Storytelling Ideas

There is no limit to the number of ways you can tell a story: the possibilities are, literally, infinite. Below you will find a list of some ideas, and some of them have links to an additional post at this blog where you will find more information. There's also a random idea that shows up each time the page reloads.

These are different permutations on the basic elements of a story: the storyteller and audience, the storyteller's style, along with the story's characters, plot, setting, and message. Maybe you will see an idea here that you want to use, or maybe it will prompt you to think up some new idea of your own. If you have a good storytelling style that I can add to this list, leave a comment here at the blog!

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• SCRIPT. Does the story have good potential for dialogue? Then instead of telling a narrative story, write a script as if for a scene in a movie or a play.
• LOVE AS THE STORYTELLER. Is there a love element in the story you want to retell? Then use "Love" as the storyteller — that could be the god or goddess of love from any culture, and you get to imagine the storytelling personality of that god or goddess.
• BEDTIME STORY. Is the story you want to tell suitable for bedtime? Then tell a bedtime story — and when you think about the storyteller and the child, you don't have to be realistic. Even animals or imaginary creatures might need bedtime stories to tell their children!
• SING-ALONG. Pick a song whose tune everyone knows, and then tell your story in the form of lyrics that go with that song. You might even find an instrumental version of the song at YouTube so people really could sing your lyrics to the music!
• CALL-IN RADIO SHOW. You never know who might call in when there is a call-in radio show! Choose one of the story's characters to be the guest on the show... and then let the audience start calling in with questions!
• IMMORTALS AMONG US. Does the story you want to retell have an immortal character? That means this immortal being is still somewhere in the world today. Imagine that "immortal among us," sharing our world.
• PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANT. Is there a character in the original story who has a public relations problem? Imagine a public relations consultant who will offer a plan for creating a new public image, improving your character's popular reputation.
• TABLOID GOSSIP AND SCANDAL. Gossip and innuendo are a great way to tell a story, so a tabloid style or "Gossip Girl" would allow you to emphasize the scandalous aspects of any story, especially stories involving celebrity characters.
• BENEATH THE SEA. There is a whole world of creatures beneath the sea: can you retell a story using the undersea world and the creatures (real and imagined) who live there to act out the plot?
• COURTROOM DRAMA. Putting someone on trial is a great way to bring out the drama in a story! Who will be the judge? Lawyers? Jury? You get to imagine what would work best to tell the story.
• MYTHBUSTERS. Is there something in the original story that is worthy of a Mythbusters investigation? Write up a Mythbusters TV show episode in which Adam and Jamie put the myth to the test.
• BREAKING NEWS. Did something newsworthy happen in the story you want to retell? Try using a TV-news style, with the reporter interviewing anyone who has insight into the story's events.
• ANCIENT ALIENS. If you are working with an ancient myth, consider whether it could be evidence of ancient aliens! Write up an episode of Ancient Aliens looking for evidence of extraterrestrial contact in the story's plot and characters.
• EAVESDROPPING. Are the events of your story good for eavesdropping? See if you can invent some hidden character, some secret eyewitness (human or animal or supernatural), who is able to tell the story based on what they see and hear while remaining out of sight.
• FIVE MOTIFS. Do you like inventing your own plot? Then use this 5-motif strategy to extract details from your source story while inventing a plot that is totally your own. Click for more info about this option.
• THERAPY SESSION. Is there a troubled character in the story who could use a therapy session? Imagine who would be the best therapist and what would be the best kind of therapy for this character and write your story in the form of a therapy session.
• STORIES FOR MIDDLE EARTH. Imagine your favorite characters from Lord of the Rings telling stories to each other: find the best LoTR storyteller and the best LoTR audience for the story you want to retell, giving the storyteller a reason for wanting to tell this particular story to this particular audience.
• OBJECT IN A MUSEUM. Is there some object in the story that would be be something you might find in a museum? If so, imagine the museum, the museum display, and the museum placard that would tell the story. This could be a realistic museum... or one with supernatural qualities.
• MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER. Is there a really positive message that you can find in the story? Turn it into a motivational speech — and the storyteller could be a parent, a preacher, a coach, a politician... whatever you think would suit the story best!
• STORYTELLING AT HOGWARTS. Imagine your favorite characters from Hogwarts telling stories to each other: someone from Hogwarts is the storyteller, with a Hogwarts audience of some kind. Find the best Hogwarts match for the story you want to retell (the Patil sisters are great storytellers for India, for example).
• LETTERS HOME. Is there some kind of journey in the orignal story? Then see if you can tell the story as a series of "letters home" written at different stages of that journey.
