The Story Lab – Week 5: Story Smash
The three stories we were presented with when Smashing out stories together were
- A 19th Century serial killer is on the loose and a detective is trying to uncover who they are
- A crazy ex-girlfriend kills her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend by hitting her with a car
- A soldier in the year 2030 is fighting a war against an army made up of alien/human hybrids
The most obviously difficult aspect of connecting these three stories is the vastly separate time periods. We approached this problem by focusing on the future storyline because it allowed us to create fictional technology and a history that may or may not exist (although it is a very slim possibility). We ended up with a narrative spanning centuries, taking ideas from science fiction to ensure a connection between the alien war, a crazed ex and a 19th century serial killer.
Our end result
Mike is a soldier in the year 2030 fighting a war against alien/human hybrids and on a mission into a black site, he stumbles across confidential information concerning the human DNA strands of the alien/human hybrids. In his down time between battles, he starts investigating these gene pools until he discovers that one has links to clinically insane people through out history, such as a crazy ex-girlfriend who hit her ex’s new girlfriend with a car and a 17th serial killer.
The narrative loops we needed to jump through to create this smashed story cemented (for me) my idea for my final assessment, centred on a cold case from 1901. While the task did provide an example of the malleability of story, it also proved that a simply story allows for a more cohesive and deeper experience.
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