Teaching Narrative Writing with Frankenstories

Establishing routines

Routines are the actions & activities that a character regularly completes in their day-to-day life.

Routines aren't "story elements", as such; they're not the same as characters, objects, places, and events.

But they are useful when establishing a world.

For instance, what's the fisherman's routine in The Fisherman and his Wife?

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)

What's his routine? Every day, the fisherman goes out to fish.

It's that simple! Fairytales are efficient, so they don't spend much time developing routines.

(Note: Although we haven't highlighted it here, the fisherman living with his wife in a shack could also be considered a routine.)

Routines help us develop a character and world.

They also help us get the story started by giving us something to interrupt.

What interrupts the fisherman's routine?

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)

The interruption is catching the magic flounder.

In this fairy tale, the routine is established quickly, with minimal detail, then interrupted equally efficiently.

Other stories might develop routines in more detail and play with narrative distance, timing, and orchestration of interruptions in more complex ways.

For instance, take this snippet from Holes.

What would you say is routine, what is development (i.e. detailing and expanding on the routine), and what is interruption?

Back at school, a bully named Derrick Dunne used to torment Stanley. The teachers never took Stanley’s complaints seriously, because Derrick was so much smaller than Stanley. Some teachers even seemed to find it amusing that a little kid like Derrick could pick on someone as big as Stanley.

On the day Stanley was arrested, Derrick had taken Stanley’s notebook and, after a long game of come-and-get-it, finally dropped it in the toilet in the boys’ restroom. By the time Stanley retrieved it, he had missed his bus and had to walk home.

It was while he was walking home, carrying his wet notebook, with the prospect of having to copy the ruined pages, that the sneakers fell from the sky.

Holes(1998)
  • The main routine is Stanley being bullied.
  • The first interruption is the sneakers falling from the sky.
  • The second interruption will be his arrest.
  • Everything else is developmental detail.

Complex narrative distance

  • This snippet descends through three narrative levels, opening at a high level, zooming into mid-level summary of an incident, then finally settling on a specific scene.
  • In doing that, it describes Stanley's bullying routine twice: first, as a high-level trend, then as a specific incident—and it develops each of these descriptions at the same narrative distance.

Complex chronology

  • This snippet appears in chapter 6 of Holes as backstory to explain Stanley's arrest and his punishment, which opened the novel.
  • So, for the reader, Stanley's bullying routine is established "out of order", long after the interruption has already happened.
  • Additionally, the snippet itself does not follow strict chronological order, because it introduces the arrest before introducing the sneakers which trigger the arrest.

Complex developmental detail

  • The first chunk of developmental detail describes the behaviour and attitudes of Stanley's teachers.
    • This could be considered a routine—it's repeated behaviour, after all.
    • However, structurally, it's subordinate to the bullying; it doesn't go anywhere, and it's not interrupted.
    • Its primary function is to add descriptive mass to Stanley's bullying.
  • The second chunk of detail helps scale the narrative distance down to scene level.

The point is that, if you're looking at mentor texts in the wild, you'll find that routines (and interruptions) can become quite complex!

In the context of Frankenstories, routines are a useful way to get a story started, because by definition routines don't have to be interesting or dramatic.

In fact, as with the fisherman, a good routine can be entirely boring—we just need to interrupt it in some interesting and meaningful way.

This Frankenstory begins by establishing a routine:

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.

"One More Story"

The routine is weird, but simple: Mr Flip talks to the fireplace during the day, and the fireplace talks back during the night.

This story develops the routine over two more rounds before getting to the interruption:

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"

Most of this story is about Mr Flip's single routine: talking to the fireplace and recording its stories.

But the story spends several rounds developing the routine, adding detail and texture (lonely mansion, desolate moor, Mr Flip's tiredness, the rabid dog, etc).

Until the voices run out of stories, interrupting the routine.

Of our four main story elements, characters, places, and objects are concrete things. But things in the world are not static; they are often moving and changing.

Events capture some of that motion, but as story elements they are fundamentally thing-like: e.g. eruptions, festivals, protests, and so on, are nominalised processes that occur around characters.

Routines are actions & activities that characters do—in places, with objects, sometimes during or in response to events.

Routines can introduce us to a story world as we follow a character through their activities and encounter the normal elements in the world.

Teaching students how to use routines

Here are some tips and activities.

Remember, routines are a helpful way to put a story in motion without getting bogged down in static description or jumping between random actions.

Basic writing strategy

Introduce story elements as needed:

  • Characters
  • Places
  • Objects
  • Events (optional)

Then give the main character a routine.

Follow the routine through 3 phases:

  • Establish
  • Develop (optional)
  • Interrupt

Usually, once the routine is interrupted, the actual story begins.

Variations

You can play with routines in all sorts of ways.

  • You can start with a routine and figure out who is doing it (where, when, and why) after the fact.
  • You can start in the middle of the action, long after the interruption, then backtrack and describe routines from the old life that has already been lost.
  • In longer stories, you can go through multiple cycles of establishing, developing, and interrupting routines.

For this activity, we'll focus on establishing and developing routines. We'll explore interruptions in more detail in another lesson.

Framing

Ask students to:

  • Define a "routine" (e.g. "a sequence of actions regularly followed").
  • Identify routines they follow in their daily lives (at different narrative scales).
  • Identify character routines in texts they've recently read in class.
  • Identify moments where these routines are interrupted and cause a change of direction.

Analysis activity

  • Read One More Story (Student doc) (Teacher version).
  • Ask students to identify routines, developmental detail, and interruptions.
  • Does everyone agree on how to classify parts of the story? Why or why not?
  • What would the story be like if any of these features were removed?

Below are some game formats you can use to practice establishing and developing routines. (We'll explore interruptions in more detail later.)

Framing

  • Tell students you're going to play a game that focuses on establishing and developing routines.
  • The story doesn't have to go anywhere exciting.
  • The goal is to use the routine to develop the character and story world, and set the scene for an interesting story.
  • The challenge is to stick with the routine and not interrupt it too early!

Game setup

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

Game 1: Developing a routine

Players practice adding detail to a routine.

  • Round 1: Introduce story elements, including a main character.
  • Round 2: Establish a routine.
  • Round 3: Develop the routine.
  • Round 4: Develop the routine.
  • Round 5: Interrupt the routine.

Don't worry too much about the interruption.

The goal is to sustain the routine and add detail so the character and world start to feel "real".

Demo game: How Not to Steal Christmas

Game 2: Brainstorming routines

Players practice coming up with ideas for routines. 

  • Round 1: Introduce story elements, including a main character.
  • Round 2: What is their morning routine?
  • Round 3: What is their daytime routing?
  • Round 4: What is their nightly routine?
  • Round 5: Interrupt one of the routines.

You can use other timings or circumstances: weekday/weekend, beginning/middle/end of term, summer/winter, young/old, etc.

The routines can be distinct and disconnected—there is no need to make a "story" with them.

The point is to come up with a variety of plausible routines for the character.

You might need to encourage students to begin each round with a relevant prepositional phrase: "In the morning... During the day..."

Demo game: Mum says it's my turn in the freezer

Game 3: Developing a world by following a routine

Players use a routine to introduce other story elements in the world.

  • Round 1: Introduce a character and a routine.
  • Round 2: Use the routine to introduce a place.
  • Round 3: Use the routine to introduce an object.
  • Round 4: Use the routine to introduce another character.
  • Round 5: Change one of these elements to interrupt the routine.

Feel free to change the type of element introduced in any given round.

Demo game: My Teacher's Big on Toot-Tok and All He Gave Me Was This Lousy Star Sign

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