• TWIST THE ENDING. Don't like the way the story ends? Change it! Tell your own version of the story, but with a different ending.
• LETTERS OR EMAIL. Does your story have characters who are separated from one another? See if you can tell the story in the form of letters back-and-forth between them... or emails!
• NATURAL OBJECT AS STORYTELLER. Is the natural world a presence in the story? Then let a natural object be the storyteller: the sun, the moon, the wind, the rain... whatever natural object you think would make the best storyteller for your version of the story.
• BALLAD. The ballad is one of the oldest and most powerful storytelling forms. Retell your story in the form of a ballad! Click for more info about this option.
• DATING WEBSITE PROFILE. Is one of the characters in search of love? Maybe you could tell their story in the form of a dating website profile page, imagining what kind of relationship the character is looking for and what they might reveal about themselves in that search.
• CHARACTERS GROWN OLD. If there are characters still alive at the end of the story, then imagine one of those characters grown old, telling their life story to a grandchild or other young person long after the events of the story have taken place.
• TRIAL IN THE AFTERLIFE. In many cultural traditions, there are divine beings who act as judges in the afterlife. Choose a character in the story and imagine their trial in the afterlife. What sentence will the judge(s) pronounce?
• INANIMATE OBJECT AS STORYTELLER. Is there an inanimate object in the story that would somehow have access to all the key information about the characters and the plot? You can make that inanimate object into your storyteller!
• DIVINE OBSERVER. The gods and goddesses are, perhaps, observing all the events that happen on the earth. So pick a goddess or god who would be a good storyteller for the story you want to tell, giving us a divine perspective on the story's characters and events.
• OU CAMPUS. Retell the story set on the OU campus, and bring in as much detail as you can: campus locations, campus characters, anything that will really put us right on campus as we read your verion of the story.
• STAR TREK STORYTELLER. Imagine your favorite characters from Star Trek telling stories to each other: find the best Star Trek storyteller and the best Star Trek audience for the story you want to retell, giving the storyteller a reason for wanting to tell this particular story.
• COUPLES THERAPY. Is there a troubled couple in the story you want to retell? They might benefit from couples therapy. Think about what kind of therapist and what kind of therapy might help your couple the most!
• VILLAIN AS STORYTELLER. Does the original story feature a villain? Think of a way to let the villain tell their side of the story, justifying their actions. That could be in the form of a diary, a letter to the editor, a conversation with a friend: you can imagine what storytelling format would work best.
• REAL ESTATE. Is there a home or other piece of property in the original story that might make for a good real estate pitch? Imagine the real estate salesman telling a story about the property to a prospective buyer.
• GROUP THERAPY / 12-STEP. Does a character in the story have a problem that they might share with other characters? They can tell their story in a gorup therapy session or a 12-Step meeting, getting support from others facing the same struggle.
• DOCTOR WHO. Are you a fan of Doctor Who? There are all kinds of ways that the Doctor has gotten involved with characters from the legendary past. Use the power of the T.A.R.D.I.S. to make the Doctor a character in the story you want to retell.
• SIDEKICK AS STORYTELLER. Does the hero (or villain) in the original story have a sidekick? Let the sidekick tell their own version of the story, offering their own critical perspective on what really happened and on the character of the hero (or villain).
• HISTORICAL MARKER. Are the events in the story you want to retell something that would be worthy of fame into the future? (Not necessarily historical in the sense of true, but historical in the sense of noteworthy.) If so, you could imagine a historical monument with a plaque to tell the story.
• BARTENDER. Sometimes it makes sense to tell your troubles to a bartender. Invent a bar and a bartender that a character in the story might visit, and have them tell their troubles over a drink to the bartender and/or to other patrons of the bar.
• SEQUEL TO THE STORY. Does the original story need a sequel? You could quickly summarize the story in a paragraph or so, and then focus your attention on writing a sequel: what happened afterwards...?
• ADVERTISEMENT. Is there some object in the story that could be used for marketing and branding? Retell the story as part of an advertising or marketing campaign.
• TV TALK SHOW. You can choose the TV talk show host whose personality best fits the character(s) who will be guests on the show: Oprah? Ellen? Jerry Springer? Dr. Phil? Dr. Oz? Or maybe you can invent the TV show and host from your own imagination to fit the story!
• TELLING A STORY IN A REVIEW. Is there something in the story that would lend itself to the form of a review, the sort of thing you might read at Yelp? See if you can tell a story in the form of two or three Yelp reviews, positive and/or negative.
• FAKE FACEBOOK. You can use a fake Facebook generator to tell a story through a series of Facebook status updates. Click for more info about this option.
