Teaching Narrative Writing with Frankenstories

Combining story elements

Once we've introduced some story elements, we need to get on with the business of doing something with them.

And at a conceptual level, what we do is combine them to create interesting relationships, situations, and often some sort of change.

Again, fairy tales are extremely efficient at this.

It can be helpful to pair the term 'combine' with 'connect', as in, "We want to combine or connect these story elements in some way, so together they can do something new."

On the previous page, in The Fisherman and His Wife, we saw a fisherman catch a flounder.

That's the first combination—man and fish—and the relationship is odd because the fish turns out to be enchanted, which leads to the next combination of fisherman and wife:

The flounder said, "Now look, fisherman – what about letting me live, eh? I'm no ordinary flounder. I'm an enchanted prince. What good would it do you to kill me? I wouldn't taste nice at all. Put me back in the water, there's a good fellow."

"Fair enough," said the fisherman. "Say no more. The word of a talking fish is good enough for me."

And he put the flounder back in the water, and down it swam to the bottom, leaving a long trail of blood behind it.

Then the fisherman went back to his wife in their filthy shack.

"Didn't you catch anything today?" she said.

"Oh, yes," he said. "I caught a flounder. A great big ‘un. But he told me he was an enchanted prince, so I let him go."

"Typical!" said the wife. "Why didn't you ask him for something?"

"I dunno," said the fisherman. "What should I have asked for?"

"Those enchanted princes can do anything," said the wife. ‘And look at this shack. It stinks, the rain comes in, the shelves keep falling off the walls; it's a terrible place to live. Go back and call that flounder up and tell him we want a nice cottage, all clean and neat. Go on."

The fisherman didn't really feel like doing that, but on the other hand he knew what would happen if he didn't do what his wife wanted, so back he went to the seashore. When he got there the water wasn't clear any more, but dark green and murky yellow.

The Fisherman and His Wife(2012)

As we can see, the fisherman returns to his wife carrying news of the enchanted flounder, and his wife introduces a new story element—the wish—which the fisherman carries back to the flounder to create a new combination (fisherman, flounder, and wish).

In Frankenstories, the goal is often to introduce some interesting elements in Rounds 1 & 2 then try to find interesting combinations every subsequent round, until the elements are 'used up' (which we'll talk about it a moment).

For example, have a look at what is introduced and then combined through this Frankenstory about a war between a couple of old ladies:

A MOST PETUNIAR CASE INDEED

1

Her petunias wouldn't win the flower competition this year. I had found out what fertilizer she used and bought out every Bunnings from Brisbane to Perth. What's more, I had hidden the stash somewhere she could never find it—in my secret blueberry cellar. I would definitely win

2

the golden cabbage. I'll make a bird bath centrepiece out of it and display it in the middle of my front yard so that every time she walks her dog in the morning she sees it and is reminded of the time I grew the best petunias.

But first I need to gr

3

grow some petunias. And that turns out not to be so easy, even with all this fertilizer I bought. So far all my specimens have either died or become monstrously large.

I needed to steal some of hers.

4

I prepared by putting on my biggest gumboots and repotting my most ferocious petunia, and together we climbed the fence into Irma's yard. I let my petunia loose on the cabbages as a distraction and ran for the flowerbeds. There they were, so green and perfect.

5

I dug one out and put it in my pocket. Was one enough? Surely not. I kept digging. I heard shouting from the cabbage patch. Irma would be occupied for a while. I had dug out 5 petunias when I felt a leafy tap on my shoulder. What the--?

I need to invest in better garden clippers/

"A Most Petuniar Case Indeed"

1. Lots of elements are introduced at the start that are not reused

The secret blueberry cellar, the golden cabbage, the bird bath centrepiece—these become background detail rather than functional story elements. (Though one of the Round 5 entries attempted to reintroduce a couple of them.)

This is typical of Frankenstories: nobody knows where the story is going, so there is a bit of a scramble to figure out what is useful and important.

2. Combinations start fairly quickly

  • Narrator stockpiling Irma's fertilizer
  • Irma's fertilizer with the narrator's petunias

3. There is a late introduction

The idea of a monstrous petunia is raised in Round 3 but only made explicit in Round 4.

You can tell the players have grabbed hold of this because they are struggling to find good combinations and this one has potential for good chaos, but they don't have much time left to make use of it.

4. The final rounds are a flurry of combinations

  • Narrator and monster petunia in Irma's garden
  • They split up and go to different garden beds
  • Irma and the petunia fight in the cabbage patch (the dog has vanished in this reply)
  • Finally the petunia comes back for the narrator, with the implication being that it might have gone truly wild.

One way that we understand a story is 'finished' is when we get the sense that all the key story elements have been 'used up' in some way, meaning they've been combined in some way that has created a meaningful and satisfying change in their relationships.

For example, in the petunia story, the most important elements turn out to be Irma and her normal prize-winning petunias, the narrator and her mutant monster petunia, and the narrator's desire to beat Irma at all costs.

