Invitation to the Exercise: Part 1 - Examining Madden's Book

Take a look at the excerpt from Matt Madden’s 99 Ways to Tell a Story. Identify what is happening in this series—what Madden is doing with the panels you find on each page? 

  • What effects do you notice about the different ways of telling? How does each was of telling affect what is being told? 
  • “Can a story, however simple or mundane, be separated from the manner in which it is told?” Are stylistic choices an essential part of any story? Do form and content work together? Is the “message in the means”? 
  • What do you speculate is the point of Madden’s project? As an artist/writer, why take on a project like this? 
"Every page was once a blank page, just as every word that appears on it now was not always there, but instead reflects the final result of countless large and small deliberations."​
​— Francine Prose

Invitation to the Exercise: Part 2 - Two Truths and a Lie

Writing Prompt: ​Take a few minutes to write two truths and one lie about yourself, using your name. Write three short anecdotes in third-person POV. Be creative with how the story is told, and try to make it difficult for us to guess which of your anecdotes is the lie. As you complete this activity, think about what makes something convincing or not. What makes a story seem true or real?
​
What can we learn about writing fiction from this prompt?
​ 
Things to think about:
  • Some of our most interesting stories may come for our lives, and some of our most interesting stories are made up. 
  • There is a space between the truth and the lie.
  • Sometimes we are unreliable narrators. When we are, our lies can say more about us than what actually happened. 
  • Providing authenticating details can make an anecdote more convincing.
  • Stories can have some element of oddity while not becoming implausible.
  • It takes work to make the absurd feel true.
​
“Of all lies, art is the least untrue.”
​—Flaubert

Invitation to the Exercise: Part 3 - Telling It Again

​Our final step for this exercise will be to do a “5 Ways to Tell a Story” series with one story you generated based on the "Two Truths and a Lie" prompt. What “ways of telling it” interest you? Some suggestions: 
  1. Way of Telling It: Rewrite your story in five words.
  2. Way of Telling It: Rewrite your story as a series of if-then statements.
  3. Way of Telling It: Rewrite your story as a series of questions.
  4. Way of Telling It: Rewrite your story as a letter.
  5. Way of Telling It: Rewrite your story as a recipe.
  6. Way of Telling It: Rewrite your story so that every sentence starts with the letter “G.”
  7. Way of Telling It: Rewrite your story as a warning.
 
Write a series of five versions of the same story, told in five different ways. 


​

Invitation to the Exercise: Part 4 - Reflection

Questions for Discussion:
​What can we learn about invention from this multi-part exercise?
Are there tools here that you can keep with you as you generate texts?