The Story Lab 2016 – Blog Post Week Seven

Our guest speaker this week was Ben Mckenzie from Pop up Playground, an organisation that designs live games, immersive play and digitally supported street sports.

Throughout Ben’s seminar, one question that continually bounced around my mind was the issue surrounding how a creator goes about getting audiences attention, then, how they are able to keep that attention.
For me, immersive and live games aren’t something that i’m interested in partaking in. To be honest, I couldn’t ever see myself playing one – they simply just don’t appeal to me. But that isn’t to say I’m not interested in how they work. So while I found Ben’s talk really interesting, I applied a sense of audience agency to the stories and narratives I am interested in. I kept asking myself, well, what is it that keeps me interested? Why do I keep watching the TV shows and Movie’s that I do? Why do I keep reading the types of books I read?

I think if you’ve read any of the posts on my blog you can get a pretty general idea of the types of genres and stories i’m into. A bit of adventure, a lot of fantasy, a touch of romance and a whole heap of badass characters.

The first thing I do when I pick up a book (I’m going to talk about books here a bit more simply because I spend more time reading than watching) is check out the genre. Nine times out of ten I’m looking for something in the world of fantasy and supernatural. Why? Generally I like to read them because they’re so far from what my own life is. I live reality, rarely do I want to read about it. But that other one time I’ll pick up a romance book – probably because that’s pretty far from my life as well (ha!).

The second thing I do (which i’m a little embarrassed to admit) is check to see who the main character is. I mainly like to read from a females point of view simply because I feel as though, as a female, I can relate to their train of thought, their mannerisms and their situations (well, some of them anyway. I don’t always fight supernatural creatures…)

So that’s what grabs my attention… but what keeps it? I’m that person that has to finish a book no matter how bad it is, simply because someone somewhere out there deemed it good enough to be published – and I want to find out why. But for the books I really do enjoy, the factors there are a little more intricate.
Firstly, the main character has to be relatable and realistic. I want problems I can relate to and I don’t want a perfect character. I want flaws. I want an anti hero. I want attitude. Perfect is boring, it always will be. But that’s not all up to the main character either. For me, supporting characters are just as important – they need to be just as deep as a main character. For me to enjoy a story, a little humour and sarcasm doesn’t hurt either, because at the end of the day, I’m here to be entertained.

I guess the best way to describe these factors are to look at a few favourites of mine. When it comes to books, it’s hard to go past Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Covenant series, or Sarah J. Mass’s A Court of Thorns and Roses books. Both are pretty similar in their concepts, which would explain their appeal to me. Their lead characters are both young-adult females that have been dealt a bad hand, working to overcome the forces against them. They’re witty and tough – nothing like the princesses you’d find in fairytales.
They’re also both fantasy – both employing a number of myths and legends to drive their narrative forward. Within both, there’s that touch of shakespearian forbidden romance that makes me swoon, and they both include those smart-arse characters you kind of love to hate.

With TV shows and movies, my outlook is pretty much the same, though it does differ in places. For a long time now, The Vampire Diaries has held itself in the position of one of my favourite shows, while NCIS has always remained one of the top dogs as well. But unlike my taste in reading, they’re pretty different. While The Vampire Diaries pretty much follows the same concepts of my books, NCIS is a little different. There’s no fantasy or supernatural creatures lurking about, nor are there really any traces of romance. Additionally, the majority of the cast is predominantly male, with all characters quite a bit older than me. And, to top it off, their situations are hardly relatable. It is based on the American Navy, after all. So why the appeal?

I guess for me it’s all about the characters dynamic – by themselves and as a group. All with different traits and characteristics, they bring to the table something for everyone. A long running favourite character of mine is Anthony Dinozzo (played by Michael Weatherly) who provides much of the comedic relief and seen as the good looking member. As much as people will deny it (and trust me, they will) looks do have an affect on a character and their likability. However, with season 13 ending and taking with it the departure of Weatherly, it will be interesting to see how the show does change, and if it can maintain it’s status as one of the worlds most popular shows.

So I think what I’m really trying to say here is that characters really are the main driving force behind a story – and not just because they make decisions that move the story along. A story could go nowhere, but if there was a character that walked around being a baddass and witty, I’d still watch it… actually I think I did when I saw Deadpool. The character is so good, that you don’t realise until the end of the movie that nothing actually happened throughout the hour and a bit that you sat there for…
So, for me, as long as the characters are relatable and have a personality, I think I could almost get on board.