The Storytelling Recipe

With the weekly show on Clubhouse about podcast I listen to, the question on the podium was asked " What are you doing on Pintrest"? This question was asked to a dietitian and we were all curious what the panel's answer would be.

And the answer was

"I post recipes".

Pretty obvious that recipes work very well on pinterest, but would a storytelling recipe as well?

Ingredients for your shopping list:

• 500 words
• 1L adjectives
• 2L active verbs
• 10 names
• 7 settings
• 15 props
• digital tool

 Mix the 500 words with 1L adjectives and with the 2L active verbs, put aside for 2 hours. Take the 10 names and put them in the 7 settings, let them settle in for 2 hours, rearrange to characters Ad 15 props, let simmer for 3 hours, allocate to characters and into settings.

Pick a tool!

Mix!

Tell!

 Why did I come up with this storytelling recipe?  When we create stories we firstly  use words as our the main ingredients

 Of course you can tell story with just images or with just sound and but in this case, I went for the 500 words.

And 1l of adjectives,  I'm very much a fan of adjectives to describe the setting, to make it bloomie, to make it feel for the people who are reading your stories or your scripts.

Whenever you wrote something, go back and have a read through and think about if you might be able to add some more adjectives to make your story more an illustration for for your reader so  that they can put themselves into exactly this scene.

2l of active verbs, my favourite because I am a big believer in when you write a story, especially a script for a movie, active verbs will push the action forward.

A very well thought through decision what kind of verbs you're going to use makes a huge difference.

10 names is youur next ingredient. When you name your characters, think about that  the names of your characters can actually reflect their character, their being, what they do, where they're coming from, what they want in life, their vision, their mission.

You can always put a pole into your Facebook groups, describe the character, give three choices of names, ask your friends to vote and see how the results resonates with you and your charecter.

7 settings. Every movie, every story, happens somewhere. Whereever it is, the outside should always mirror the inside of the character.  When you choose your settings, consider that this very setting is reflecting your characters and their action.

A very good example is the recent closing night movie for MIFF (Melbourne Filmfestival) "Language Lessons", which was streamed online. I realised with surprise that it was a Zoom film.  Bound to their screens the 2 protagonists interacted with each other. And which was absolutely okay, because both protagonists were also boxed in in their life. The outside setting reflected perfectly and on a completely different level the inside feeling of these two people.And ironically I alos watched it in my computer as we could not go to the movies in person

15 props. There's a saying in the scriptwriting world:

Whenever you're hanging a rifle on stage, you have to shoot it.

What does that mean? It means, whenever you have a set up, you also have to have a payoff. That can be on a very physical level that whenever you introduce a certain prop in your story, you need to explain later on why you did so. On a meta level,  whenever you introduce a substoryline, a character, anything into your story with a louder voice, with a bang, you have to have a payoff at the end because if you don't you will ned up with loose ends. And then your audience might feel frustratedwith an explenation, left with no pay off.

Now, write, write write, set up meetings with yourself in your calendar, two different kind of meetings, a ceative meeting and a refelctive meeting, during your creative time, you just write, in the reflective time, you read, analyse, correct.

Happy writing!

Download the Digital Storytelling checklist @ https://www.digitaldolphins.com.au/get