Receiving feedback on my short story was very interesting, and it helped me feel confident in my fictional writing abilities again (after a long break from creative writing). After finishing my story I was fairly happy with it and I thought that it flowed well and progressed in a fairly understandable and logical manner. HOWEVER, I had spent more than…
Category: the Story LAB
Story Lab [part 5]: Transmedia Universes & The Matrix
Before reading through ‘Searching for the Origami Unicorn’ my knowledge regarding the Matrix trilogy’s significant transmedia presence was very limited. I’ve seen the films, and I think I borrowed an Animatrix DVD from a Blockbuster (back in the day), but I had no idea that the Wachowski brothers had created such a detailed and expansive transmedia universe. What I find most impressive…
a Burglar by Definition [Short-Story]
He was still breathing. This was most definitely not part of the plan… Jigen McLoughlin was a burglar. He also worked at McDonalds, but this was something he didn’t really like to bring up. Burglar was a far more interesting title after all. Jigen wasn’t your typical, run-of-the-mill burglar however. What made him different was that he never actually stole…
Project B1: Writing a Short-Story
Writing an 800 word short-story was a challenging but enjoyable exercise. Coming up with an idea that I felt was interesting took some time, but by focusing on keeping the story compressed and self-contained, I think I was able to create a piece of work that at least attempts to reflect some of Brander’s ideas. Throughout the entire writing process I had a…
[READ]: ‘The Beatles Never Broke Up’
Visit this website. Read the story of ‘James Richards’. This is a really crazy/interesting story about a man who travels to an alternate dimension and discovers that in this alternate reality, The Beatles never broke up – instead staying together to release many more albums. The thing that makes this story special however, is that the owner of this website claims that…
Story Lab [part 4]: Plot Construction
This week we spent time looking at how a story may be constructed and fleshed-out from even the most basic of plot points and character descriptions. It was really interesting to see how everyone played with the ad-lib-style exercise and how the basic CHARACTER – OCCUPATION – ACTION template could be the foundation of so many different kinds of narratives. In…
Story Lab [part 3]: Agency & Games as Stories
Agency: the satisfying power to take meaningful actions and to see the results of those actions. Apart from being told that I was lost in the Canadian wilderness after a mysterious global disaster, I was given no instructions. I found myself in the middle of a forest, at the foot of a snow covered hill. I immediately made the decision to…
[WATCH]: ‘An Object at Rest’
After reading about Brander Matthews’ views regarding the construction of ‘Short-Stories’ I was reminded of this short animated piece that I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. ‘An Object at Rest’ tells a story that spans an immense period of time, however it moves quickly and remains entirely focused on a single character (the Mountain). It also doesn’t bother dealing…
Story Lab [part 2]: Mystery Lamb, Alien Attacks & Frankenstein
It was great to finally listen to the War of the Worlds broadcast by Orson Welles. It was something I had researched and written about a lot in VCE Media, but for some reason I’d never listened to very much of it. From an adaption standpoint I thought it was amazingly put together, and that it was a very original…
Story Lab [part 1]: Short-Stories
It’s interesting to consider the ‘Short-Story’ as something that is fundamentally different and more complex than simply a story that is short. Matthews’ brings into play a collection of thought-provoking concepts and ideas regarding the composition and ‘meaning’ of the (capital S) Short-Story in his book: ‘The Philosophy of the Short-Story’. These ideas have helped me begin to develop a…