Be aware of narrative scale

This lesson is mostly about narrative structure.

But larger structures are all built from smaller structures, and narratives come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and levels of complexity.

So before we dive into writing stories, it's worth getting our bearings with regard to narrative scale.

Moment vs scene vs story

Structurally, narrative is built from blocks at different levels of granularity:

Stories are built from scenes.
Scenes are built from moments.
Moments are the smallest building block.
Summary is used to connect scenes, like mortar between blocks, and compress entire stories.

Each scale has a distinct purpose...

Moments are sensory and experiential and focus on a single action.
Scenes focus on a single place and time and show characters struggling with some contrast or conflict.
Stories follow characters over a period of time as they attempt to adapt to important changes in their world.

Along with recurring patterns

Writing models the world, and the world is fractal—so each narrative scale features recurring patterns.

For example, we see the pattern of cause and effect:

In the moment: When Kiki saw the shoes, her eyes went wide and her hands began to shake.
In a scene: Kiki tried to retrieve the toy cat from the crows' nest, but the birds chased her away.
Across a story: After slowly losing her ability to fly, Kiki was forced to suspend her delivery business.

This is important for two reasons.

In Frankenstories, players can write at any scale

Depending on their use of detail or summary, players can write:

Moments such as this moment before a plane crash
Scenes such as wriggling out of a deal with a leprechaun flautist
Stories such as this one about a society that adopts mind-control suits en masse

Encourage your students to experiment with different narrative scales!

Exercise 1: Identify narrative scale

After playing a Frankenstories game, ask your students to identify the narrative scale of the game:

Do this analysis over multiple games, and see if students have a preference.

Why might players prefer to write at a particular scale?

Exercise 2: Write at a specific narrative scale

Once students understand the difference between narrative scales, then challenge them to play a game at a specific scale:

If they tend to write drawn-out descriptive moments, try writing a complete story (using summary instead of detail).
If they tend to write strings of shallow events, try slowing down to detail a moment.
If their games tend to lack shape or arc, try writing a scene with moments that build a sense of struggle and resolution.

Concepts in this lesson apply at multiple scales

For instance, we'll be discussing the concept of "interruptions".

Interruptions can occur at any scale:

Make sure you point out this relative scaling to students.

Otherwise, there's a chance they will lock a concept into one level and get confused when it appears in another.

Teaching Narrative Writing with Frankenstories