After I created the first prototype and showed it to a few people to get some feedback these are the changes I made and why. 

The first thing that was pointed out to me was that I had not put in any way of the users actually submitting the work. Those who had tested the site for me explained that the site itself wasn’t very clear and they had no idea what they had to do if I wasn’t there beside them. To make the overall site clearer I added in some pages to help the user along with the process.

I added in a page that explained what the project is and why I am doing it. This will hopefully help users to understand the purpose of the site and the direction they should go. Here I also pointed out the guidelines and submitted stories sections which I will discuss below.

I added in a guidelines page to help the user to get started on their story and help them stick the the 3 act structure. In each section, modelled after the actual submission page I just wrote quick notes how how the user should structure their story. This will hoping help them keep the flow of their story going and help each submission fit into the structure I require.

The last page I added is the submitted stories page. Here I hope to upload any stories that are submitted to me that fit the structure, to give others a good idea of what is expected of them. I may also write several example stories, possibility based on different images just to give them an idea of what is expected. Throughout the example stories, I’ll add in notes like “conflict introduced” along the way so they know what I mean by the guidelines.

Ideally this layout will work for the users taking part. I kept it simple and clear to make it as easy and enjoyable as possible. I chose the colours, purple, white and light purple because I believe it is nice to look at and not too hard on the eye. The font I chose is the font generally used in script writing. I chose this because if the stories gathered are developed into a short film, a script will need to be written for that actors involved.

When deciding on the best way to gather stories, the most obvious and convenient way for everyone in involved would be a website. By using a website this allows anyone who wants to become a user of the project to easily access the process and submit their stories. As I am hoping to using visual narratives as a way of giving the user some guidance on how the story should go I used the images that are printed on the Rory Story cubes as these were used in my first round of testing. The prototype for the website is quite simple. I separated the images into the parts representing the 3 act structure I have been basing this project on. In each section the user will be given an action picture and two objects. The user is free to use these visuals in anyway they would like. They can use the object for what is or any idea or concept once it fits with the image. The images will be the same for each user so the themes and ideas that come from it will all fit together.

My hope is to keep each Act separate and look at the possibility of merging several users stories into one. Each user will submit three separate mini stories (beginning, middle, end) which all work together as one and I will take the best beginning, middle and end to create the best and most dynamic story possible.

The end result when the stories are gathered is to produce a short film based on the stories given. For this to happen, I have chosen images that can be represented through video and images that are not too crazy or out there for example; I stayed away from images like mermaids, anything under water or from outer space etc.

This prototype will be shown to people and they will be asked their opinion on how they feel the process works. Any feedback given will go to improving the first design and making the website as clear to use as possible.

Below is the image of the first prototype:

While conducting my research on how to allow users into the process of creating a story, I came across the topic of interactive stories. Interactive storytelling in short is a form of digital entertainment in which the storyline is not predetermined. The user decides how the story will continue and end based on the characters, setting and elements provided to them. For my research on the topic I have found several different approaches to interactive story-telling and will discuss them below in order to get a better understanding of the topic and to decide whether or not this is a direction I would like to take my project.

The first example of interactive storytelling I found is a format that allows users to add a chapter or sequence to a pre-existing story set out by a random individual. The readers are given a set of rules they must follow for the story, a list of characters that are involved and the setting in which it takes place. The users may also be given the end goal of the character and are instructed to read through what has already been written and to add a chapter based on how they want the story to continue. This form of interactive storytelling is quite linear and does not involve any animations or visual elements. It is probably the most basic form allowing a large group of people come together and write a story together. The topics available can be vast as there are no limitation to software or digital framework, all the user has to do is type. The form of interactive storytelling allows the story to go in many directions and the only limitations are the rules given at the beginning and the creativity and imagination the writer has. The stories also have no time limitations. As there isn’t a digital framework guiding the user, some stories can be over five hundred chapters long, obviously for my project five hundred chapters would be a bit excessive but I like how the users must follow on from each other to create an interesting tale.

