Teaching Narrative Writing with Frankenstories

Story-killing behaviour can be frustrating. It helps to depersonalise the behaviour and view it as a predictable and unconscious response to a stressful situation.

Our suggested remediation strategy is based on what Keith Johnstone called "paradoxical teaching":

• The idea is that you name the problem behaviour and play games that require the behaviour in order to highlight its effects.
• You can discuss what issues trigger the behaviour.
• Once players see the pattern, everyone can call it out in future games.
• And you can show how other training games help overcome these instinctive self-preservation strategies.

We'll follow this approach in the advice below.

The most common story-killer for large groups of young players is to derail the story completely.

What it looks like

• Random intrusion e.g. Tony Stark, Shrek, etc
• Meta jokes with 😆😆😆❤️❤️❤️ and ALL CAPS!!!!!!

Example: My Humiliating Day

Derailing can seem funny in the moment, but it ruins stories by making them pointless.

Why players do it

• To seize power (by destroying the game or leading the group down a different path)
• To get validation (by going for a cheap laugh or trying to seem clever)
• To reduce fear (by closing the door to risky uncertainty)

What's going on technically

Depends on the type of derailment:

• "Everyone dies" is a form of mega-cancellation
• Meta jokes are a form of avoidance (not playing)
• Random intrusions break the circle of expectations

HOW TO HELP STUDENTS SEE IT

Derailing game 1

• R1: Establish a platform
• R2-5: Derail the story every round, anything goes

The end result should feel pointless.

Derailing game 2

• R1: Establish a platform
• R2: Derail the story
• R3: Get it back on track
• R4: Derail it again
• R5: Free choice

Demo game: RETURN TO SENDER

HOW TO FIX IT

Constructive skills

• Introducing story elements
• Circle of expectations

Other tips

• Use approval mode to block derailing replies—this deprives them of social value.
• Discuss collaborative values: making something together vs seizing control or going for personal validation.
• Discuss the need for creative courage: being willing to do something unknown, "risky".
• Discuss the need for patience: being willing to sit with something for a little while.
• Talk about how cheap laughs don't add up to anything in the end.

Cancelling is where players (often unconsciously) shut down interesting opportunities in the story.

What it looks like

• Characters die for no reason
• Characters get into interesting situations and then immediately get back out again
• Players remove interesting story elements

Example: Goofy ahh story

Why players do it

Cancelling is usually about performance anxiety:

• Players might be keen to create an interesting, funny, dramatic story—but as soon as anything potentially interesting is introduced, then players can become anxious about delivering on it.
• To avoid failing, they unconsciously cancel (eliminate, defuse, ignore) whatever was interesting and move past it as quickly as possible.

Note: Sometimes cancelling is simply carelessness; players will occasionally cancel story elements and activities without realising.

What's going on technically

One way to think about it is to imagine that each winning round in Frankenstories contains "offers" for players in the next round (in the form of characters, objects, actions, routines, interruptions, etc).

• Ideally, players in the next round will accept those offers and build on them.
• However, if players are spooked and don't know what to do with offers from the previous round, they will cancel them.

HOW TO HELP STUDENTS SEE IT

Cancelling game 1

• R1: Establish a character and routine
• R2: Interrupt the routine
• R3: Cancel the interruption
• R4: Interrupt the routine
• R5: Cancel the interruption

Demo game: The untold story of Hannibal, where nothing remotely interesting happened

HOW TO FIX IT

Constructive skills

• Developing story elements
• Combining story elements
• Establishing routines
• Advancing through actions & activities

Other tips

• If you don't know what to do with something, slow down and either develop it in more detail, or combine it with something else.
• Show the emotional effect of the interruption on the main character. Let them be changed by it.

Once players stop cancelling, they will be left with the challenge of developing and advancing the story—and in response they'll probably begin to stall.

What does it look like

• Players keep developing extraneous detail
• Characters engage in actions or activities but never progress or change
• Characters never reach their destination, take action, discover information, or experience consequences

Example: The gold vault mystery

Why it happens

• Stalling is about fear and anxiety.
• If players know the story should be advancing but they haven't got any "good" ideas, they'll tread water in the hopes that inspiration will strike.
• Sometimes the stalling works, but other times it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle; nobody advances the story, so no good ideas come.

HOW TO HELP STUDENTS SEE IT

Stalling game

• R1: Establish a character and routine
• R2: Interrupt the routine, then immediately stall
• R3-5: Keep stalling

Demo game: Cosmo and the Great Glowing Mysterious Disk of Glowing Mystery

Note: You can use platform & tilt instead of routine & interruption, if you prefer.

HOW TO FIX IT

Constructive skills

• Triggering interruptions
• Tilting the platform
• Recombining story elements

Other tips

• Stalling can be hard to spot because some stalling is good; it takes time to develop elements and build tension.
• And stalling makes sense when you don't have an idea, so the question becomes, "How can I get an idea quickly?"
• The key is building fluency with triggers: introduction, combination, and especially change.
• And then relaxing and not trying too hard to find something "good" or "creative"—it's better to go with something simple and obvious that can have an emotional impact on the main character.

Sometimes the best way to avoid failure and embarrassment is not to play at all. 

What it looks like

Students don't play or write only perfunctory responses.

Why players do it

• Lack of reward: find the task boring, pointless, opaque.
• Lack of skill: don't have enough typing speed, language fluency, narrative skill to play and have fun.

HOW TO FIX IT

There is no simple fix, and no paradoxical games will work.

The basic strategy is to make the game more accessible and appealing.

Below are some suggestions, which you can use in any combination:

• Use custom prompts related to students' lives and interests. Let students write about themselves and people they know, or write fan fiction for texts they enjoy.
• Allow students to write unhinged trash (though block anything abusive). The goal is to have fun and increase students' willingness to do more targeted activities.
• Take dictation and write as a group. As a teacher, you can brainstorm ideas with the whole class or a specific team, then type the response for them. (You'll want to slow down the game timer.)
• Encourage writing fragments and list items to reduce cognitive load. For example, introduction, combination, and development games can be played only using list items, so players don't have to worry about complex language or narrative structures.

Frankenstories is a live-improvisational format, and again much of the theory and practice in Teaching with Frankenstories is derived from Keith Johnstone's work in improvisational theatre.

All creative work has challenges and stressors, but in improv they are particularly acute, public, and related to the mechanics of the format.

Keith Johnstone has described many story-killing strategies that players use in live theatrical improv and has invented many approaches to overcoming them.

The strategies we cover here are the ones we see every day in Frankenstories, and we've framed them from our point of view.

However, the broader topic of creative self-protection and self-sabotage is really interesting, and if you want more depth and detail, read Keith Johnstone's books.