It's also good advice for one-person shows, standup or spoken word.

Even if it's not your end goal, think about using stage or any way of talking out loud to 'write' because then you are generating material from the 'right' side of your brain.