All the world's a story

IRONWOOD - Narrative consultant Jenifer Strauss came to the Ironwood Carnegie Library on Tuesday to help kids learn to write and express their imaginations.

To begin her workshop, Strauss told the students how she became a writer.

"My sixth grade students inspired me to become a writer," she said. "I didn't know I was a writer until I found this lamp."

Strauss said she found that lamp while on a camping trip and bought it from a Finnish shopkeeper.

"The owners or this lamp were a Finnish family," she said. "With only this lantern lit in their house, they would come to the living and tell stories as a family."

During her workshop, Strauss also expressed how anyone can be a writer and anything can be a story.

"Everything is a story if you think like a writer," she said. "All you have to do is keep your eyes open and be observant."

Following her story, she had the students tell their own story through activities.

In one activity, Strauss used a hand as a model to tell story. Each finger was a part of a story: who, what, when, where and why.

She also had the students close their eyes and imagine they were on a boat.

"She looked out at the water, you decide if it was a choppy day, a calm day, or if there's a storm coming in," Strauss said.

Once the story ended, the students opened their eyes as Strauss told them that any moment of their lives can be a story.

"Anything can be story, anything can be a theme," she said. "Have you ever had a pet? Remember riding your bike for the first time?"