The second example of interactive storytelling I found was a format that allows the users to chose different paths for the main character. All of these options are pre determined by the original writer and the users chose which one they want to proceed with. Less linear than the format about these interactive stories generally come accompanied with still images or small animations to get the user involved with the storyline. The story may anywhere from 5-20 chapters and within each chapter the user has several options to choose from meaning one story could have up to one hundred different storylines in total. From the research I have conducted many of the sites available for this kind of interactive story creation are aimed at young kids and used as an E-learning solution. I did enjoy the process of this but I don’t think this is an option for my project as I want the user to fully come up with the story from start to finish, not just have them pick options I have pre-determined.

The third example of interactive story telling I found are stories that act as games. The user is given the character, setting and situation and must work to get through the story and complete the end. Within this format there are two example; the first aimed at children to help them improve their reading. The user, being a child, looks at the picture given with the line of the story. One of the words is missing and the child must look at the picture and fill in the gap. Once they provide the correct word, the story continues moving forward to the next stage. For example it may look like this; Jane climbed under the _________. On the screen you see a small child under the kitchen table, the child notices this and fills in the word. The second example of this format is aimed at teenagers and above, these stories are a lot more interactive and challenging to the user. The story can only continue when the user come up with the correct solution for the character for example if the story is about a young knight trying to find his princess in a tower, the character might come across an evil wizard. The user has to come up with a solution to get past the wizard without being noticed. The story only progresses once an appropriate solution has be decided on. With this format, the story does allow for several solutions the user can input once it make sense to the story. From what I can gather, I believe the solutions are based on key words rather than exact sentences, for example using the knight, if the user was to say “the knight walked down the river and swam across it” the words swam and river would allow them to progress to the next stage in the story. This type of interactive storytelling is very entertaining but for the purposes of my project, it is unsuitable. As stated above I want my users to come up with the story themselves and I will produce the final product from what I am given not create the story myself and allow the user to follow along with it.

References:

1. Writing.com. (2018). Random Adventures.: Welcome to the Story! – Writing.Com. [online] Available at: https://www.writing.com/main/interact/item_id/2163197-Random-Adventures/map/1 [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
2. Writing.com. (2018). The real world remote controller – Writing.Com. [online] Available at: https://www.writing.com/main/interact/item_id/1875153-The-real-world-remote-controller [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
3. Education.com. (2018). Ellie’s Scarf Positional Words Story | Story | Education.com. [online] Available at: https://www.education.com/game/ellies-scarf/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
4. Education.com. (2018). My Shadow Classic Poem | Story | Education.com. [online] Available at: https://www.education.com/game/my-shadow-poem/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
5. Medium. (2018). What is interactive storytelling? – Benjamin Hoguet – Medium. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/@benhoguet/what-is-interactive-storytelling-46bfdd2a8780 [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
6. The Story Element. (2018). What are Interactive Stories?. [online] Available at: https://thestoryelement.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/what-are-interactive-stories-3/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
7. Episodeinteractive.com. (2018). Episode Interactive. [online] Available at: https://www.episodeinteractive.com/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
8. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). The Stanley Parable. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanley_Parable [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].

 

For the next step in my project, I need to decide whether the stories collected will be turned into an animation or a live video. For this i researched the Pro’s and Con’s of both, the time they would take and the possible limitations the two formats have.

Animation:

Pro’s:

1. There are a Variety of styles available when it comes to animation which include Flipnote animation, stop-motion, 2D and 3D. The different styles allow for the telling of a story and can cater to the animators skillset. The styles could also be intertwined for example the beginning could be a flipnote animation, the middle could be stop motion then leading into a 2d animation for the end. With animation the only limitation is the creativity of the animator.
2. There would be very little limitation on environment, characters and overall setting.  While animating the only limitation is what the animator can or cannot draw, meaning that any type of story could be submitted and work with whether that was under the sea or set in space.
3. There would also be very little reliance on others during the production stage as there would be no need for actors to act out the story. Location and setting of the story would not be an issue either as the animator would be working from their computer and ideally would work wherever they feel comfortable.

