The idea of storytelling comes up frequently in design and in writing, but what does it actually mean? The most explanation for a story would be a traditional narrative arc like you see in movies and literature, but there are additional ways of communicate something in a less direct way. As we begin this semester, let’s consider what kinds of strategies we have for adding interest to our work and explaining what our projects are about.
Topic VS. Story
Sometimes when you begin an open ended project, you might start with a topic rather than a story. Topics are big picture concepts about an idea, while a story is a more specific iteration of that topic. Positioning your work as a story rather than a topic is an easy way to add interest to your pieces and push yourself to explain what you’re actually talking about and why anyone should care.
For example:
Topic
Ikebana
Story
Contemporary ikebana artists using non-traditional materials in their work during the pandemic
Traditional Narrative Arc
A traditional narrative arc is as follows:
A Writer's Cheatsheet to Plot and Structure
In other words: we’re introduced to an event, the event progresses and reaches a boiling point, the event gets resolved, the main character learns something.
Examples
Eva Stories on Instagram(2019)(Sensitive content)
Non linear storytelling is where there isn’t a clear start and end. Literally, this could take the form of a“choose your own adventure” book, and in a more abstract way, it could be a story through suggestion. There’s not necessarily a narrative arc, but the story is about something that you realize through the design and content.
We’re going to work on a practice activity for the main assignment. Write a story in 5 parts. Each part should have either a couple sentences, an image, or a website url. The story can be real or imaginary. This story is just for class, you’ll propose three different ideas for homework.
Let’s take 20 minutes to do this and then we’ll take a look at everyone’s stories.
10:35 AM EST
Name
1
2
3
4
5
Shravani
She didn’t remember a lot about her grandma but still somehow missed her. Fragmented memories of her home danced around in her head, too unclear to form a definite picture. But there was one thing that stood out the most: the big green potted banana tree that stood in the living room. She decided, as an homage to her grandma, she would try her best to care for her own banana tree.
With great patience, care(and a decent amount of money), she was able to maintain a beautiful banana tree in the frustratingly cold environment of North America.
Excitedly, she called her mom to tell her about her achievement and how happy she was by evoking this memory of her grandma.
“That’s a beautiful tree, sweetheart,”, said her mother,“But Grandma’s living room had always had a plastic tree. She found taking care of plants to be too much of a hassle.”
Project Introduction
Storytelling
Topic VS. Story
Traditional Narrative Arc
Examples
Non-Linear Storytelling
Activity: Story Time