• DIARY. This is one of the most popular and flexible first-person storytelling styles that you can find. Use multiple entries (not just one big entry) so that we can see the drama of the story unfolding day by day by day. Click for more info about this option.
• RAP BATTLE. Are there two characters in conflict in the story you want to retell? Any conflict can erupt into a rap battle! Click for more info about this option.
• MINOR CHARACTER AS STORYTELLER. Is there a minor character in the story that you want to retell who has enough knowledge to be the storyteller? You can use the minor character's knowledge and their own critical perspective to create a new version of the story.
• DETECTIVE STORY. Is there a crime or othe rmystery to solve in the story you want to retell? Then use a famous detective or invent your own detective to investigate the crime.
• TOURISM / TOUR GUIDE. Does the story you want to retell feature a distinctive place? Retell the story with a focus on the place by writing a tourism brochure or by having a tour guide take people around the place, telling the story as part of the brochure / tour.
• THE FUNERAL. Is there a character who dies in the original story? You might imagine what the funeral for that character would be like: who would be there? who would speak a few words? The more details you can imagine, the better!
• INSPIRED BY AN IMAGE. Is there some really excellent illustration for your source story? Tell a version of the story tha tis inspired by specific details from the illustration, using those details to inspire your writing.
• READERS' CHOICE. You can use your blog to build a "choose your own ending" where you write two endings to the story and let the readers make the choice. Click for more info about this option.
• DEATH AS STORYTELLER. Death knows everyone, sooner or later. For this style, you can imagine the character of Death (the god or goddess of death? the personification of Death?) and then use Death to tell the story of a character who has, in fact, died.
• SLEEPOVER. Is your story the kind of thing that girls or boys might tell at a sleepover? Use that as a storytelling setting, telling the story and also conjuring up the fun feelings of a sleepover!
• ONE-PULSE TALES. Try to write a tale that has words with just one pulse (syllable). It is kind of weird, but it is a lot of fun too! You will have to use your brain to find the right words. Click for more info about this option.
• OUTER SPACE. Science fiction: retell the story in outer space! Aliens, spaceships, black holes, asteroids, intergalactic warfare, space exploration: whatever you think will help you retell the story in a new way.
• JOB INTERVIEW. Imagine one of the characters telling their story in a job interview format. What kind of job would they be applying for? Do you think their story will make a good impression on the interviewer...?
• A STORY WITH ANIMALS. If you are starting with a human story, see if you can change some or even all of the human characters into animal characters.
• IMAGINE A BACKSTORY. Is there a character in the story who intrigues you? Try writing a backstory, a prequel, in which we find out more about the characters from events that happened in the past, even as far back as their childhood. You can explain in the Author's Note how your prequel connects up with the original story.
• WISDOM TALE. Invent a wise storyteller who is telling the original story with an emphasis on the lesson to be learned. Your wise storyteller might be a historical character, a famous fictional character, or a character of your own invention.
• STORIES FOR GAME OF THRONES. Imagine your favorite characters from Game of Thrones telling stories to each other: find the best Game of Thrones match for the story you want to retell, and give the storyteller a good reason for choosing to tell this particular story.
• DEAR ABBY. Everybody has problems. Retell a story in the form of a letter to an advice column in the newspaper, like Dear Abby or Miss Manners, and be sure to include both the letter and the reply.
• STORY OF A NAME. Imagine someone explaining the "story of a name" to someone else: a parent telling a child how they got their name, for example, or someone explaining their own name to someone else and what that name means to them.
• I CONFESS. Confession is one of the most powerful forms of first-person storytelling. Pick a character in the story and tell the story in the form of that character's confession: to another character, to a police officer, to a priest, to their god... whatever confession format fits best!
• NEIGHBORHOOD GOSSIP. Neighbors do like to gossip! Imagine the story told by people who are living in the neighborhood. They might have an accurate version or the story, or they might not... but they are going to gossip either way!
• AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS... Does the story you want to retell have a really powerful moral or message? Use a TechTip option to create a quote poster or a motivational poster to use as the illustration for the story, highlighting the moral or message.
• A STORY OF THE WILD WEST. Would your story work well retold in the American Wild West? Think about a favorite Western film or TV series to figure out what motifs you could use to translate the story into a Western setting.
• MASH-UP: COMBINE TWO STORIES. Are there two stories you want to tell...? Can you maybe combine them in some way, using characters from both stories or merging the plots somehow? In your author's note, you can explain which parts of your story came from which of your two different source stories.
• YOU AND YOUR TIME MACHINE. Imagine you have a time machine or access to a time portal: put yourself into a story and see what happens when you become one of the characters.

