Namely speakers can transform any instance into a meaningful narrative, but most are tellable due to how they deviate from everyday happenings and the prototypical.
Amy Shuman studies how narratives change in different contexts, and she specifically does research with asylum seekers.
Authenticity often takes on a linear structure, as it reflects the cause and effect relationship and temporal sequencing of the events that transpire.
The chaotic narrative is told loosely and fragmented as it is the only way the speaker can remember and retell certain traumatic events.
While a linear story allows for a show of temporal sequencing and signifies a more objective perspective, the chaotic narrative's unorganized and seemingly disordered sequencing reflects the believability of the story due to the sheer emotional reaction of the speaker.
In Untold Stories, Ochs and Capps detail the major role that memory plays in tellability.
Some stories lack tellability for moral reasons, such as people not wanting to concern others with what they have experienced or to not hurt a listener's feelings.
[7] In her research she finds that people may make stories of small coincidences in the aftermath of a great public trauma so to create more drama.
Goldstein examines tellability through ventriloquism wherein someone who holds more social influence and privilege tries to tell the story of people less fortunate.
Telling the story of another person or community can be tellable, so long as it is not done to speak for them but rather to reflect on the speaker and to show what they gain from looking at these narratives.