storytelling Archives - Rachel What If

Random What If Story Lines From the 19s.

Sometimes we just need ideas that are so far out of the box, so unexpected, that our eyes widen enough to see a bigger picture. One of my favorite things about teaching was the random and wonderful thoughts kids share at any given time.

Back in the 19s

I recently overheard a ten year old talking about something that happened back in the 19s. The 19s? After a moment I realized he was talking about a time that was very long ago. Almost the 1900s. When I say the 70s, 80s, etc, he thinks, “oh, back in the 19s.” Its so mind boggling to me, but this is what I mean. We need more of this kind of thinking.

Pixar storytellers use “what if” as the seed for growing awesome stories. A previous post explains how teaching creative writing in this way made writing stories less stressful, and way more fun for the kids. Most fictional stories can be simplified into a single what if sentence. Think of your favorite movie and try to explain it in one sentence beginning with What if.

The following is a list of wacky ‘what if’ story lines that were made into movies.Not only are the story lines attention grabbing, the characters and special effects in these movies are truly “special,” and they are all from the 19s.

The Dirt Bike Kid 1985

What if there was a motorcycle who wanted to help a boy save a hot dog stand from a mean old tycoon who is going to tear it down? The Dirt Bike Kid is a little known action adventure flick that is nothing short of fantastic. This motorcycle has an attitude problem, but a big heart. Just as you would expect, the motorcycle gets into trouble and gets arrested. As in, the officer actually places handcuffs on the handlebars. You’ll just have to see it to believe it.

Lots of great movies, great music, and well, great everything came out of the 80’s. I thank my lucky stars to have grown up with no internet, no cell phone, and endless hours to watch MacGyver and The Goonies. Angus MacGyver and Mikey Walsh have inspired me to be resourceful, optimistic, and above all, to believe anything is possible.

While The Dirt Bike Kid has nothing on an epic, life changing, timeless story like The Goonies, it resembles it in some ways. The kids are the underdogs, and the heroes.

The Cat From Outer Space 1978

Amazon.com: The Cat From Outer Space: Ken Berry, Sandy Duncan ... — The Cat From Outer Space

Imagine a movie about a talking magical alien cat. What if there was a planet filled with cats that were so highly intelligent that they moved things with their minds? No need for opposable thumbs!

Disney’s The Cat From Outer Space is “Supurr-natural.” Yes, I am quoting that line from the trailer. The humans in this movie are your typical scientists, not skeptical at all that a cat can talk and move things with its mind. That’s what I love about scientists: they’ll believe anything!

Best of all are the special effects. Sometimes you can’t even see the wires carrying that physicist through the air! And when Jake (the alien cat) uses his powers to freeze bad guys, the pixels get a bit fuzzy, but it takes a ton of talent to stand that still.

Blackbeard’s Ghost 1968

Amazon.com: Blackbeard's Ghost: Dean Jones, Peter Ustinov, Suzanne ... — Blackbeard’s Ghost

What if the ghost of a pirate could free himself of a curse by helping others? The mostly drunk, but lovable, Blackbeard the Pirate is my favorite ghost of all time. He fights in his sleep, sings all day and night, and behaves a bit like a toddler who doesn’t get what he wants.

Just try not to laugh when you see how confused the mobsters are when the track coach is able to take them out using his hands in the form of a gun while saying “pow pow.” I would have loved to be in the room when the writers and actors were thinking up this scene.

I need a break from realistic. These quirky and of off-the-wall ideas remind me to be more playful, laugh at silliness, and take myself, and others, a lot less seriously. Some would say life is so confusing as it is, and I agree. Lets stop trying to figure everything out and think of some fun stories to tell instead.

What are some of your favorite story lines? Leave a comment and we could try to guess the movie!

Five Minutes to Start a New Story

Change is hard, but with a little hope, optimism, and 5 minutes, we can stop waiting for something to happen, and start a new story.

waiting to change

The authors of Switch, How to Change Things When Change is Hard, remind me that “Change brings new choices that create uncertainty.” We get overwhelmed because most of us are on auto pilot most of the time. Auto pilot is not bad. It helps us to maintain energy levels, so we can use that energy to make decisions. I hate having to decide every day now what is important and what isn’t. It used to be easier: get up early, morning routines, get to work, evening routines, go to bed.

Now, I find myself staring out the window a lot. Waiting for something. Waiting for life to go back to normal, but not wanting it to. Waiting to love the life I have right now. Waiting to buy new clothes, to wear to my new job, that I am waiting for. Waiting for an opportunity to travel, to feel safe at the grocery store. Waiting to feel safe around other people at all. Ug, so much waiting.