You can also get ideas from looking at previous Storybooks, so here is a random Storybook; to see more Storybooks, visit E-Storybook Central.

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Storytelling Style: Tell it with Animals

Maybe the story you want to retell would work with animal characters! You could choose to work with animals of different species (with the different species conveying the qualities of the different characters), or you could recast the story with all the characters being the same species.

For different species, consider Disney's Robin Hood with Robin as a fox, Little John as a bear,  Friar Tuck as a badger, etc.

Given that cats rule the Internet, it is probably not surprising that there are lots of cat examples. For stories told with animals check out these Myth-Folklore Storybooks: The Cat Gods and the Tales of Heraclaws (Greek myths with cats) and A Kingdom of Love in a Lion Pride (the story of Cupid and Psyche told with lions).

Here's the Biblical story of Esther with animated cat gifs: The Entire Story Of Purim, As Told By Cat GIFs. Here's just one of the gifs; meet King Ahasuerus:

And here's a poster that imagines a version of Star Wars with cats... it's Star Paws.  

Detective: Solve the Crime

Is there some kind of crime that has been committed in the story you want to retell...? A theft? A murder? Perhaps a missing person? You can switch the plot around by introducing a detective character who discovers the clues one by one and attempts to solve the mystery. You can use a famous detective like Sherlock Holmes, or you can create a detective of your own inside the fictional world that you are writing about.

For some ideas, take a look at some of these Storybook projects that use the detective style:

Law and Order: The Shape Shifters Unit. Meet the shape-shifters — Hanuman, Indra, Maricha — whose tireless efforts in defense of law and order now keep the city of Ayodhya safe.

Tokyo Underworld. Orimi works for the Urban Legend Department of the Tokyo police force, and she has a gruesome murder to solve. You'll have to pay close attention while she interrogates Teke-Teke, Tanuki, Kuchisake-Onna, Jinmenken, and The Professor if you want to find the murderer!




Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Missing River. Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Dr. Watson have come to India for some rest and relaxation, but when they find a murdered woman in their rented room, they have no choice but to pursue the mystery.




Fairytale Case Files. From light-hearted tales of elves to the brutal baking of a witch in her own oven, Wolfgang Forrester is on the case! Plus, there's a sequel: Wolfgang goes to India.

Epic Rap Battle

Do you know about Epic Rap Battles of History? So much fun! You can use a "rap battle" style for any story that has two strong characters: rap battle between Rama and Ravana, or a rap battle between the Tortoise and the Hare. Whenever you have any two characters in conflict, that could be the occasion for a rap battle!

Here is the rap battle of Zeus and Thor to give you an idea of how that can work:

Style: Rhyme

Rhyming verse is such a fun storytelling style to use! To help you find some rhyming styles to try, I've copied from rhymes from that unit along with a little analysis to help you use that rhyming style. You can explore the rhymes in that unit to find even more models to follow! You can tell the whole story in rhyme, or just tell part of it in rhyme; it's all up to you!

~ ~ ~

The lion and the unicorn
Were fighting for the crown;
The lion beat the unicorn
All round about the town.

Some gave them white bread,
And some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum-cake,
And sent them out of town.

Each 4-line stanza has a rhyme scheme based on this pattern:
x-A-x-A

~ ~ ~

TOM, Tom, the piper's son,
Stole a pig, and away he run!
The pig was eat, and Tom was beat,
And Tom went roaring down the street.

This 4-line stanza has a rhyme scheme based on this pattern:
A-A-B-B

~ ~ ~

THERE was a fat man of Bombay,
Who was smoking one sunshiny day,
When a bird, called a snipe,
Flew away with his pipe,
Which vexed the fat man of Bombay.

