Lecture 7: How many ways can you tell a story? (read on to find a few :) )

This week, the blog looks at the ways the internet and new media has been used for story telling. There are loads - some are dire and seem highly pointless, but some are actually pretty good.

The first way is the good old fashioned blog. Some good old fashioned text and a persons imagination being all the tools required. Examples of this can be seen here and here. Apart from maybe the odd picture these require readers to think and treat the entry as if it were a book, be it an electronic glowing one prone to frequent 'are you single' pop-ups. Blogging can also be concidered a story at a basic level - any blog recounting a series of events through a persona.

As the lecture 6 entry shows, interactive fiction is also a great way to tell a story. Its engaging and potentially addictive - so a little like pokemon without the shiny colours. Unlike pokemon this has staying power, concieved in the 80s and still going. Its even appearing profitable with a call for stories from publishers. Modern examples include Tears May Fall and I don't remember why this game is called "Onion". These are well and good - but the second cousin, twice burried by common sense but still regretably somehow here is Hyperfiction. Think I'm being overly harsh? Play this. This example shows all the flaws hyperfiction has - a very vague and circular narrative, which struggles to convey ideas of plot or character - the essence of stories. This could only really appeal to the intensely introspective or bored. This seems like a better example of the medium, but based on the whole two seconds I spent playing it I can tell that will be three hours your not getting back.

Twitter fiction, such as this is a refreshing method of story telling. Blog such as this describe it as,

"Twitter is a rolling real-time format and this contrasts greatly with the typical editing process"

I can't say I fully understand the process but it seems enaging and interactive, made interesting by a 140 character limit on posts. This storytelling depends on crowdsourcing, getting users to generate content - which is an essentially genius plan for the lazy would-be entrepreneur. This method of storytelling is further exploited by sites such as Story Mash and Flight Paths. These demonstrate the fincial ability of collabrative fiction through sponsorship and sign up fees. They require users to write and submit material in a variety of media. This is great, the readers' entertained and is also telling people to check it out the site to see their name in lights. Everyones a winner - except there not as the submissions aren't neccessarily anthology standard and the skills needed by editors, especially regarding multi-media may not be amazing. The end result being a crowded but low quality affair.


There we go, a couple of internet based storytelling technqiues :) Not all good it's safe to say but interesting. Jedward are gone from tnhe Xfactor incidently I just heard so all is good in the world of money making music based talent shows. Laters :)

p.s its been a whole entry without an embed :s so check this out, funny stuff :)