Announcing the Coronavirus Storytelling Challenge
Schools are closing. Parents are feeling anxious. Social distancing and empty shelves have us gasping for normalcy. We need skills for handling the disease, but we also need tools for managing the anxiety that treads in its footsteps.
That’s why we created the 2020 Coronoavirus Storytelling Challenge. As the nation struggles to catch up with the disease, let’s help parents and children connect at home, have a little fun, and turn the stress meter down just a notch.
“Stories can be a way for humans to feel that we have control over the world. They allow people to see patterns where there is chaos, meaning where there is randomness. Humans are inclined to see narratives where there are none because it can afford meaning to our lives – a form of existential problem-solving.” – The Atlantic
How it Works
We invite everyone - ages 4 to 104 - to submit stories that bring healing and levity to the subject of coronavirus. Here’s an example - The King’s Crown. Stories could be about quarantine, the virus, washing hands, or a funny twist on the run on toilet paper.
The goal is to inspire parents and kids to come up with their own stories.
We will post stories as they come in, and collect the best as a free resource for families during the Covid-19 crisis. During the final competition, everyone will have a chance to vote on their favorite. Winner gets bragging rights and a roll of toilet paper.
The real winner, of course, is each family that participates. See below for some of the benefits of storytelling in the home.
Stories can be any length – typed, written, or recorded on video or audio. We are only able to accept digital submissions. We will post updates via our Facebook page and on this website.
The Science Behind Storytelling
Scientists have been piecing together facts about storytelling for decades. What we’ve learned is that storytelling helps us remember information, focus our attention, and build empathy and trust – critical tools for social creatures like you and I.
But it’s only recently that some people have started coalescing this data into a unified theory. Far from being a novelty or entertainment, storytelling is one of the primary cognitive tools humans have to make sense of our sometimes complicated world. In other words, stories help us connect socially and make meaning of the difficult moments in life, allowing us to form close-knit social groups that are more successful at survival than individuals. That’s why we see it in our religions, nations, neighborhoods, and families.
This is exactly what families grappling with coronavirus need right now. This is not so much a challenge to win the narrative in the national media. It is a challenge designed to help all of us reconnect with a simple tool that helps a family grow together amidst the stress and fragmented events in the media. That’s real power.
Return to the Coronavirus Storytelling Home Page
The Storytelling Loop is a newsletter bringing you tips, science, and real-life examples of how storytelling builds the connection between parent and child. It is a joint project of Silke Rose West and Joseph Sarosy, authors of How to Tell Stories to Children. Originally published in August of 2019, a new edition is due out from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2021. You can find more from Joseph Sarosy at Fatherly. Are you interested in storytelling? Join Us.