"thus with a kiss I die" | DIY STORY CUBES

You should know by now that I am a fan of stories. Especially those on stages and screens and printed onto paper.

And every now and then I myself venture into the land of storytelling. On this blog for instance I tell you tales of my inner obsessions, my royal family and Mexican fiestas.

But coming up with something on the spot involving a proper beginning, middle and end isn't particularly easy. And I sure ain't a poet. I like to think I'm good at rambling. I throw some random thoughts out there and then put them in an order that hopefully makes some kind of sense. To somebody out there.

When I was younger, my dad would occasionally take us camping. Lying in the tent at night somebody would always suggest telling each other (typically spooky) stories.

Mine would always go something like this: "There once was a bear. His name was Moe and he... Oh I don't know!". And that was that. Someone else's turn please!

I'm just not that spontaneous! I need time to figure out the plot, for the characters to come to me!..

So I decided to create these cute story cubes with 62 words total to inspire well-rounded tales.

(Should I ever be in a situation where someone asks me to tell them a story you know.)

And in light of Valentine's Day coming up, I went for the "lover's quarrel" edition with terms taken from Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet". One of the greater stories out there.

IT GOES LIKE THIS: Take three or more of the story cubes, toss them onto the table and use the words to inspire a story. If you get stuck, roll again. You can also take turns telling a story as a pair or a group, each taking turns rolling a "dice" and adding to the story sentence for sentence.

It seems my sister has no trouble whatsoever being spontaneous. I handed her the cubes and she totally went for it. And the resulting stories... I mean, they're definitely Shakespeare-quality!

See for yourself:

The words "sudden", "alike" and "mask" became:
"There was a sudden bang and a mask appeared. It looked very alike my sister."

That's some raw talent right there!

"life", "torment" and "virtuous" helped form this plea:
"A virtuous life is hopefully not a torment."

"heart", "whisper" and "weak" were shaped into:
"There was a weak whisper, whispering about hearts and flowers."
Beautiful. Just beautiful!

"rebellious", "murder" and "piteous" got a new life as:
"In a rebellious fit he committed a murder. She only gave him a piteous glance."
You show him, girl! He deserves your judgmental looks!

But here's my favorite, for sure, created with "guest", "cure", "weak", "burden", "dagger", "stab", "quarrel", "punish", "unclean", "body", "death-marked" and "dignity":
"A guest entered with an unclean body. No dignity could be seen in his death-marked face as he had been stabbed with a dagger as a punishment for his quarrel with his brother. He was weak as a lack of a cure burdened him."
I mean, it can't get any better than that, right?

I love my sister, she's a funny one.

You are of course allowed to create lengthier stories, that is totally up to you! And "Romeo & Juliet" being about both love and hate, heart-break, quarrels, murder and peace, you should have a lot of inspiration to get a good story going!

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

MATERIAL:
- wooden cubes
- acrylic paint
- permanent marker
- paper (optional)

TOOLS:
- sand paper (optional)
- paint brush
- scissors (optional)
- glue (optional)

Step 1: Sand the wooden cubes if necessary. Then start by painting the cubes. Each side should have a different color. I used about eight different colors total.

Paint the top of one cube and let dry before moving along to any of the other sides. Make sure to paint from the inside out with short, quick strokes to avoid painting the sides.

Step 2: Once all sides have been painted and have fully dried, add inspirational words to each side of the cube with a permanent marker. I looked my words up in a copy of Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet".