Teaching with Frankenstories (ARCHIVED 23.02.28)

Quick preview of story-level skills

On the previous page we made a distinction between moment, scene, and story-level skills.

Below is a Frankenstory, called One More Story, in which you can see multiple story-level skills in action at the same time.

As we develop this lesson, we'll explore these skills in more detail, but this preview will give you a sense of what some of them are and how they tend to fit together:

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"

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"

In this lesson, we'll explore each of these skills (and more) in detail, but for now, here's a summary of key terms:

This is essentially a 3-act story structure:

  • introduce a stable situation or world (the platform)
  • disrupt it (tilt the platform), then
  • establish a new world order (stablise the platform).

Example:

  • Platform
    • Sad, old Mr Flip talks to the voices in the fireplace (in the lonely manor on the lonely moor) and records the stories they tell him.
  • Tilt:
    • The voices run out of stories but demand the last page be filled, so they consume Mr Flip.
  • Stabilise:
    • With Mr Flip gone, the ghosts finish writing his story and tell the reader they will be next.

This pattern is so high-level, it contains all the others.

(Also, notice how most of this story is platform. That's not normal, but it works because the story elements are developed in interesting ways.)

To establish a platform, we need to introduce story elements including characters, objects, places, relationships, and events.

Good stories tend to use these elements efficiently, combining and recombining them in interesting ways.

When the combinations are 'done' (in some meaningful way), we recognise the story as having 'ended'.

Example:

  • Introduce:
    • Mr Flip
    • fireplace
    • voices
    • terrible stories
    • notebook
    • (Notice how once these key elements are established, no more elements are introduced.)
  • Combine:
    • Mr Flip is consumed and the ghosts take over his book.
    • The story they write is Mr Flip's story.
    • Notice how efficient this is: the ghosts don't introduce a new activity or a new story; they re-use existing elements.

Note: There's a related concept called 'shelving' which isn't demonstrated in this story. Shelving is when we introduce a story element, put it aside for a while, and then reincorporate it in some meaningful way later. Reincorporating a shelved element is one of the most satisfying experiences in a story.

As we introduce elements, we develop them using description and behaviour in order to make them more interesting or believable. 

But we can't develop elements forever! If we want the story to progress, we need to advance the action.

Example:

  • Develop (describing, expanding):
    • Mr Flip as old, sad, and lonely
    • the fireplace as being in a mansion on a desolate moor
    • the voices as sinister whispering, muttering, cackling
    • the stories as being about all sorts of terrible events in the manor.
  • Advance (changing, progressing):
    • from talking to the fireplace to asking questions and writing down the answers 
    • from writing down stories to running out of stories
    • from the ghosts telling Flip stories to consuming him and writing his story in the book.

If we focus on character actions specifically, we can use a more narrow concept of establishing routines and then interrupting them.

Example:

  • Routine
    • Mr Flip regularly talks to the fireplace, asks questions, and writes the stories the voices tell him. 
  • Interruption
    • The voices run out of stories.

You might notice that 'routine & interruption' is a subset of 'develop & advance', but each framing will focus player attention in different ways and will send them in slightly different directions, so the distinction is useful.

You can probably see that these story-level skills sound simple in theory, but in practice they are complex and interconnected, which is why it's helpful to isolate and train them separately.

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