Change is hard, but it’s also an opportunity. Vince Lombardi is famous for his determination to win, and all that. I’m not sure I love his quotes, and I know things get all misconstrued. He said something about how quitters never win, but it depends on how you look at it. He also said that hope is not a strategy, but again, there are extenuating circumstances.

hope is a little messy

My daughter reminded me that messed up hope is still something to be grateful for.

In this moment, hope is kinda my only strategy.

The Harvard Business review published an article appropriately titled Hope is a Strategy (Well Sort Of). They talk about realistic optimism, and refer to a quote by Carmin Mendina “Optimism is the greatest act of rebellion.”

So, I hereby rebel. I am going to be optimistic, and pretend that things are going to work out for the best.

But, I am pretty tired of waiting. It’s ridiculous to try to plan for next month, or next week, or even tomorrow at this point. I think you can still have optimistic and hopeful viewpoint, without being certain about anything. However, waiting isn’t a good strategy, for me anyway.

Start something for 5 minutes

I recently started looking for ways to be a bit more creative with my writing. In my classroom, before beginning any kind of writing assignment, we would go to the scholastic website and choose a story starter. The challenge was to write as many words as you could, on the chosen topic, for 5 minutes.

Most fourth graders don’t really love to write. I guess they have learned by this point in their career, that there are too many rules, and its a task that is never finished. We all know that feeling of staring at a blank page, and no words are coming out. Writer’s block is a real thing.

It was different with the 5 minute story starters. The topic would always be a bit silly, and they knew there weren’t really any rules, except they had to write for the full 5 minutes. Even my most reluctant writers would participate. Many were getting close to a hundred words written in just 5 minutes!

The best part came at the end of the 5 minutes, when I would ask for volunteers to share their writing. Almost everyone wanted to read aloud what they had written. The writing was good! They were creative, descriptive, and taking risks.

Five minute challenge

Anyone can stick it out for five minutes. Even a five year old can commit to a task for that long. This is especially true for those of us who are feeling overwhelmed by all the changes we have had to make over the past few weeks.

I even decided to start my own little five minute creative writing challenge in my daily writing. The Story Starter.com has an idea generator for grown ups, and it has been fun for me to try my hand at something that is pretty difficult for me.

Five minutes to start a story, or clean the bathroom, reconcile accounts. It just doesn’t seem so bad anymore.

I might still stare out the window and wait for things to change on their own. Maybe I will set a timer, and let myself do that for a short time. Then I will get back to reality and be intentional and outrageously optimistic for 5 minutes.

For more five minute inspiration, check out the fly lady? She is still around after 20 years of blogging about change. Her philosophy is simple. Just do something for five minutes.

UPDATE:

I love it when I find something that just goes with something I already have, or do. This is an awesome video about using 5 minutes at the end of your day to reflect and write down the most important thing from the day. Over time, you will develop a sense for your life as moments. Important, beautiful moments, that are your story, and part of a bigger story.

Is blogging the foundation for great storytelling?

What if the universe really is sending us hints or messages and we call it coincidence?

I decided to start a blog as a way to get ideas out in a digital way. Because, ya know, what if I decide to write a book someday? One of the very first steps was to create a name for the site. It is a lot of pressure to come up with a name that captures your personality, your blog content, your ideas, etc. Especially when all I was focused on was just setting up a blog and not really creating any content.

In order to avoid a road block to the daunting task of blogging, I started to think about what I could name the site. I had recently been to a professional development for teachers where the concept of “what if” came up. What if the problem presented to students could be changed in some small way after they had solved it? How would this change our perspective? How does this change the way we think? For some reason this stuck with me.

It hit me again while trying to think of a name for this site. The words “what if” actually do describe my personality and the way I constantly think. It keeps me creative and hopeful. I hate to think that there is only one way, or that the world really is what we think it is.

Back to this idea of coincidence. Today, I needed to search for some resources to help teach my 4th graders how to be good storytellers. I came across an excellent resource that I thought was only for math and science: Khan Academy. One of the courses they offer is led by Pixar story artists! (Is it weird I had just bought Salman Khan’s book The One World Schoolhouse? I’ve never even looked at his site before.)

Stick with me, it gets even better. The second or third lesson offered in the story telling course on Kahn Academy is called “What if…” Pixar uses what if statements as the foundation for great stories. Connection: What if this blog is the foundation for my great storytelling? I’m tearing up now just putting this all together. So to answer my what if question for today: I choose to believe that universe, God, greater good is mindful of me and guiding me to take action on my dreams. I’m excited for many more what ifs to come.

Here is a link to Khan Academy’s site:

Khan Academy Story Telling