CGTS contains a lot of practical, useful, and interesting information. While some of the info doesn't really apply to our assignment, the majority of it can be used to improve our characters and narrative. The top 10 things I will take away from CGTS are:
1.The Meaning of Transmedia Storytelling-Before reading this book, I had no idea what transmedia storytelling meant or involved. Now I think I have a clear understanding of the puropse of transmedia narratives. Hopefully, I can use this understanding to help write a successful narrative in my group.
2.The Basics of Storytelling-It's definitely been a while since I've done any creative writing. The book helped me brush up on the imortant parts of storytelling like characterization, plot, rising tension, and conflict.
3.Methods of Online Characterization-Without interesting characters, a narrative falls flat. CGTS gives us valuable tips for developing characters' voices and personalites through technology in order to avoid this pitfall.
4.How to Convey Action-I never thought about the different ways to convey action before reading this, such as whether I wanted to inform the audience about news live or delayed.
5.The Truth About Audience Involvment-I also never realized how small a portion of the audience actively participates in the storytelling process. The relatively small but influential portion makes me realize I need to make the game engaging but still fun for people to just follow.
6.How to Select Media-The book tells us to stick with our strengths when selecting media. I'll definitely follow this advice to avoid frustration and mistakes.
7.The Story Bible-A story bible would be useful to my group since there will be multiple people working on the same narrative. It's already difficult to keep the story straight.
8.The Imortance of Redundancy-Usually, I think of redundancy as a bad thing. Now I realize I need to recap to avoid confusing my audience.
9.The Positives and Negatives of User Generated Content-I now realize I need to be careful of how much use generated content I use in my narrative, because it is often poor quality.
10.The Imortance of Rewarding the Audience-The book helped me remember that keeping the audience happy and engaged is the most important part of storytelling. Rewarding them for effort is the number one way to accomplish this goal.
Great top 10 list!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the story bible is important. There's a lot of difficulty switching between your character's perspective and the overall story. That's in the nature of a multi-authored, multimedia narrative. So, the bible is really necessary.
Redundancy goes with that. It's one way to ensure you keep things straight - by repeating them. They might seem redundant to you because you see the whole story, but not to the reader who is seeing it part by part.
User generated content: think seriously about ways to draw readers in. Blog comments? Emails? Are there ways you can get them involved?