Bernay Stories

This was one of my favorite writing activities while we were working together in Stories We Tell with Nomadways.

We were released into the community in small groups to explore and collect ideas and inspiration for 3 different types of stories. Our group worked together to find sounds and sights for each other’s stories, and this is the day that I wrote the first draft of Marcel Runs.

We worked in groups of 3 for the 1st part of the workshop, individually to create our stories, then came together with another group (6 people instead of 3) to share our stories in the end. It was a little rainy and overcast and the snowdrops were blooming. It was a beautiful day.

Bernay Stories

Materials needed: Pen/paper, sound and video (optional) recording devices.

Time: 4 hours, broken into 3 parts

Participants: groups of 3 for part 1, individually for part 2, two groups together for part 3 (Six people).

Part 1: 1hour – Participants are divided into groups of 3. Within the group one person will create a sound story (without any words), one will create a visual story (without any words or sounds) and one person will create a text story.

The groups can explore indoors and outdoors to collect video, sound recordings and ideas for their stories. The gathering stage is done within the group of 3.

Part 2: 1.5 hours – Participants individually create their stories using media appropriate to the type of story they are making.

Part 3:  1.5 hours – Participants rejoin their group of 3, and the groups pair off (6 individuals in each new group). Each individual shares the story they have created.

Participants have an opportunity to talk about their experience with the whole group.

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This was a powerful day for me. I wrote the text story in my group. Bogdan made a story composed entirely of sounds collected on his phone while we were exploring, and Ramon’s story was told using placed objects and looping video. Although we went out, saw, heard, smelled and experienced the same things, our stories were very, very different. 

The final drawings for this story are HERE