Teaching Narrative Writing with Frankenstories

Triggering interruptions

Stories progress as characters complete actions and activities, and following a routine builds interest and tension.

But routine advances eventually become boring.

Stories get interesting when a character's progress is interrupted in some significant way, forcing them to change direction.

When characters perform actions, they progress towards a goal (big or small, known or unknown, exciting or mundane).

An interruption is technically any event that stops, stalls, or redirects that progress.

But a good interruption is an event that:

  • Affects a character in a meaningful way
  • Pushes or draws them into unexpected activities and challenging new goals
  • Fits within the circle of expectations (otherwise the story becomes random and meaningless)

A bad (from a narrative point of view) interruption is one that:

  • Cancels an interesting activity, or
  • Spins a character around in circles, or
  • Sends the story in an arbitrary direction

Good interruptions can be small

A good interruption doesn't have to be big; it only needs to turn a character in an interesting direction.

  • Small interruptions can create mystery and interest.
  • Good interruptions often start small and compound over time, snowballing into bigger interruptions later in the story.

How do we trigger an interruption?

If you want to trigger an interruption, reach for one of these three moves:

  • Introduce an element
  • Combine elements
  • Change an element

These triggers can occur in combination, but whichever you choose first will set the direction for the interruption.

You can trigger an interruption by introducing a new story element.

For example, you're brushing your teeth when:

  • A spider creeps out of the drain (Introduce character)
  • You notice a note sticking out behind the mirror (Introduce object)
  • You hear sirens and trucks pulling up in the street outside (Introduce event)

Any of these could make you stop your toothbrushing and send you down a new and interesting path.

(And if you didn't react, then it wouldn't really be an interruption.)

Most interruptions in stories are created by combining & recombining elements in ways that change characters and trigger new activities.

For example:

  • The spider jumps onto the head of your toothbrush (Combine character and object)
  • Your best friend discovers the treasure map you found behind the mirror (Combine characters and object)
  • Firefighters kick down your door and enter your home (Combine characters and place)

Story elements can be combined as soon as they are introduced, or they can be shelved, and then combined later in a story.

Interruptions create change, but they can also be triggered by changes in the quality or state of a story element.

For example:

  • The spider begins to emit sparks (Change in physical features)
  • Your friend grows greedy and suspicious (Change in emotions and behaviour)
  • The firefighters run out of water (Change in physical features)

These changes work as triggers because they cause interruptions:

  • The sparking spider makes you stop brushing and lean in to investigate, whereupon you discover it is a tiny spy robot.
  • Your friend's suspicious behaviour makes you rethink your plans and begin to double-cross them.
  • The firefighters run out of water so they force everyone to abandon the building, which burns down and leaves you homeless.

Small triggers are often chained together to build larger interruptions. For example:

  • Routine activity: You're brushing your teeth...
  • Introduce element: ...when a spider appears on the sink.
  • Combine elements: At first, you ignore it, but it jumps onto your toothbrush...
  • Change element: ...where you notice it sparking...
  • New activity: ...so you look more closely and see it has cameras for eyes, which leads you to take it to your desk for further investigation.

Or, in a different order:

  • Routine activity: You're brushing your teeth...
  • Change element: ...when your electric toothbrush becomes hot and begins to smoke...
  • Combine elements: ...which causes you to drop it on the floor...
  • Change element: ...where it bursts into flame.
  • Combine elements: Sparks from the toothbrush hit your towel...
  • Change element: ...which catches fire...
  • New activity: ...so you run to the kitchen to get a bottle of water.

You know a significant interruption has happened when the character moves to a completely different activity.

We can see all these triggers in the opening of 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 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)

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 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)

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 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)

The fisherman's routines revolve around:

  • living in the shack with his wife and
  • going fishing.

These are interrupted when:

  • the fisherman catches an enchanted flounder and
  • his wife tells him to ask the fish for a new cottage.

In the text, we can find multiple triggers for these interruptions.

We can see all three trigger types in this passage:

  • Introducing the fish (and combining it with the fisherman) interrupts the action of waiting.
  • Changing the fish to "enchanted" interrupts the routine of fishing.
  • Combining the fish with the water temporarily cancels the fish and returns us to status quo (as the fisherman goes home).
  • But when the fisherman talks about his catch, he combines information about the fish with his wife.
  • This triggers his wife to introduce the idea of asking the fish for a new house.
  • The wife's request causes the fisherman to return to (recombine with) the seashore.

As always, you could highlight features in different ways, especially as you zoom in and out of narrative levels.

