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.  

The Power of Hyphens

If you enjoyed the man eating chicken and the man-eating chicken from the Grammar Lessons video, here's another fun one: I don't want to work twenty four-hour shifts; give me twenty-four hour shifts please!

The Writing Process

As you'll see from week to week in this class, I'm trying to make it so that the writing feels like part of a process ... and I hope this graphic will turn out to be true too:

Fall in love with the process, and the results will come.

Resource: Writing Humor from Grammarly

While I am no fan of Grammarly's software (in fact, I think it is really bad news...), I do have to give them credit for a wonderful sense of humor. Here are some items I've saved from the Grammarly Blog:

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:

Ways Characters Die in Shakespeare’s Plays

For an interactive version of the graphic and a narrative overview, see Alice Vincent's article: Shakespeare's 74 death scenes more gory than Game of Thrones.

The article dates to December of 2015, so the Game of Thrones comparison may be out of date: at that time, there were only 50 episodes of Game of Thrones. Now with 73 episodes and some more yet to come, I would guess Game of Thrones is way out in front of the Bard.

Meanwhile, if you are looking for a way to have some character in one of your stories "shuffle off this mortal coil," perhaps you will get some ideas here:

(interactive version)

Taking Imagination Seriously

Rejected by art schools, Janet Echelman found her own path to becoming an artist... and that path led her to India. She has turned her curiosity and her pursuit of the new into some amazing works of art! You can read the transcript here.

Janet Echelman: Taking Imagination Seriously

You can see a beautiful series of photographs of her different sculptures at her website: Echelman.com.

My Dog Ate My Homework

It sounds like this boy consulted a thesaurus! You can read more about the tradition of the "thesaurus" at Wikipedia.

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Cartoon by Mike Twohy

Writers and Writing Widget

I've made a new "Writers and Writing" widget, using graphics from this blog. You can see the script in action in the sidebar, and also below. Each item contains a link to the corresponding blog post at this blog so that you can find out more! :-)

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I made these widgets with Randy Hoyt's wonderful RotateContent.com.

Here is the 200-pixel-wide version (good for blog sidebars):

<script type="text/javascript"> var display = " " </script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://widgets.lauragibbs.net/write/write200.js"></script>

And here is the 400-pixel-wide version:

<script type="text/javascript"> var display = "random" </script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://widgets.lauragibbs.net/write/write400.js"></script>

There is also an iframe version that you can use in Canvas or similar environment that does not allow direct use of javascripts; you can adjust the height variable as needed; I have only created an iframe version of the 400-pixel-wide widget:

<iframe src="https://widgets.lauragibbs.net/canvas/write.html" width="450" height="800"></iframe>

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.

Word Elements

I really liked this graphic from Edutopia; they call it "Essential Elements for Every Classroom" ... as in elements from the periodic table of chemical elements!

Be NiCe

I thought this might be fun for people who are in chemistry class, seeing the periodic table of elements as being made up of word elements too... kind of like Scrabble.

Of course, not all of the elements are really useful for making up words, and there are some elements that would be useful but which do not exist... still, it is possible to find words in there!

Here is an alphabetical list to make it easier to see what you have to work with, and you can find the chemical number to then look them up in a periodic table and grab the elements you need:

Ac - Ag - Al - Am - Ar - As - At - Au - B - Ba - Be - Bh - Bi - Bk - Br - C - Ca - Cd -  - Cf - Cl - Cm - Cn - Co - Cr - Cs - Cu - Db - Ds - Dy - Er - Es - Eu - F - Fe - Fl - Fm - Fr - Ga - Gd - Ge - H - He - Hf - Hg - Ho - Hs - I - In - Ir - K - Kr - La - Li - Lr - Lu - Lv - Md - Mg - Mn - Mo - Mt - N - Na - Nb - Nd - Ne - Ni - No - Np - O - Os - P - Pa - Pb - Pd - Pm - Po - Pr - Pt - Pu - Ra - Rb - Re - Rf - Rg - Rh - Rn - Ru - S - Sb - Sc - Se - Sg - Si - Sm - Sn - Sr - Ta - Tb - Tc - Te - Th - Ti - Tl - Tm - U - Uuo - Uup - Uus - Uut - V - W - Xe - Y - Yb - Zn - Zr

I found my name in the table. It's kind of weird to think of myself as being made up on elements like uranium and radium: eeeek!

I Am LaURa

Hansen Writing Ball

A bit of the history of technology of writing: this is the Hansen Writing Ball, a typewriter from around 1870, the first commercial typewriter. You can read more at Wikipedia.

So, that's 150 years ago... now try to imagine writing technology for 150 years into the future. Or will we be writing at all...?

Here's a view of the machine itself:

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)

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

If you are interested in what happens in your brain when you read and when you write, this is the book for you: Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.

The author, Maryanne Wolf (see video interview below), specializes in dyslexia, and the book culminates in a discussion of how what we know about reading and writing and the human brain gives us clues to understanding dyslexia. Highly recommended!

Table of Contents:

• How the brain learned to read
• Reading lessons from Proust and the squid
• How the brain adapted itself to read: the first writing systems
• The birth of an alphabet and Socrates' protests
• How the brain learns to read over time
• The beginnings of reading development, or not
• The "natural history" of reading development: connecting the parts of the young reading brain
• The unending story of reading's development
• When the brain can't learn to read
• Dyslexia's puzzle and the brain's design
• Genes, gifts, and dyslexia
• From the reading brain to "what comes next"

And here's an interview with the author, Maryanne Wolf: Embracing Dyslexia. There's also a good article at Mind/Shift: Understanding Dyslexia and the Reading Brain in Kids.

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: