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The Story Studio

A small story. Many ways to tell it.

Begin with a few sentences. Explore how pictures, voice, and timing change what a story means and how it feels. Follow the worked examples, then make something of your own.

Enter the Studio

Begin with the Words & Meaning example, then choose Walk-Through or Your Turn.

A brown-paper parcel tied with red string sits on the stone doorstep of a closed green repair-shop door.

Your project stays in this browser and on this device when saving is available. Keep a download for your own copy. Your authored text is not sent anywhere automatically.

How the studio works

Start with words, then carry your story into another form. You can stop with a written story or explore all four rooms.

  1. Words & Meaning

    Shape a small story in six parts.

  2. Pictures & Sequences

    Plan the images and the moments they show.

  3. Sound & Voice

    Prepare a reading, with voice and sound in mind.

  4. Film & Time

    Plan a narrated slideshow of still pictures.

Three ways to work in each room

Example
Explore the repairer’s finished story and the choices behind it.
Walk-Through
Reveal the sender’s version one part at a time and see how it takes shape.
Your Turn
Use the same six parts to create your own story and plans.

Move between these views whenever you need them. Your work stays with you. The “Go deeper” explorations are optional.

What could this become?

A small story can be a finished piece, or the beginning of something else. Pick a direction that makes you curious.

Try these with your own writing, drawing, voice, or instruments. For help from generative AI (GenAI), copy an example prompt below into a tool you choose and replace the bracketed parts with your story and preferences. You decide what to keep.

Grow it into a longer story

Give a scene more room: dialogue, a complication, or another point of view.

Try a GenAI prompt
Help me expand this small story. First ask me three questions about the characters, the mood, and what I want to explore. Wait for my answers, then offer a short outline. Keep my central choice and ending unless I ask to change them. My story: [PASTE YOUR STORY]

Feedback instead of a draft

I will write the next scene myself. Read it and ask two questions about where a reader might get lost. Do not rewrite it.

Choose an outline, then ask for one scene at a time. Keep the phrases and decisions that sound like you.

Illustrate a moment

Start with one image, then try a picture book, a comic, or a sequence of illustrated scenes.

Try a GenAI prompt
Create an illustration of this moment: [CHOOSE A MOMENT]. Use this visual style: [DESCRIBE A STYLE]. Keep these character and setting details consistent: [ADD DETAILS]. Show the feeling through posture, objects, and light. Leave lettering out of the image. Story for context: [PASTE YOUR STORY]

Use this in an image tool. For a series, reuse the same character descriptions and a reference image you choose.

Tell it out loud

Make a spoken story with your own voice, or explore a generated narration.

Try a GenAI prompt
Prepare this story for a spoken reading of about one minute. Keep my wording where possible. Put spoken words in one section and suggestions for pauses and emphasis in a separate section. Suggest optional background sounds separately; silence is also a choice. My story: [PASTE YOUR STORY]

Read it aloud and adjust the pacing. If you use a voice tool, give it the spoken words separately from the performance notes.

Find its rhythm

Try spoken word over a beat, turn the story into a song, or give it an instrumental soundtrack.

Try a GenAI prompt
Adapt this story into two short verses and a chorus. Keep the central choice and the ending. Aim for this mood: [CHOOSE A MOOD]. Separately, suggest a tempo, instruments, and a simple beat that support the words. My story: [PASTE YOUR STORY]

Revise the words aloud. In a music tool that accepts lyrics, use your revised words and the separate music directions; or try reading your original story over an instrumental beat.

Before using another tool, check its privacy and retention settings, permissions, and costs. Use references and recordings you made or may use; get permission before uploading someone else’s private material. Keep source credits with your work and check what you may share.