Week 5: The Story Behind the Story

Before the session#

Bring materials for a short four-unit sequence — paper, pens, scissors and old magazines, or your phone. You’re building two stories, not one, so keep each unit simple.

Two Readers, Two Stories#

This is the main studio activity. Build a short sequence — four spreads or page-like units — where:

• Story A is immediately noticeable: it’s what the page makes obvious through size, position, contrast, text, or character prominence;
• Story B develops in the background across the same four units;
• Story A still makes sense on its own if a reader never notices Story B;
• Story B changes meaningfully from unit to unit, rather than repeating the same detail once and stopping.

Suggested process:

1. Write Story A in one simple line per unit.
2. Separately map what Story B is doing on those same four units.
3. Combine the two onto the actual pages.
4. Check that Story A doesn’t dominate so completely that Story B becomes impossible to notice.
5. Check the opposite too — Story B shouldn’t become so prominent that there is no real shift in attention required to find it.

None of this needs polished illustration. Rough drawing, collage, photography, typography, or simple shapes are all legitimate.

Compare two readings#

If you can, show your sequence to two people separately, without explaining the background story first. Ask each of them:

• what did you follow first?
• what else did you notice?
• did anything change across the background?
• what would you look for on a second reading?

Compare their two answers. This is a quick observation, not formal testing — that comes later in the course.

This Week’s Misbehaviour — Background Business#

A separate 15–30 minute experiment from Two Readers, Two Stories:

• take or make one otherwise straightforward spread or image;
• add one small background event that looks secondary but changes how the main event can be read once it’s noticed;
• answer briefly: what does a reader probably notice first, and what changes once they notice the background detail?

This is one detail on one image, not a planned sequence — keep it quick and rough.

Afterwards#

Add your sequence and your Background Business note to your Misbehaviour Toolbox. Week 4 controlled what the reader believed about the main story. Week 5 kept that main story honest and readable, and instead divided the reader’s attention between it and something quieter happening behind it. Next week stops asking what’s shown on the page and starts asking what the page itself — its edge, its gutter, its margins — can do.

The spec

What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.

• you have a short sequence, about four spreads or page-like units, carrying two stories at once
• Story A stays readable on its own even if Story B is missed
• Story B changes meaningfully across the sequence rather than repeating once
• you have completed this week's Misbehaviour, Background Business