Teaching Narrative Writing with Frankenstories

Establishing a platform

Every story takes place in some kind of 'story world'. It could be a vast world of intergalactic empires or the tiny world of one family's home—each is its own story world.

Many stories begin by establishing the normal state of this world before they disrupt it and set the main story into motion.

We could call this process 'setting the scene', but Keith Johnstone uses the phrase 'establishing the platform', which is helpful because a platform implies stability and we destabilise a platform by 'tilting' it.

These terms are interchangeable with 'platform'.

How do players establish a platform?

By introducing, developing, and (possibly) combining story elements.

As usual, fairytales are maximally efficient at this. For example, how long does The Fisherman and His Wife spend establishing a platform before disrupting it?

Once upon a time there were a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a shack that was so filthy it might as well have been a pisspot. Every day the fisherman went out to fish, and he fished and he fished. One day he sat there looking down into the clear water, and he sat, and he sat, and his line went all the way down to the bottom of the sea. And when he pulled it out, there was a great big flounder on the hook.

The Fisherman and His Wife(2012)

Once upon a time there were a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a shack that was so filthy it might as well have been a pisspot. Every day the fisherman went out to fish, and he fished and he fished. One day he sat there looking down into the clear water, and he sat, and he sat, and his line went all the way down to the bottom of the sea. And when he pulled it out, there was a great big flounder on the hook.

The Fisherman and His Wife(2012)

Once upon a time there were a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a shack that was so filthy it might as well have been a pisspot. Every day the fisherman went out to fish, and he fished and he fished. One day he sat there looking down into the clear water, and he sat, and he sat, and his line went all the way down to the bottom of the sea. And when he pulled it out, there was a great big flounder on the hook.

The Fisherman and His Wife(2012)

This snippet introduces the fisherman and his wife, combines them with the shack, and then develops the quality of the shack and the fisherman's routine (both of which are about to change).

(Notice how the disruption begins with an adverbial 'timing' phrase, which indicates a break in the routine.)

In Frankenstories, players might establish a platform within the first round:

I'm not an aggressive person. Not really.

When you spend decades alone with your own rage on a mountaintop, nobody to talk to but yourself, you learn how to keep calm. Nature is the best teacher. But when he showed up at my door, miles from anything

"Slep Horsey"

I'm not an aggressive person. Not really.

When you spend decades alone with your own rage on a mountaintop, nobody to talk to but yourself, you learn how to keep calm. Nature is the best teacher. But when he showed up at my door, miles from anything

"Slep Horsey"

I'm not an aggressive person. Not really.

When you spend decades alone with your own rage on a mountaintop, nobody to talk to but yourself, you learn how to keep calm. Nature is the best teacher. But when he showed up at my door, miles from anything

"Slep Horsey"

Or they can establish the platform over multiple rounds, sometimes only tipping the platform near the end, as in One More Story:

ONE MORE STORY

1

The fireplace made strange noises at night. Mr Flip would have told someone about it, but there was no one to tell. Except for the fireplace.

And so, during the day, Mr Flip sat by the fireplace and told it about the sounds it made at night. And at night, the fireplace made noises back.

2

Whispering, muttering. Sinister cackling. Most people would be terrified of such sounds, here in this lonely mansion on this desolate, lonely moor.

But Mr Flip was too old and tired and sad from the many tragedies in his life to be afraid any more.

3

Instead he asked question after question, and wrote down what the voices told him.

The story of the maid who drowned in the bath. The story of the hunting dog that became rabid and ate the twins. The mother who burned the barn. The father with the hatchet. All of these he jotted in his notebook.

4

Scratching down their tales until there was no more stories left to tell. In raspy, more restless tone, the voices spoke "The last page. FILL THE LAST PAGE."

"But there are no stories left!"

5

Silence.

"Then we shall tell yours."

Thunk. 

Soon all that was left was the sound of a pen scratching on paper, spelling letters in a crimson ink.

This is the tale of the old man and his fireplace. And if you are reading this, you are next.

"One More Story"

ONE MORE STORY

1

The fireplace made strange noises at night. Mr Flip would have told someone about it, but there was no one to tell. Except for the fireplace.

And so, during the day, Mr Flip sat by the fireplace and told it about the sounds it made at night. And at night, the fireplace made noises back.

2

Whispering, muttering. Sinister cackling. Most people would be terrified of such sounds, here in this lonely mansion on this desolate, lonely moor.

But Mr Flip was too old and tired and sad from the many tragedies in his life to be afraid any more.

3

Instead he asked question after question, and wrote down what the voices told him.

The story of the maid who drowned in the bath. The story of the hunting dog that became rabid and ate the twins. The mother who burned the barn. The father with the hatchet. All of these he jotted in his notebook.

4

Scratching down their tales until there was no more stories left to tell. In raspy, more restless tone, the voices spoke "The last page. FILL THE LAST PAGE."

"But there are no stories left!"

5

Silence.

"Then we shall tell yours."

