how to tell a story | daniel nayeri

The book is a guide to the principles of creative storytelling. It covers the essential elements like conflict, characters and their motivation, dialogue, plot, theme, and, of course, the climax. As you turn the pages, you'll be prompted to roll the story blocks. And that's when the magic starts to happen. The blocks are coded by colour, each loosely associated with a part of speech. A simple exercise about motivation, for example, asks the reader to roll the blocks and find one red block (person or animal) "who wanted nothing more in this world than to" one green block (action). Depending on the outcome, the reader might end up telling a tale of a cowboy who just wanted to dance or a mummy who wanted to race cars. How to Tell a Story combines the surprising whimsy of Mad Libs with the compelling fun of storytelling cubes. Its prompts and games will have readers mastering the basics of storytelling while exercising their creative muscles. And who knows where that journey will end?