"It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story".
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
DIGITAL
STORYTELLING
CONNECTORS
These are merely tools that can be used whenever we recount the events that took place in the past, or simply to explain the reasoning behind one character’s actions. To put it in simpler words, connectors are the tools that provide a fluid feeling to the text created with the steps explained above; they make transitions from one idea to another smoother and easier to read. There are many types of connectors, with the main three being those that make your job easier when starting a story, those that continue the story and finally, those that help you finish the story. Other types of connectors act as a supporting cast, bringing extra elements that make a story more fluid and structured.
Remember: A story can be anything!
A day at school, a disaster date, a funny or an annoyng event at a MIO station...
There are thousands of possibilities!
Starting your story:
First of all,
To start off with,
Initially,
To begin with,
Once upon a time,
One day,
Continuing your story:
Then,
After that,
Next,
While* (No comma)
(...) but then,
Immediately,
Suddenly,
Later that day,
Meanwhile,
As soon as* (No comma)
All of a sudden,
Ending your story:
Finally,
In the end,
Eventually,
Last,
In conclusion,
Make SURE to use a comma (,) after all these phrases.
Check out this example:
Last week I visited Chicago to attend a business conference. While I was there, I decided to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. To start off with, my flight was delayed. Next, the airline lost my luggage, so I had to wait for two hours at the airport while they tracked it down. Unexpectedly, the luggage had been set aside and forgotten. As soon as they found my luggage, I found a taxi and rode into town. During the ride into town, the driver told me about his last visit to the Art Institute. After I had arrived safely, everything began to go smoothly. The business conference was very interesting, and I enjoyed my visit to the Art Institute a lot. Finally, I caught my flight back to Seattle.
In the end, everything went smoothly. I arrived home just in time to kiss my daughter good night.
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Taken from: https://www.thoughtco.com/telling-stories-sequencing-your-ideas-1210770
To know more transition words, click on the PDF icon. Surprise!
Practice Time!
Fill the gaps with the appropiate connector (Multiple answers are possible for some of the gaps!). Discuss your choices with one of your classmates.
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My friend and I visited Rome last summer. (1) _________, we flew
from New York to Rome in first class. It was fantastic! (2)
_________ we arrived in Rome, we (3) __________ went to the
hotel and took a long nap. (4) _________, we went out to find a
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great restaurant for dinner. (5) _________, a scooter appeared out
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of nowhere and almost hit me! The rest of the trip had no
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surprises. (6) __________, we began to explore Rome. (7)
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_________ the afternoons, we visited ruins and museums. At night,
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we hit the clubs and wandered the streets. One night, (8)
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_________ I was getting some ice-cream, I saw an old friend from
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high school. Imagine that! (9) _________, we caught our flight
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back to New York. We were happy and ready to begin work again.
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