This 5-line stanza (called a "limerick") has a rhyme scheme based on this pattern:
A-A-B-B-A

~ ~ ~

I'LL tell you a story
About Jack a Nory, —
And now my story's begun.
I'll tell you another
About Jack his brother, —
And now my story's done.

This 6-line stanza has a rhyme scheme based on this pattern:
A-A-B-C-C-B

~ ~ ~

My dear, do you know,
How a long time ago,
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don't know,
Were stolen away on a fine summer's day,
And left in a wood, as I've heard people say.

And when it was night,
So sad was their plight,
The sun it went down,
And the moon gave no light.
They sobbed and they sighed, and they bitterly cried,
And the poor little things, they lay down and died.

Read the rest of the rhyme here: Babes in the Wood.

Each 6-line stanza has its own rhyme scheme based on this pattern:
A-A-x-A-B-B

Babes in the Wood, circa 1894

And Humpty Dumpty got his start as a riddle in rhyme:

(illustration by William Denslow)

Fake Facebook Style

For an example of a fabulous "fake Facebook" style of story, check out this Ramayana-based story: Updates from Exile. Yes, Rama's on Facebook. And everybody adores him!

Susanna used Simitator to create this fake Facebook story; there are other social media generators online, but Simitator is a good one since it has Facebook and Twitter and more social media options you can work with.

Take a look at this post to see all the update images that, put together, make up her story:

And here are some more examples: Manebook: Aesop's Lions and Ra Turns to Social Media.

Storytelling Style: This Is Your Life

You may have heard of the TV show "This Is Your Life," and if you have never seen an actual episode of the show, take a look at the amazing Muhammad Ali show from 1978.

So, think about how you might write up a "This Is Your Life" for a fictional character... it's a great way to bring a lot of voices into your story, while taking a different perspective on the events of the character's life. For more about the show, see the Wikipedia article: This Is Your Life.

This Is Your Life, Muhammad Ali
(Joe Frazier is even part of the show;
he appears at around the 38 minute mark)

Style: Here in Oklahoma

One of the most fun storytelling styles is to set the story on the OU campus. The more campus details you can use, the more the story will become your own! Here are some previous Storybooks that use an OU setting:

Lord Rama: The Greatest OU Football Player

Live On, University Legends

Finals Week: Death Notes

The Trickster of OU

Animal Tales From India to Oklahoma

Storytelling Style: Stories for Children

Telling stories for children is a wonderful storytelling option! Plus, it's good practice: you never know when you might need to tell a real story to a real child. :-)

When you do a story for young audience, there are lots of things to think about:

• what story do you want to choose? (some stories are obviously more likely candidates than others)
• what kind of words will you use in telling the story? (keep the vocabulary simple)
• who will be the storyteller? (parent? grandparent? babysitter? or someone more unexpected and mysterious?)
• who will be the audience? (one child or more? ages?)
• what will be the storytelling scene and occasion? (bedtime stories are just one possibility: stories can happen anytime!)

You can go about this in a realistic way... or something more supernatural! For example, this semester, Adrienne is doing a Storybook with an elephant dad telling stories to his little elephants: Elephants in India! Bedtime Stories. 

You can see some more children's story projects below:

Nature Tales of the Cherokee

Elephants of Indian Epics

Karma Bedtime Stories

Karma for Kids:

Stories for Your Unruly Children

Style: Cumulative Tale

The "cumulative" tale is one of my favorites! The most famous version is the English story of The House That Jack Built.

THIS is the house that Jack built.

This is the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the cat,
That kill'd the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the dog,
That worried the cat,
That kill'd the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the cow with the crumpled horn,
That toss'd the dog,
That worried the cat,
That kill'd the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the maiden all forlorn,
That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That kill'd the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the man all tatter'd and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That kill'd the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the man all tatter'd and torn,
That kiss'd the maiden all forlorn,
That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That kill'd the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the cock that crow'd in the morn,
That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the man all tatter'd and torn,
That kiss'd the maiden all forlorn,
That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That kill'd the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the farmer sowing his corn,
That kept the cock that crow'd in the morn,
That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the man all tatter'd and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That kill'd the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

The cumulative tale is a style of storytelling used around the world as you can see from these examples from the UnTextbook. You might get some ideas about how to write your own cumulative tale:

• The Judgment of Baboon (South Africa)
• The Sad Tale of the Mouse's Tail (Iran)
• Susku and Mushu (Iran)
• The Liver (Turkey)
• The Grasshopper and the Ant (Central Asia - Georgia)
• The Little Blackbird (India)
• The Louse and the Crow (India)
• Munachar and Manachar (Scotch-Irish)
• The Old Woman and Her Pig (English)

There's an article at Wikipedia where you can find more examples: Cumulative Tales.