Con’s:

1. Skill set; the level of skill and animator has would be a huge factor on whether or not the project would be completed. If the animator can draw but struggles with the the technical software required to make a well round animation this would be a major set back in production. Also if the styling wasn’t right for a particular story, for example if the animator decided to do a stop motion for an under water story, it may not work as the audience would be missing the feel of actually being under water.
2. Time; Time constraints on a project can be a major issue when it comes to animating. Regardless of what style the animator would undertake, they must work the project frame by frame and thats during the actual production. There is also a lot of work to be done during the pre production stage like concept art, story board, character development and environment development. If the animator doesn’t stick to a strict timeline, the project ma end up failing.
3. Re working frames; Another problem with animation is making the whole story come together without any obvious jumps or mistakes coming across with to the audience. For example if a stop motion was being produced and an element of the set was moved accidentally and not noticed, this could create an unwanted jump in the final edit, similarly with 2D or flip note animations the frame work has to be perfect or the mistake could be noticed or the animator may spend unwanted time re drawing the frame.

Video:

Pro’s: 

1. Easier to relate to than animation, the audience would be able to picture themselves in a real persons situation faster than they would an animated character. It would give a more personable feel.
2. Working with actors versus drawing everything out. While creating a video, it would be easier to tell the actor what you want them to do, what emotion you want them to give off rather than having to draw it out. The post production could also be easier as with an extra microphone on the day of shooting, the production could capture the voices of the actors as they are being said rather then trying to animate to a voice or but a voice over on an animation.
3. The director would start to get a feel for the video instantly and could correct issues arriving immediately. For example if a scene isn’t working how it was planned the director could decide to change the angle of the shot there and than, whereas if it was an animation, they could find out too late into the editing process and waste time because of it.
4. Time; depending on how efficient the pre production plan is, the shooting of the video could easily be done in a number of days. This of course would also depend on the number of settings the story takes place in and what tie of the day its set in but the overall shoot would not take the same amount of time as it would to animate a short film.

Con’s:

1. Limited on setting and environment; unlike animation where the only limitation is imagination, live action video are completed limit in where they can be set. This would mean the users involved in creating the story would have to be given guidelines on what the story can be about. If a person wrote a story based underwater that would not be feasible to do and that story would have to be thrown out. The other limitation would be transport, if the producer is set in the city and doesn’t drive and a story was based in the mountains or along the opposite end of the country, this may not be possible to shoot because of budget and transport restrictions.
2. Finding and working with actors; Another con with live action video would be working with the actors and finding actors that fit the story you’re creating and having the acting skills necessary. If the director and actors don’t get along or the director can not instruct them, or they can not follow instruction the production could take longer than envisioned and may not turn out the way the director had in their heads. The other problem would actually be finding actors who were willing to part take in the project for little to no cost.
3. Finding appropriate props; similarly to the problem with the setting, the production could come into some issues if the right props for the story aren’t available. If the story revolves around a particular prop that can not be bought or found, it could force a change to the users story or mean that that story can not be used.

After considering the pro’s and con’s of both formats and taking into account my own skill set and the time restrictions that this project must be completed within, I will move forward with live action video for the final outcome of this project.

After my initial idea generation and research I now know I want to focus on creating a story with the aid of visual narratives. For the first round of testing to see how people react to creating a story using visual aids, I used ‘Rory’s Story Cubes’

These cubes are the small size and weight as normal playing die but instead of the numbers one to six, they have a picture on each side. The objective is simple, roll the dice and create a story with them however they may fall or move them around if you wish. I came across these when babysitting and I thought they would be a good way in testing an appropriate method for my project.

The first thing I did was allowed my tester to put the cubes any way they wanted. I had three boxes of them totalling 27 dice each having six pictures on each so the possibilities were endless. The cubes come in different variety packs. There is the original pictured directly above these have a mixture of emotions and objects. There is the actions box which feature little characters doing something and there is a voyages box which feature pictures from specific times and places e.g. cowboy hat, dinosaur egg, mermaid.