Thunk. 

Soon all that was left was the sound of a pen scratching on paper, spelling letters in a crimson ink.

This is the tale of the old man and his fireplace. And if you are reading this, you are next.

"One More Story"

ONE MORE STORY

1

The fireplace made strange noises at night. Mr Flip would have told someone about it, but there was no one to tell. Except for the fireplace.

And so, during the day, Mr Flip sat by the fireplace and told it about the sounds it made at night. And at night, the fireplace made noises back.

2

Whispering, muttering. Sinister cackling. Most people would be terrified of such sounds, here in this lonely mansion on this desolate, lonely moor.

But Mr Flip was too old and tired and sad from the many tragedies in his life to be afraid any more.

3

Instead he asked question after question, and wrote down what the voices told him.

The story of the maid who drowned in the bath. The story of the hunting dog that became rabid and ate the twins. The mother who burned the barn. The father with the hatchet. All of these he jotted in his notebook.

4

Scratching down their tales until there was no more stories left to tell. In raspy, more restless tone, the voices spoke "The last page. FILL THE LAST PAGE."

"But there are no stories left!"

5

Silence.

"Then we shall tell yours."

Thunk. 

Soon all that was left was the sound of a pen scratching on paper, spelling letters in a crimson ink.

This is the tale of the old man and his fireplace. And if you are reading this, you are next.

"One More Story"

If 'developing' means elaborating and adding detail to elements, then 'advancing' means creating new relationships and putting characters into new situations.

However, we can advance the story without destabilising the platform.

In One More Story, Mr Flip writing the stories in his notebook is a small but significant advance in his relationship with the voices, but it is still part of developing the platform—the stable situation of talking, listening, and writing—which will be tilted when the ghosts run out of stories.

(We're mentioning this because on the concepts preview page we highlighted that line as advancing, not developing, and want to address any confusion re the highlighting above.)

Of course, some stories begin in the middle of the action.

Usually these stories settle down and establish a platform once they've hooked the reader's attention, but some shorter stories might be set entirely within the chaos of a tilted platform.

For example, A Black Van a Day:

1

I knew I shouldn't hold Quackers anywhere near the window if I wanted to keep him. But looking out the window, I needed all the comfort I could get as I watched my parents dragged into the back seat of a black van.

"A Black Van A Day"

This entire Frankenstory is the aftermath of a child's parents being disappeared in a dystopian state—there is no stable platform (unless you want to define instability as the norm in this world, which, in a dystopia, is probably accurate).

If your students have developed some basic skills in introducing, developing, and combining story elements, you can bundle all those skills to practice establishing a platform.

Framing for students

  • Introduce the idea that lots of stories begin by establishing a world, whether big or small, exotic or mundane.
  • Introduce the terms platform and tilt, as needed.
  • Tell students they are going to play a game in which they are going to establish a platform which they can tilt only at the very end.
  • It's like they are setting the scene at the beginning of a story, just before anything dramatic happens.

Game setup

  • Use a standard 3-5 round game with any prompt.

Gameplay

  • Players should introduce, develop, and combine elements to establish a platform.
  • Apart from finding ways to develop the platform, the biggest challenge is in not tilting or disrupting it. (There may be some discussion about what constitutes a tilt.)
  • Players can tilt in the last line.
  • Example game: Portrait of a Life: Mary, chicken-skewerer
  • Example game: I need to tell you all about Gonzo

Tips

  • The game will be easier if the platform is relatively sedate.
  • Dramatic situations can function as platforms, but they need to be established as a stable 'normal world', which can be confusing for novice players.
  • You can direct players towards certain elements or aspects in each round, but if players have practiced their introducing, combining, and developing skills, then this game should be less prescriptive and more of an opportunity to think about the bigger picture of setting up a world.
  • That said, you might want to point out moments where players can combine elements to create a more coherent world.

Debrief

  • How do players feel about the world they've created? Is it interesting? How detailed is it? Does it feel credible or real?
  • Was it hard to resist tilting the platform and making dramatic changes?
  • Did they come up with a tilt at the end?
  • Would they like to know what happens next?

You'll know you're succeeding if students can:

  • Identify the establishing phase of a story and label it as a platform.
  • Distinguish between a platform and tilt.
  • Relate the sub-skills of introduction, development, and combination to the higher-level skill of establishing a platform.
  • Play a complete Frankenstories game that functions as the set-up for a story.

Portrait of a Life: Mary, chicken-skewerer

  • This game ignores the text prompt completely.
  • The first few rounds establish the character from the prompt image before expanding to describe the wider story world.

I need to tell you all about Gonzo

  • This game incorporates the text prompt into the opening line.
  • It ranges more widely than the previous game.
  • If you look closely at the alts, you will notice players occasionally creating moments that might be considered tilts depending on what happened. (For example, Round 3 Player 3, "Someone reported me to animal control and I had to..."—is that developing the existing situation or tilting it into something new? The answer would depend on what players do in the next round.)
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