One of the most famous is "Had Gadya" ("One Goat"), which is a song traditionally sung at the Jewish Passover Seder. You can read more about the song at Wikipedia, and from the last verse you can see how it works:

Then came the Holy One, 
and smote the angel of death, 
who slew the slaughterer, 
who killed the ox, 
that drank the water, 
that extinguished the fire, 
that burned the stick, 
that beat the dog, 
that bit the cat, 
that ate the goat.

Here is an amazing animated embroidery by Nina Paley that shows the song:

Storytelling Style: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Related to the Museum style, you can write your story as if it were a commentary on a work of art, using details that you notice in the work of art to prompt the choices you make in telling your version of the story.

So, the first thing to do is to find an image you can use to prompt your story. That might be a painting or a sculpture that find at an online site like Wikipedia or any of the online museum sites, or it might be an illustration from a book that you find at Internet Archive.

If you are fortunate enough to find a large-size version of the image you can "zoom in" on details. If you don't already have a favorite app for image editing, a site like PicMonkey.com online allows you to take an image, cropping and resizing to get the different images you want to include in your story. If you the story is for your blog, you'll want images that are 400 pixels wide; then you can select "original size" when you include them in Blogger.

So, for example, if you were to tell the story of Krishna lifting up Mount Govardhan, you could start with this 400-pixel wide version of the painting itself (Metropolitan Museum of Art: ca. 1590–95, Lahore):

Because the Metropolitan makes a detailed version of the image available, you could then zoom in on these detailed images, also 400 pixels wide, as you tell the story, letting the details of the painting prompt your version of the story.

So, for example, here is Krishna himself, with so many details you could include in a description of him in your story!

You can see the people and the animals taking refuse under the mountain:

And you can also see the animals who live on the mountain!

Storytelling Style: Objects in a Museum

Storytelling Style: Objects in a Museum. Is there some object in the story that would be be something you might find in a museum? If so, imagine the museum, the museum display, and the museum placard that would tell the story. This could be a realistic museum... or one with supernatural qualities. You might get some ideas from looking at this past projects that use a museum theme!

The Aviarium




Mysterious Museum: The Vahanas' Stories




Lost and Forgotten Artifacts of Japanese Lore




The Ramayana Museum of Art

Courtroom Trial

If the story you want to tell has a crime angle, you could do a detective-style story, or you could do a courtroom trial. The courtroom space gives you the opportunity to bring in lots of different voices with witnesses telling different pieces of the story. You also get to decide on who the judge is, along with the lawyers for the prosecution and the defense.

Plus, there are supernatural options: the trial can take place in the afterlife if the characters in the story have all passed on!

For some examples of courtroom stories, take a look at these Storybooks:

Karma's Courthouse

Celtic Creature Criminal Court: Fairy Vice

Rama vs. Sita: Love on Trial

Amusement Park - Miniature Golf

This storytelling style may strike you as a little strange, but it is a fun one: try imagining the story you want to tell as an amusement ride at a Disney-like park or miniature golf course with your story as the theme.

And hey, the famous Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise actually started as an amusement park ride at the old Disneyland... only later did it become a film franchise! You can read more about the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride in this Wikipedia article. It opened at Disneyland (the original one, in Anaheim, CA) in 1967, and it was the last ride which Walt Disney himself personally oversaw; Disney died just a few months before the ride opened. Here's an ad from the 1967 opening:

Many of the classic Disney rides are based on legends and stories; you can read about the original Disneyland in Anaheim in this Wikipedia article.

As for miniature golf, there are all kinds of themed miniature golf courses! For example, the Bible Mini-Golf in Kentucky has "three 18-hole courses: Old Testament, New Testament, and biblical miracles" — and you can see Jonah and the Whale here, plus the Ten Commandments:

The King Putt in Nevada is an Egyptian-themed miniature golf course:

At Mayday Golf in South Carolina, the course is themed around the story of a plane that crashes on a tropical island:

So, depending on the type of story you want to retell, you might have fun re-imagining it as an amusement park ride or a miniature golf course. Go wild! :-)

Call-In Radio Show

You can build on the basic screenwriting style (details here) to create all kinds of dialogue-based stories. The Call-In Radio Show is a really fun option: it has all the back-and-forth of an interview while also leaving open the possibility of surprises from the people who call in. They might be members of the general public... or they might be people who are also directly involved in the story, calling in to give their side of the story.