By allowing as many cubes as they wanted, the story was getting a lot of elements but it was difficult to make any sense of it. There was obviously no structure to it as I hadn’t given  him one and there was just too much going on to make it a cohesive storyline.

I decided to remove one of the boxes to limit the number of dice down to 18 but again, since each dice has six sides this allowed for a lot elements within the story they were creating.

I decided to stick with the number of dice that comes in each box which is 9. I also asked them to stick with the sides of the cubes that were pointing upward because up until this point I was allowing them to change the cube face around but soon realised that this wasn’t challenging them creatively, they were just going for the easiest option. Instead I told them that they could change the order in which the cubes were in the story but they had to stick with the picture given.

After we started getting the creative juices flowing I decided to make it a little harder by separating the cubes into the 3 groups, mimicking the 3 act structure. I gave the testers a quick guide into how the story should be formed (act 1- introduce characters etc) but the problem we came across was that one box of cubes didn’t allow for a great story as the pictures were all just objects. So at this point I removed 3 of the existing cubes and added in 3 of the action cubes which all had a picture of a character on them. I told them they were free to give the character a name and job if they wished and to use this character to continue with the story. I told them that the second and third cube with the character on them could either be our hero or they could add in an additional character like a sidekick or villain. 

As you can see from the above picture the cubes were separated into the three acts and the action cubes allowed for our hero to continue moving forward in the story. I told the testers that they had to keep the groups as they were but they could change the order of the cubes within the groups if that worked best for their story. The results were interesting stories that had more structure than before and made a lot more sense. As they were limited in the pictures, all the testers worked harder to make sure they all made it in and made sense thus spending more time on each story than they had on the previous testing rounds. 

The next thing I did was I kept the action cubes the same but changed around the object cubes just to see if the testers could separate themselves from their previous versions of their stories. In fairness to them all at this stage they were trying incredible hard to come up with unique, interesting stories that they hadn’t told before. I think it took them a little while to get into the swing of it but once they were fully engaged they wanted to create the best story possible and also one they wasn’t expected.

Once I knew the testers were fully engaged with the process, I allowed them to have a little bit more freedom with the cubes. I told them they could change the action cubes if they wished but the object cubes had to remain as they were. Again, the stories being created were very interesting and entertaining, some enough quite funny. The longer the testers spend playing with the cubes, the better the stories became. I also found that they enjoyed some of the rules and restrictions I put on them as it made the whole exercise more challenging and they felt like they had to beat it in some way.

For my final stage of testing with the cubes, I decided I would be the one who laid them out and all of the testers would have to come up with a different story for the same set of cubes. Up until this point, each tester had a unique combination of cubes but for this round of testing they were all getting the same 9 cubes. They were free to change the order of the cubes within each act like before and I also informed them if someone else had the same elements to their story as they did. When I told them this, some didn’t care and continued on knowing someone else had a similar idea but others went back and changed them, not wanted to be the same as someone else.

From this testing I have learned that pictures or visuals are a great way to get people thinking about a story without limiting them too much on what they say. Because everyone looks at a picture differently the outcomes are purely based on the individuals perception of that object. For example, If you look at the lightbulb in the picture above, that could be an idea, a bright room, a dark room, something delicate or just a plain old light bulb. one picture allows for a number of outcomes which I did not think about before starting my testing.

In order to get a better understanding of how I could produce the stories created on a digital format, I researched the topic of digital storytelling, what it is and how to use it in the most effective way possible for my project.

Digital storytelling describes a simple process through which people with little experience of computers gain skills needed to tell a personal story as a two-minute film using predominantly still images. These films can then be streamed on the web or broadcast on television. A digital storyteller can be anyone who has a desire to document life experience, ideas, or feelings through the use of story and digital media. Usually someone with little experience in video production but with time to spend a few days attending a workshop and developing a story with creative support and technical assistance from experienced facilitators.

