Written storytelling tips from The Telling Room

General Tips 

  • Keep the story narrow; 90 seconds is not enough time to tell a complicated story = about a short paragraph long

  • Plan a beginning, middle, and end; make sure you provide the location, the characters, and the time in the beginning and consider having some kind of meaning or message at the end

  • Map out a few “signposts” - major points in the story you want to make sure you get to; that will help keep you on track as you’re going

 

Advanced Tips

  • Add a hook! Grab the reader with a haunting or memorable image that is unique to your own life; the more specific, ironically the more people will relate to it.

  • Symbolism: Do any objects in your story hold more than one layer of meaning? Tell the object’s perspective. What would it say to past and future you? The world?

  • Tension makes the story tick! Is there a conflict? In the beginning and middle of the story, are there moments when we’re not sure what’s going to happen next?

  • Make it universal! If you connect to the emotions that we all feel,we’ll be able to relate to what you’re experiencing even if we haven’t been in the exact situation you’re describing

 

Prompts for starting to tell your story 

  • What would your Maine object say to you? Only use dialogue in your 90 second story.

  • What person in your family has been impacted by this object the most? How does this object run deep through your ancestry?

  • Describe the color of the object - Let this lead you into all feelings you associate with it. Start your story with the strongest feeling you wrote.

  • Where does the object sit now? How does its current location reflect where it’s been? Does it feel at home? Does it feel foreign or distant to its past places?

  • Describe a smell that connects you to a personal Maine story. Do you have any objects in your cupboard or kitchen that remind you of this smell?

  • Write down 3 most life-changing events that happened to you in Maine. Choose the one with the most “heat.”

These prompts are definitive ways, but think of them as story builders helping you to speak authentically and think creatively. Good luck!

 
 
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