You could use a real radio personality (like in the Delilah project below), or you could make up your own radio personality from the fictional world that you are writing about: the Brothers Grimm, Ganesha — any kind of character could host a call-in talk radio show.

If you are using a real radio personality, look at Wikipedia to learn some details about their show; all the major radio talk shows and personalities have Wikipedia articles: Delilah, Dr. Laura, Car Talk, etc.

For an example, here is a Rama-and-Sita Storybook based on the Delilah radio show: Delilah's Radio Hour. It's by Kate Carlton Greer, who you may know from KGOU radio! She graduated from OU a few years ago and now has a real career in radio: Kate Carlton Greer.

Public Service Announcement Style

You are used to the idea that a story can have a moral... so think about how you would create a Public Service Announcement that could express that moral in the form of a video. You'll want to think about the spoken text of the video, and you would also want to describe the visuals scene. That way someone who is reading your "story" will get a sense of what the video experience would be like. For the history of PSAs (not just video PSAs), see this Wikipedia article: Public Service Announcements.

To get some ideas about public service announcements, check out this fabulous PSA from India that uses the gods of India and their vahanas (vehicles) to warn people that they should wear helmets for safety! The PSA was produced by the India Head Injury Foundation, and you can read more about it at Buzzfeed. The gods you will see are Vishnu, Durga, and Ganesha: Vishnu on Garuda, Durga on her lion, and Ganesha on his mouse — but "even those who protect you protect their heads" ... so they wear their helmets when they ride!

And here is one of the most famous PSAs from the 1970s: Keep America Beautiful.

And here's a PSA that went viral a few years ago, Dumb Ways to Die (train safety):

And, of course, there is one of the most famous PSA figures of all time: Smokey the Bear. Read more about Smokey at Wikipedia; he dates back to the 1940s.

"Remember... Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires."

Script Style (Screenwriting)

Script style is an excellent style to use if the story you want to tell consists of (mostly) dialogue. It allows you focus on the words of the characters, without the added baggage of tags and beats to mark the dialogue (he said, she said), along with all the special rules for punctuation and capitalization of quoted speech.

For the purposes of this class, it's fine to use a super-simple approach to screenwriting style:

• Put the characters' names in all-caps followed by a colon.
• Double-space when there is a change in speaker.
• Put commentary in brackets.

For example:

LITTLE RED: My, what big teeth you have, Grandmother! 

WOLF [leaping up from under the blanket]: All the better to each you with! 

[Little Red screams; cut to Forester walking down a path in the forest.]

Optional: You can the characters at the top of the script, putting their name in all-caps, followed by a comma, and then a description. For example:

LITTLE RED, ten years old, is wearing her famous red cap and carries a basket of food; the basket is almost too big for her to carry.

If you want to learn more about professional screenwriting guidelines, check out these sites:

• WikiHow: Screenplay
• How to Write a Screenplay
• Screenwriting Format

(photo by Joe Flood at Flickr)

Write a Ballad

The ballad is one of the oldest storytelling styles, and it's one you can use to retell any story: The Ballad of the Tortoise and the Hare, The Ballad of Rama and Sita, etc. etc. To get a sense of what ballads are like, you might browse around in the amazing ballad collection by Henry Child: The English and Scottish Ballads, over 300 ballads that you can find at the Sacred Texts website.

There are lots of specific forms that ballads can take, but here are some ideas to keep in mind as you write your own ballad:

Stanzas. A ballad is written in stanzas which are kind of like paragraphs, but unlike paragraphs, stanzas are always the same length. They might be four lines long, or they might be something more complex like the four+three structure you see in the stanzas of the Highwayman example.

Refrain. A refrain is something that repeats from stanza to stanza: sometimes it is just a phrase that repeats, sometimes it is a whole line, or even two whole lines. You might even have a whole stanza that repeats like the chorus of a song.

Rhyme. Usually there is some kind of rhyme scheme for the ballad. Not every line rhymes, but usually in a four-line stanza, there is alternating rhyme, like in the Ballad of Saint Felix:

   Now as Saint Felix, bent and gray,

   Was tottering down the street,
   A band of soldiers, fierce and wild,

   The old man chanced to meet.