At the highest level, you could argue that The Fisherman and His Wife only has two interruptions:

  • The fisherman's routine is living with his wife in a shack and fishing.
  • The first interruption is triggered by the introduction of an enchanted fish.
  • That interruption pushes the characters into a new activity of asking the fish for increasingly elaborate homes.
  • That activity becomes a new routine that progresses linearly until the fisherman's wife asks to be God, which triggers the fish to change from helpful to angry.
  • That change triggers the second interruption, when the fish cancels their wishes and changes the couple's palace back to a hovel.

But if we zoom into the opening scenes, as we've done in the snippet above, we can see smaller triggers that advance the story from moment to moment.

(Note: These top-level interruptions are the story's tilts.)

The point of all this is that you can call on any of these triggers whenever you want to make something interesting happen in a Frankenstory (or any story).

1

We had had enough of adventurers in their shiny armour and their longswords coming into our cursed jungle and just assuming we were the bad guys. Just because a necromancer had woken us from our beauty sleep and turned us all into zombies and animated skeletons. So we decided to

2

get on the front foot—or stump, in some cases—and promote ourselves the way we wanted to be seen. "Tell our own story!" gargled Carl through the remains of his windpipe. That's how we came up with Fantasy Fest, a good-spirited (!) festival where

3

the adventurers who came would see how exciting and fun we were, and wouldn’t want to fight us anymore.

"Eternal Rest Fantasy Fest"

1

We had had enough of adventurers in their shiny armour and their longswords coming into our cursed jungle and just assuming we were the bad guys. Just because a necromancer had woken us from our beauty sleep and turned us all into zombies and animated skeletons. So we decided to

2

get on the front foot—or stump, in some cases—and promote ourselves the way we wanted to be seen. "Tell our own story!" gargled Carl through the remains of his windpipe. That's how we came up with Fantasy Fest, a good-spirited (!) festival where

3

the adventurers who came would see how exciting and fun we were, and wouldn’t want to fight us anymore.

"Eternal Rest Fantasy Fest"

1

We had had enough of adventurers in their shiny armour and their longswords coming into our cursed jungle and just assuming we were the bad guys. Just because a necromancer had woken us from our beauty sleep and turned us all into zombies and animated skeletons. So we decided to

2

get on the front foot—or stump, in some cases—and promote ourselves the way we wanted to be seen. "Tell our own story!" gargled Carl through the remains of his windpipe. That's how we came up with Fantasy Fest, a good-spirited (!) festival where

3

the adventurers who came would see how exciting and fun we were, and wouldn’t want to fight us anymore.

"Eternal Rest Fantasy Fest"
  • Routine (ongoing activity, platform) is an undead jungle community tired of being harassed by adventurers.
  • Interruption (new activity) is staging a festival for adventurers.
  • Triggers are a change in character attitudes and introducing the idea of the festival.

1

It was hard to believe that Frederick had once been a noted scientist and professor at the university, not only intelligent and scholarly but also wealthy from successful investments.

But then he performed the experiment that gave him the ability to read minds, and now look at

2

him; a paranoid, skittering mess, who took every minor thought that passed through people's minds as a possible act of agression. He simply couldn't take it, and so he began a descent into madness.

And that was where I found him one day, drinking his life away, knife in arm's rea

3

ch. "Good sir, I have a proposition to make. A busine-"

"Read Him and Sleep"

1

It was hard to believe that Frederick had once been a noted scientist and professor at the university, not only intelligent and scholarly but also wealthy from successful investments.

But then he performed the experiment that gave him the ability to read minds, and now look at

2

him; a paranoid, skittering mess, who took every minor thought that passed through people's minds as a possible act of agression. He simply couldn't take it, and so he began a descent into madness.

And that was where I found him one day, drinking his life away, knife in arm's rea

3

ch. "Good sir, I have a proposition to make. A busine-"

"Read Him and Sleep"

1

It was hard to believe that Frederick had once been a noted scientist and professor at the university, not only intelligent and scholarly but also wealthy from successful investments.

But then he performed the experiment that gave him the ability to read minds, and now look at

2

him; a paranoid, skittering mess, who took every minor thought that passed through people's minds as a possible act of agression. He simply couldn't take it, and so he began a descent into madness.

And that was where I found him one day, drinking his life away, knife in arm's rea

3

ch. "Good sir, I have a proposition to make. A busine-"

"Read Him and Sleep"

Round 1

  • Routine 1: Frederick's life as a noted scientist and investor.
  • Interruption: Experiment that allows him to read minds, which then drives him mad.
  • Triggers: Introduce an event, change quality of character.

