Ten Storytelling Exercises
Copyright © 2020
Before we start:
Remember Newton’s First Law: A body in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force.
and Paul Simon’s Amendment:”We work at our jobs, collect our pay, believe we’re gliding down the highway when in fact we’re slip slidin’ away.”
2
For a story to be a story, something has to happen. For a story to be a good story, that something has to engage, inspire, captify, illuminate.
3
Before we start, ask yourself the following question:
Who is your story for?
Why are you writing or telling it?
What is the best medium for it?
Here are some writing exercises. Have fun!
4
1
Create opposing stories in court: Two characters tell the judge what “really” happened.
5
2
Go on a “FAKATION”
Go somewhere that doesn’t exist or you’ve never been to. Tell us about it.
6
3
Exaggerate, Exaggerate, Exaggerate…
You think you have problems?
It was a hot day.
Peter was a nice guy.
My dog is ugly.
I was broke.
The girl was crying.
The teacher was bad.
The snow was deep.
There were birds in the sky.
7
4
Write a story that has only dialogue
Can you write a story that is 100% composed of dialogue between two people, animals or inanimate objects? Give it a try!
8
48Create – Choose four items from each category at random (coming pages). Then, after looking at them for a minute or two, write a story incorporating one of the characters, one of the objects and one of the states of mind.
9
13
5
Use Random Words to create unexpected words and groups of words
https://randomwordgenerator.com/
to get ideas from.
14
6
Fractured Fairy Tales – Tell the original story, but not quite as it was originally written…
15
7
Writing Prompts:
Write a forest story covering one event but from the perspectives of several different animals.
Write a story about two friends who get lost while going to visit a third friend.
Write a story about two people who meet and then try to cheat one another.
Write a story about a giraffe who is much taller than all the other giraffes.
16
Write a story that begins and ends with someone looking up a tree or building
Write about an animal learning to play a musical instrument.
Write a story about a contest.
Write a story about a magic banana.
17
8
Press the empathy buttons.
Good stories are about characters we emphasize with. Your character should push as many of the buttons as possible from the list in the book opposite. Take any character (even a politician) and practice pushing the empathy buttons.
18
19
9
Follow a simple plot recipe:
Our hero (name etc) was busy (doing whatever our hero was doing, wanting whatever our hero wanted),
When (whatever happened to disrupt him/her).
Causing him/her to try this and that until…
Final (surprising? funny?) resolution.
20
Or…..
Once upon a time there was a _____________ who lived in ________________. One day_____________. The next day ________________. The day after that _________________. But_________. Then _________________. Finally _________________.
21
10.
Create a story from a picture. How many ideas for stories can you get from this drawing by Irena Brodeski?
22
Bonus:
Show Don’t Tell exercises
23
Good luck!
24
Published: May 10, 2020
Latest Revision: May 10, 2020
Ourboox Unique Identifier: OB-819548
Copyright © 2020
Skip to content