Imaginary Stories

I don’t know how it started, but Quentin can’t go to sleep without his “imaginary story.” The routine goes as follows. Q comes to me: “can I have my imaginary story now?” I say, “OK, who’s in it.” He then gives me a list of characters. Typically something like: Spiderman, Batman, Clayface, Tahu Nuva (Bionicle), and Joker. He then settles in beside me ready to hear what I’m going to come up with.

Now first let me just say, I have no experience storytelling. I started doing this because I thought it would improve his creativity. And it may have, but really, it’s improving MY creativity. I find it fairly HARD to come up with a storyline on the fly. And you can forget about inserting a moral or something. It’s hard enough just getting all the characters in there.

So, I typically start them out in a coffee shop. Batman and Spiderman are having a cup of cappuccino arguing about who should pay this time. When all of a sudden there’s a loud BAM BAM BAM coming down the street. Batman yawns and says “Spiderman, I believe that’s Clayface coming down the street, could you take care of it this time? I had a long night….”

I usually let the good guys win. Clayface is defeated by water, so I either get a hose on him, or he falls into the lake. One time I let the bad guys win. It didn’t go over too good.

Sierra got into the act when she got older, but she called them “Imagininny Stories”.

In any event, neither kid has asked for a story in over a year. About a week ago, I asked Q if he wanted an “I” story. He said sure. I gave him one. It wasn’t that good. I guess I’m out of practice, and he hasn’t asked for another since.

Guess that’s why I’m posting on it now. I think the imaginary stories have come to an end….