Rounds 2 & 3

  • Routine 2: Frederick's new life as a paranoid mess.
  • Interruption: Narrator brings him a business proposition.
  • Triggers: Combine characters, introduce a thing.

Teaching students how to trigger interruptions and advances

Below are some suggested text analysis and writing activities.

Prep

  • Recap the concepts behind activities, actions & advances, and routines & interruptions.

Group discussion

  • What makes interruptions "happen"?
  • What's an example of a simple routine (e.g. brushing your teeth)?
  • What are some ways this routine could be interrupted?
  • After collecting a few examples, classify the interruptions as introduce, combine, or change.
  • (If there is a gap, prompt students with the missing category.)

Text analysis

  • Read the opening of The Fisherman and his Wife (Teacher version).
  • Ask students to identify moments where they feel an activity, action, or routine are interrupted.
  • When they identify a moment, classify it with one of the three trigger types.

Once completed, discuss:

  • Does everyone agree on what qualifies as an interruption?
  • Does everyone agree on how they are classified?
  • Does this story contain examples of all trigger types?
  • Do interruptions make the story more or less interesting?
  • Do interruptions move the story forward, backwards, or sideways?

There is some natural fuzziness here; don't get too militant about exactly what qualifies as an interruption or whether a particular trigger is an introduction or change, etc. Enjoy the ambiguity!

Most important takeaways

  • If advances are only routine, then a story gets boring.
  • Interruptions can send characters in new and interesting directions (actions, activities & goals).
  • Three simple triggers offer different ways to create interruptions (introduce, combine, change).
  • However, interruptions can also cancel interesting activities, so they need to be used with care.

Here are some game formats you can use to practice triggering interruptions.

Framing for students

  • Tell students you're going to play a game that focuses on triggering interruptions.
  • The goal is to create a coherent story while practicing specific types of trigger.

Game setup

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

Gameplay

  • R1: Establish a routine
  • R2: Introduce
    • Interrupt the routine by introducing a new story element.
    • Use that interruption to advance to a new action or activity.
  • R3: Combine
    • Interrupt the new activity by combining two existing story elements in a new way.
      • For example, characters talk to each other, use objects, go to places, are affected by events, and so on.
    • Use this combination to advance to a new action or activity.
  • R4: Change
    • Interrupt the new activity by changing the state or quality of a story element.
    • Ideally this change is not arbitrary, but caused by something earlier!
    • Use the change to advance to a new action or activity.
  • R5: Free choice
    • Resolve the story however you like.

Demo game: Never Forgive, Never Forget

Tips

Don't worry about using multiple trigger types in the same round, but do encourage players to lead with the specified trigger.

You might notice that the pattern of introduce, combine, & change creates a natural 3-act story structure. This is good to point out if it happens!

If you want to drill down, you can focus the entire game on one trigger type and use each round instead to specify a story element.

Here are some examples, but you could tweak these in any number of ways.

Variation 1: Introductions only

  • R1: Establish a situation
  • R2: Advance by introducing a character
  • R3: Advance by introducing an object
  • R4: Advance by introducing an external event
  • R5: Free choice

Demo game: The Wrath of the Elf King

Variation 2: Combinations only

For this one, get as many elements as possible into Round 1 so that you can make combinations in subsequent rounds.

  • R1: Establish a situation that introduces one or more examples of all four story elements: characters, places, objects, events.
  • R2: Advance by combining character & object
  • R3: Advance by combining place & event
  • R4: Advance by combining character & place
  • R5: Free choice

Demo game: Mermen have better pecs

Variation 3: Changes only

A challenge! It's hard to keep using change as a trigger. Introduce as many elements as possible in R1.

  • R1: Establish a situation
  • R2: Advance by changing a character
  • R3: Advance by changing an object
  • R4: Advance by changing a place
  • R5: Free choice

Demo game: Flip loses skintight suit, finds love

Oscillating between routines and interruptions

  • Interruptions are about diverting the characters from predictable paths into new and interesting activities.
  • However, even the most exciting new activities can settle into new routines!
  • In long stories, characters often go through cycles of routine and interruption.

Interruptions vs tilts

  • A tilt is really just a big interruption.
  • While a small interruption might have a subtle effect on a character, a tilt by definition dramatically destabilises the character's world and forces them to adapt to changing circumstances.
  • Tilts are often preceded by a chain of smaller interruptions.
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