Tiny Stories

Here is the assignment description for the Tiny Stories from the syllabus:

Each student will write and illustrate a series of five ‘tiny stories.’ By tiny story, I mean a narrative, (with something that might resemble a begin- ning, a middle and an end) usually less than 30 words, accompanied by an illustration (usually just one, maybe two or three if you’re pushing it). By series, I mean an assemblage of stories that have some underlying, unifying principle (by theme, style, approach, subject-matter, etc.). Students are encouraged to consider how form and content, narrative and theme, individual story and series correlate and compliment each other.

In class today, we looked at a number of different series of tiny(ish) stories and discussed the unifying principle underlying these stories. For example, we imagined what our friend Tim Burton might create in response to this assignment.

You might consider theme, character, style...

We also listened to the following song from They Might Be Giants.

You might consider tone, intent, duration...

Most importantly, this is an exercise in exploring new sources of inspiration for storytelling and creative expression. This is an opportunity for us to develop our abilities to...

• closely read the world around us
• document our observations/experiences/interpretations
• conceptualize our stories
• realize our expressions
• contextualize our creations

So, consider these points during your creative process, and reflect on these points when writing the artist's statements.