So I teach at this boarding school for smart kids w/ dyslexia or other learning difficulties and, in the evenings, one of the things I do is wander around the dorms of the younger ones, chatting a bit to each one (they obv miss their parents a whole lot), helping them feel that someone's around & also stop them raiding each others dorms & etc.
Anyway there's one dorm with some tricky kids in it, which is also our biggest one, and I've gotten into the habit of telling that dorm a story before they go to sleep, to sort of settle them down a bit - they each have a persona in a slowly-defining fantasy world (3 are goblins, one is a boy with a pegasus, one is an ogre mage, one is a pobble (pobbles are fat and jolly and sing as they walk about with no toes) one is a half-elf, etc). I mostly make up the stories as I go but I tend to steal the plots from things I've read somewhere (last week it was the astronaut story from Generation X, they tend to get modified a lot before they fit).
But I'm worried I'm running out. So this is a thread where you can help me, if you want - tell me plots! Any plots, it doesn't matter, though obviously sci-fi and fantasy ones are easiest, and romance stuff won't work (they're all boys). I would be totally grateful, here.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Sunday, 13 May 2007 21:01 (eighteen years ago)
Wow, that's quite an audience you have. I have an ongoing story with my son Alex (who will soon by 9); in it, he's himself, but he gets to travel to other planets and fight monsters on them, etc. My all-time favorite story rip-off is from Tolkien - I have Alex get grabbed by trolls, but they can't decide when and how to eat him. The sun comes up, the trolls turn to stone, and Alex gets away with the troll's treasure.
― Sara R-C, Sunday, 13 May 2007 21:19 (eighteen years ago)
That sounds like an awesome place to teach. How long have you been there?
So you're making up stories rather than reading to them? I was going to suggest reading the His Dark Materials books.
When I was young I used to make up stories for my friends based on the little blurbs you'd get in the dungeons and dragons game books. We were a bunch of girls and would start playing then give up and just spin a yarn that involved all of us. Maybe look for some of those for starting points?
― Ms Misery, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:58 (eighteen years ago)