Your task is to take the story about how evil comes into the world, the story King tells about the Witches’ convention in Chapter One of The Truth about Stories, and change it any way you want, except the ending. You can change to place, the people, the time – anything you want. But, your story must have the same moral – it must tell us how evil came into the world and how once a story is told, it cannot be taken back.

First, learn your story by heart, and then tell the story to your friends and family.

After you have told the story a few times,  post a blog with your version of the story and some commentary on what you discovered about story telling.

I have a great story to tell you.

Once upon a time, there was a group of moles who lived deep underground in the land of Narnia. They managed to get enough food and water to eat, but that didn’t really help with their survival, because what they lacked – was entertainment of the soul. They were surrounded by darkness and never knew what to do in their free time, when they weren’t sleeping or scavenging around in the ground for food. They all lived very unhappy lives, and lived in reminiscence of the times when they were baby moles and were able to see the sunlight and bask in it. The darkness had consumed them in more ways than one.

All of this came to an end when one day, one of the younger moles finally came up with a fun activity to do. Because they were so consumed by the darkness and practically lived in it, they decided to give in to it.

“Hey! I have a fun idea. Why don’t we work with the darkness and make up a game? Let’s call it… um… Scary Time! Whoever comes up with the scariest thing, wins!” said the younger mole.

“Well… that sounds alright… but what’s the prize?” asked his brother.

The younger mole took some time to think, but finally responded: “You’ll get to go above ground in the sunlight for an hour!”

Now, this was something that the moles hadn’t done for years, and they needed permission to do so. It was something that they all had wanted, so with no surprise, all of the moles suddenly started to shout in excitement!

“Excellent!” said the younger mole. “Let’s begin the games!”

And thus began a series of scary things. From ghosts to zombies and encompassing Halloween all in one go, the moles spent the entire day scaring each other. It was all going well and they, after such a long time, were finally having some fun. All until someone came into the picture.

A neighbouring mole named Molly Sr. could hear all of their bloodcurdling screams and laughter, and wanted to know what was going on. She too, was very unhappy and thought that this might be a way for her to have some fun and joy in her life!

“What’s going on here?”

“Oh, we’re just playing Scary Time!” responded the mole who came up with this creative game. He wound up explaining the terms and conditions of the game, and the grand prize at the end. “Would you like to join?”

Molly Sr. couldn’t resist – getting to go above ground was the greatest gift of all! “Of course! Count me in!”

Molly Sr. proceeded to tell the most gruesome story, about the Mole Crisis of 1429, when all of the moles of their community were hacked up into pieces by a drill, and their bodies were then scooped up by the excavator, only to be deposited somewhere else.

“NO! STOP! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO US!” screamed the moles.

Molly Sr was shocked and didn’t understand what she had done wrong.

In despair and utter agony, the eldest mole explained, “We don’t want to know what happened to our ancestors. We are living our own lives and don’t want to end up like them… but congratulations, that has clearly scared us the most so you win! We’ll give you the prize and we’ll let you enjoy the sunlight, but only if you take that story back!”

Molly Sr, being a stubborn mole, exclaimed, “No can do! My words are out in the universe. No take backs.”

Commentary

Both of the processes of writing this story and telling the story itself, were so engaging and frankly, fun. I ended up telling this story to three groups of people: two of my best friends from high school over a group Facetime call, my parents after dinner one night, and a group of my younger cousins, right after Church on Sunday.

Going into storytelling, I was under the assumption that I would tell the story the same way to all groups of people. However, this didn’t end up being the case.

When I told this story to my parents, I had to change pace and repeat some things that were unclear, and even explain a few concepts in their mother tongue of Hindi.

In telling the story to my friends, I ended up using more informal language and adding some slang, because I was getting the sense that they were getting bored or not listening.

Finally, when I told “The Horror of the Moles” to my little cousins, I used hand gestures and included a lot more expression on both my face and in my voice, in order to keep their attention.

After this experience, I have personally understood that storytelling is not a static activity. Rather, it is a very dynamic experience and can change according to a multitude of factors, especially considering the audience itself.

(Here’s a picture of Hans Moleman from the Simpsons, as I envisioned him as the wise, elderly mole from my story)

Before concluding my blog, I have a question for my fellow classmates. Did you experience having to tell your story in a different way than envisioned, in order to better speak to your audience’s interests?

Works Cited

Image of Hans Moleman. Simpsons Wiki. https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Hans_Moleman. Accessed 22 January 2019.