The term “digital storytelling” can also cover a range of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games). It is sometimes used to refer to film-making in general, and as of late, it has been used to describe advertising and promotion efforts by commercial and non-profit enterprises.

The most important characteristics of a digital story are that it no longer conforms to the traditional conventions of storytelling because it is capable of combining still imagery, moving imagery, sound, and text, as well as being nonlinear and contain interactive features. The expressive capabilities of technology offers a broad base from which to integrate. It enhances the experience for both the author and audience and allows for greater interactivity.

With media devices like computers, digital cameras, recorders, and software, individuals may share their digital stories via the Internet or podcasts, or other electronic media. Digital storytelling combines the art of storytelling with multimedia features such as photography, text, audio, voiceover, hypertext and video. Digital tools and software  like iMovie and Movie Maker make it easy and convenient to create a digital story.

For the purposes of my project however, the individuals involved in helping create the story will have no part in the actual production of the final product and by this I mean, I will be the one adding the audio and visual elements and doing the final edit. Those involved will just be creating the actual story used. The other difference with my project is that, i am moving in the direction of a fictional story rather than personal stories which the topic of Digital storytelling revolves around. I hope to create a process that will help the user to write and upload the story but will be doing the final production without their help. So if we use the image above as a rough guide the users will be involved during step three but I will continue the process without them.

References:

1. Arts.brighton.ac.uk. (2018). What is “digital storytelling?” – Silver Stories. [online] Available at: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/silver-stories/how-can-we-understand-digital-storytelling [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].
2. S3.amazonaws.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/7401742/digitalstorytelling.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1535368523&Signature=hEsuMh7r7TkCLjtA3jV0p79jHuU%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DDigital_storytelling_a_meaningful_techno.pdf [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].
3. Opencourses.uoa.gr. (2018). [online] Available at: http://opencourses.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/ENL10/Instructional%20Package/PDFs/Unit3a_Digital_storytelling.pdf [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].
4. Digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu. (2018). Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling. [online] Available at: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=27&cid=27&sublinkid=31 [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].

 

From the brief given, audience interaction is an essential part of this project. Here I will discuss projects I have researched that allow interaction between the project and its audience some where through the process and discuss possible ways I could bring the audience into my project. I will be focusing on projects that use visual narratives somewhere throughout the process as this is the direction I would like to take my own project.

There are many examples of projects and websites that use the stories of others to create their final product. The first example is the website http://www.curiositycreative.org.uk/. The intention of this site is to provide a platform for ordinary, everyday people to share their stories on a particular topic. They get the user to narrate their story and send in photographs of whatever they are talking about. The site then edits a video which the audio of the user and a slideshow of all of the photographs they provide. These videos are short, about two minutes each but give a good representation of what the user is saying. The topics are clear and concise and those watching will most likely watch it all as the duration of the video isn’t too taxing.

The next project I looked at was Museum on Main Street, a community engagement project designed by the Smithsonien Institution. It engages small-town audiences and brings attention to underserved rural communities. Similar to Curiosity Creative, Museum on Main Street, using the stories of other particularly those in under-served areas to tell their story or a story they find particularly interesting. The site is continually collecting stories under specific headings for example, one of the heading is ‘Hometown Teams: How sports shaped America’.

By putting out specific titles they are limiting the amount of stories they receive or at least keeping the writer on topic. Again similar to the above project the writer of the story narrates the video, giving the viewer information about the given topic. Along with using photography the user submits short videos either of the topic itself, like a football game or short interviews with other who may have had the same or similar experience as the user. The site then edits the video together, using a short story format of about four and a half minutes. The videos are longer than the Curiosity creative but as the viewer of the video has to go into the specific topic heads, its clear that they are interested in the subject and will watch it until the end.

What I like about this project is that it gives a voice to those who may not have been heard before and the topics they focus on are really interesting and specific.