Meter. There is usually some kind of meter to create rhythmic patterns. If you look at the Saint Felix stanza there, you will here that the first and third lines go "ta-DA ta-DA ta-DA ta-DA" while the second and fourth lines go "ta-DA ta-DA ta-DA." There are fancy names for this kind of thing (iambic tetrameter, iambic trimeter), but you don't really need to worry about the fancy names. Just count the syllables and listen to the rhythm to see what sounds good to you!

If you are curious to learn more about ballads, there is a detailed article at Wikipedia. Meanwhile, have fun experimenting: the ballad form is a lot of fun to work with, and I am sure your readers will enjoy the results!

One of my favorite ballads is The Highwayman. You can see the lyrics here: Highwayman lyrics. You can listen to a beautiful performance of the song by Loreena McKennitt at YouTube:

Invent a New Plot Using 5 Motifs

Remember the Holiday Map storytelling option from back in the Orientation Week? That map had a key full of fun storytelling items: ogre, spooky tree, minefield, snakes, etc. Those items are called "motifs," and they are kind of like the raw ingredients for a recipe. Just as you can make cook up different things from the same raw ingredients in the kitchen, the same thing is true for motifs: you can tell lots of different stories based on the same set of motifs.

Well, you can use this same "motif" approach with retelling any story, although it works best with a really LONG story (or an epic) so that you have lots and lots of motifs to choose from!

Just ignore the plot completely and pull out the raw ingredients, the "motifs" or basic elements of the story, and use them to create your own story. Try to pick 5 (or more) motifs from the original source story so that your readers will be able to see the connection. These can be types of characters that appear in your source story (princess, witch, dog, etc.), objects that appear in the source story (golden ring, magic lamp, poison, etc.), and elements of the setting in the source story (swamp, palace, desert, etc.). Then, make up your own plot using those raw ingredients, and explain in your note just which elements in your story came from your source.

Readers Choose the Ending

Do you want to let your readers choose the ending of the story...? That's easy to do if you are telling your story at your blog. Don't let the instructions below intimidate you: it's not as bad as it looks! Adding this "choose your own adventure" element will take just an extra five or ten minutes, and you will end up with something that could be really fun for your readers!

Main Story: You will write the main story as a regular blog post, up to the moment when the reader gets to choose from two different endings (or even three, if you want to do that). Go ahead and write out the question the reader will answer, and then you will come back later and add in the links. For example:

The princess has a choice: will she help the stranger, or will she obey her brother's command? Make your choice: She helps the stranger. ... She obeys her brother. See what happens! Then you can read the Author's Note.

Label your main story post with Storytelling as the label plus the current week as usual, but without the author's note.

Ending 1. Now create another blog post where you write out the ending that is Ending 1. In the example above, this is the ending where she helps the stranger. You'll use a different label for this post: Special. Here's the most important thing: you need to change the date so it will be "hidden" in your blog and not show up with the other posts on your homepage. So, in the right-hand column, look for the date option. Choose Set Date and Time, and change the YEAR to 2000, then click Done to record the new date. Publish the post!

Ending 2. Now create another blog post where you write out the ending that is Ending 2. In the example above, this is the ending where she obeys her brother. Label this post Special and also change the year to 2000. Publish.

Author's Note. Now create another blog post where you write out the Author's Note as usual, but keeping it hidden from your readers. Label this Special and change the year to 2000. Publish.

Get ready to edit! Okay, now you are ready to put it all together. Open your blog in one browser tab; you should see the Storytelling post on the homepage; click on the pencil at the bottom of the post to open it up for editing. Then, in another browser tab, open your blog, and click on the Special link in your Labels box; that should show you a page where you see the three posts you published with the fake date: the two ending posts and the author's note.

Edit the Storytelling post. You need to add three links to your post; to get the link you need, you will need to right-mouse click on the title of each of those three special posts and open the post in another browser tab. That will show the specific address (URL) for each of those three posts: the first ending, the second ending, and the author's note. Use each address to create the link you need: link to the first ending, link to the second ending, and link to the author's note.

You're all done! Publish your revised Storytelling post, and then check to make sure all the links are working: test the first ending, the second ending, and the author's note links.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have created an interactive story for your readers to enjoy!

Savage Chickens: Choose Your Own Adventure