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Beginning with characters
 In
StoryArk workshops, we encourage character creation
as the basis of storytelling. Cartoon characters especially
lend themselves to the curiosities and imaginative depths
of their creators. We've seen kid create characters
as diverse as dogs, ants, space creatures and French
fries! Given freedom and encouragement, students will
create the characters and stories that best enable them
to investigate their own mind and their own patterns
of engagement with the world.
Some kids, given paper, their new
character and some free time, will fill up panel after
panel of drawings and stories. Others will need spurring
on, and to these kids We teach a simple structure of
"two changes." We ask them about their character's
ordinary state- what is he or she usually doing? Do
they have friends? Where do they live?
Tried and true structures
Tom says: In an example that I hand
out to younger students, Sappi is a character with a
strange lizard mask, who is hungry and has been fishing
for 6 years without ever catching a fish. This is his
ordinary state. On top of that he is down to his last
cracker.
I tell students that changes in a
character generally makes an interesting story. One
is often a surprise at the beginning of the story, and
the second settles the story down at the end. This second
one can also be surprising, but it usually tends to
bring the character to a new ""ordinary state"
or happily back to his or her older one.
In the Sappi example, Sappi suddenly
catches a magic fish (first change.) When the fish asks
for his last piece of food, he gives Sappi his balloon
and Sappi floats up to the clouds (2nd change) where
he feasts on clouds made of crackers (new ordinary state.)
This simple formula often gives children
who feel unimaginative to instantly make a unique story
that often surprises and delights them.
This structure is a loose simplification
of the structure of classic myths; the purpose of which
has been to familiarize us with the patterns that life's
obstacles and complexities often take. Storytelling
is invaluable to us as humans. StoryArk workshops help
kids integrate these understandings into their daily
lives.
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