The next project that interests me is Humans Of New York. A website dedicated to getting short stories through interviews from everyday people the author Brandon Stanton. Stanton stops random people on the street and asks them a question about their life. They tell the story or experience and he records what they say. He uploads the quote which vary in length but generally take no more than a minute each to read with an accompanying photograph of the individual. The project can be found on his own website, across social media as well as the several books he’s published all following the same process. What I like about this project is that again it focuses on ordinary, every-day people and sometimes you can be shocked to see the person and then read their story. I definitely shows you can not judge a book by it cover.

 

In recent years, Stanton has expanded his work by travelling abroad. In his ‘Travel’ series he gathers stories from people living very differently to those in New York City. This is another aspect of this project I liked because he gives the audience an insight into the life of a person they have never come across before or may have only seen clips on tv or the news. Examples of these countries are Pakistan, Iran and Iraq.

All of these projects use Digital story-telling to get their ideas across.

References:

1. UX Collective. (2018). 6 storytelling principles to improve your UX – UX Collective. [online] Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/6-storytelling-principles-to-improve-your-ux-737f0fc34261 [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].
2. Curiosity Creative. (2018). Hippy Van. [online] Available at: http://www.curiositycreative.org.uk/story/hippy-van [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].
3. Museumonmainstreet.org. (2018). Below the Pottery Line | Museum on Main Street. [online] Available at: https://museumonmainstreet.org/content/below-pottery-line [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].
4. Humans of New York. (2018). Humans of New York. [online] Available at: http://www.humansofnewyork.com/ [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].

 

 

In order to get an idea what what might take place during each Act I did some research on Propp’s Morphology of the Folk Tale. Vladimir Propp was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest narrative elements. He broke down the stories into morphemes (sections of the stories can could be analysed) and identified 31 narratemes (narrative units) that comprised the structure of many of the stories.

He identified that “Five categories of elements define not only the construction of a tale, but the tale as a whole.”:

1.  Functions of the characters
2.  Conjunctive elements (ex machina, announcement of misfortune, chance disclosure – mother calls hero loudly, etc.)
3.  Motivations (reasons and aims of a character/s)
4. Forms of appearance of characters (the flying arrival of dragon, chance meeting with donor)
5. Attributive elements or accessories (witch’s hut or her clay leg)

” Whilst not all stories will contain all of Propp’s narratemes, it is surprising to find stories that contain none, and many modern books and movies fit nicely into his categories.”

He categorised these stories into four spheres

1. 1st sphere: Introduction
2. 2nd sphere: The body of the body of the story

The cards in blue are the seven narratemes of the first sphere, the pink cards are the four narratemes of the second sphere 

1. 3rd sphere: The donor sequence
2. 4th sphere: The hero’s return

The cards in dark blue are the eight narratemes of the third sphere, the cards in yellow are the twelve narratemes of the fourth and final sphere.

The reason the cards were written and display in this way was for me to get a visual of how a story was broken up into the narratemes. These narratemes can fit quite nicely into the 3 Act structure. The first sphere acting as Act I, we’re introduced to the setting and character. The second and third sphere acting as Act II, a series of challenges and obstacles face our hero and the fourth and final sphere acting as Act III, the climax of the story and where all the loose ends are tied up.

Along with the 31 narraremes, Propp also concluded that the characters within the story could be separated into seven character functions.

1. The Villian — an evil character that creates struggles for the hero.
2. The Dispatcher — any character who illustrates the need for the hero’s quest and sends the hero off. This often overlaps with the princess’s father.
3. The helper — a typically magical entity that comes to help the hero in their quest.
4. The princess or prize, and often her father — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her as a consequence of some evil or injustice, perhaps the work of the villain. The hero’s journey is often ended when he marries the princess, which constitutes the villain’s defeat.
5. The Donor — a character that prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object, sometimes after testing them.
6. The Hero — the character who reacts to the dispatcher and donor characters, thwarts the villain, resolves any lacking or wrong hoods and weds the princess.
7. The False hero — a character who takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

These roles could sometimes be distributed among different characters for example if the hero kills the villain, a relative of the villain may take up their goal to kill the hero as revenge for the first killing.