Even though it's not completely clear what's going on, the final round works as an ending because all the elements have been combined into a new order:

  • It seems like the monster petunia has defeated Irma
  • The narrator has stolen Irma's petunia stock
  • But the narrator's desire to win at all costs brings her to a sticky end because the wild monster petunia comes for her too.

Because the ending is a little vague, you could imagine this story carrying on if the players had had more rounds; but since this is where the story ends, we tend to interpret the ending in that most signifies 'finality'.

Modern storytelling in the English-speaking world is pretty efficient when it comes to combining and recombining elements: we like to see everything used up. (It's Chekhov's gun: if it's on the mantle in Act 1, it needs to be fired in Act 3.)

Advanced: Shelving and reincorporation

One of the greatest pleasures for an audience is when a story element that they had forgotten about is reintroduced in a meaningful way.

For this reason, it's good to introduce a few 'surplus' elements to keep on the shelf that you can use later, and as you create the story, keep looking back at that shelf to see if something can be reincorporated, even if only to give a sense of closure.

For example, here is a Round 5 alt from Most Petuniar that returned to the Round 2 shelf and attempted to reincorporate the golden cabbage and the birdbath (as well as Irma's dog):

I scooped one up and turned to retrieve my rogue petunia—but Irma's dog burst out and started barking at, with Irma close behind.

I hadn't intended to leave it, but oh well—I slunk back over the fence with my spoils, which I planted and fertilised while the shenanigans next door continued.

Needlessly to say, I won the competition, and I have the golden cabbage in pride of place in my birdbath.

Irma couldn't even attend; her house and garden were ruined by my chaos petunia, and she had to call the police to catch it.

"A Most Petuniar Case Indeed"

It's interesting that this reply tries to recombine and reincorporate so many elements, but doesn't necessarily feel like a more satisfying ending than the one with the killer petunia.

There are probably two reasons for this:

  • the killer petunia creates a bigger emotional change, and
  • the alternate reply introduces a new element (the police) right at the very end, which in this instance feels off.

Alternate introducing and combining (Frankenstories game template)

Play a game where players alternate between introducing and combining elements in each round, with the last round being a free-for-all.

  • Round 1: Introduce elements.
  • Round 2: Combine elements.
  • Round 3: Introduce elements.
  • Round 4: Combine elements.
  • Round 5: Pick at least one element or combination from the pile above and try to make a quick, coherent story in the final round of play. 

The challenge with Round 5

Round 5 is likely to be frustrating because time will run out too quickly (120 secs in default settings).

  • That's okay—the point was to practice combining elements, not write a story.
  • Otherwise, consider setting a longer round timer for the game and manually ending rounds 1-4 during play, then letting round 5 run the full timer length.

Strict vs permissive

Players will probably want to start writing the story in the combine rounds. You can choose to either be:

  • Strict: combinations need to be standalone sentences that don't interact with each other at all. These combos will generally be hyper-surreal.
  • Permissive: combinations can interact with each other and start to create a story. These combos will be more narratively coherent.

Debriefing

After playing, review the completed game with students and discuss:

  • How would they explain what it is to 'combine elements'?
    • Elements can interact with, merge with, affect or be affected by each other, and so on.
  • How did they find the experience of combining in Round 2 vs Round 4? 
    • Was it getting easier or harder to come up with ideas?
  • Did they feel the pressure to start making a story? When? Could they resist it?
    • It can start almost immediately.
    • You might even notice the introductions and combinations begin to follow a narrative logic, telling a story in fragments.
  • What was it like trying to write a tiny story in Round 5?
    • How ready were they to write?
    • Did they want to write more?
  • What do they like about the story (as in, the full five rounds)? 
    • Were there any particular images, items, phrases, etc that jumped out? Why?
    • Was there anything everyone latched onto in Round 5? ("Why did everyone want to use the burning lake?")

What are we trying to achieve?

  • Introduce the concept of combining story elements.
  • Reinforce the relationship between introducing and combining.
  • Develop mental and emotional flexibility—a willingness to introduce and combine some bizarre things and then turn it into something meaningful or coherent.
  • Develop a sense of self-efficacy in creative writing: keep introducing and combining, and eventually you'll find something you want to write about.

List Combo Lottery

  • Strict.
  • Alternates introduction and combination rounds, then Round 5 entries are standalone stories, none of which get finished.

A Really Organic Mess

  • Strict with a twist.
  • Two of the players don't do a standalone story in Round 5, but instead they both 'cheat' and use the prompt text to justify turning the first 4 rounds into the flickering memories of a dying tree.

What Can You Do With A Big List Of Mythological Soup?

  • Permissive.
  • The combination rounds are narrative, and even the introduction rounds have a clear narrative logic.

A common combination move for learners is to have one element to destroy another—or even destroy everything.

Use combination games to encourages players to go beyond this obvious choice and find other more interesting combinations!

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