References:

1. Changingminds.org. (2018). Propp’s Morphology of the Folk Tale. [online] Available at: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/propp/propp.htm [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

2. Monoskop.org. (2018). [online] Available at: https://monoskop.org/images/f/f3/Propp_Vladimir_Morphology_of_the_Folktale_2nd_ed.pdf [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

    

3. Propp, V., n.d. Morphology of the folktale. s.l.:Indiana University Research Center inAnthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics.[Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].
4. The Narratologist. (2018). Literary Theory: Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale. [online] Available at: http://www.thenarratologist.com/literary-theory/literary-theory-morphology-of-the-folktale-1928-by-vladimir-propp/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

The structure of any story is incredibly important in order to make sure the story that is being told make sense. Most stories follow the Three act story structure which is basically the beginning, middle and end but there is more to it than that. The story is made out of series of events. The sequence of all the events is called a Plot. Each act is separated by plot points that keep the story moving forward.

“What’s happening now must be inherently more interesting than what just happened. “- Doug Heyes

Its essential for me when considering my story to keep this in mind in order to create an interesting narrative that keeps whoever is watching it, involved and entertained until the end.

In the Beginning (Act I) the reader will be introduced to the setting of the story, the characters involved and the situation, also known as the conflict, they find themselves in and their goal. Plot Point 1 is a situation that drives the main character from their “normal” life toward some different conflicting situation that the story is about.

In the Middle (Act II), the story develops through a series of complications and obstacles, each leading to a mini crisis. Though each of these crises are temporarily resolved, the story leads inevitably to an ultimate crisis—the Climax. As the story progresses, there is a rising and falling of tension with each crisis, but an overall rising tension as we approach the Climax. The resolution of the Climax is Plot Point 2.

In the End (Act III), the Climax and the loose ends of the story are resolved during the Denouement (the final part of the story). Tension rapidly disappears because it’s nearly impossible to keep a reader’s interest very long after the climax. This is where the story will finish up. 

This is the story structure I will be following throughout the project as it is clear, concise and can be easily understood.

References:

1. The Writing Cooperative. (2018). Fundamentals of Story Structure – The Writing Cooperative. [online] Available at: https://writingcooperative.com/fundamentals-of-story-structure-e199f131a891 [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].
2. Writerswrite.com. (2018). What is Three Act Structure?. [online] Available at: https://www.writerswrite.com/screenwriting/cannell/lecture4/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].
3. Michael Hauge’s Story Mastery. (2018). STORY STRUCTURE: 10 Simple Keys to Effective Plot Structure – Michael Hauge’s Story Mastery. [online] Available at: https://www.storymastery.com/story/10-simple-keys-effective-plot-structure/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].
4. Musik-therapie.at. (2018). Story Structure & Plot – Novel Writing Tips. [online] Available at: http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/Structure&Plot.htm [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].

My main focus throughout this project will be to create a new narrative from a topic or idea that already exists. I chose to go down this route because the thought of changing a persons mindset on an idea really interests me. We live in a world where people have such strong notions about what is right and wrong or how a person should live or see the world, I want to change the way they see a certain topic or process. I want to try and open their eyes to something they have not thought about or seen before because the only way to get people to broaden their minds is by showing them.

The reason I have chosen this route is because I believe that if you show an individual something they have not seen before they may become slightly more empathic to the cause and effects of a given topic. Take drugs for example, those who have never experienced addiction may look down at those who use but if you were to sit down and explain the reasons behind the addiction. Or if we look at the stigma around mental health, people are very quick to just assume that I person is lazy or unmotivated when in fact they could be going through something like depression or a serious anxiety disorder . Its easy to stay ignorant to something we do not see or understand. These are just examples and there are countless ways to change a person’s or a group of people’s way at looking at something. This is my main goal for this project.