This week, I began my first foray into character creation for this course and, follow that, character writing! … Continue readingWeekly Summary #3 (1/25 – 2/1)

This week seemed like it was draining, but it was all because I got all of the work done in a shorter amount of time. Finally being comfortable with the format and processes of this class, I am able to now get my work done as soon as possible. I do this because I equally enjoy it, and want to get some stress out of the way (is there anything wrong with that?). First, I read the The Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives for New Media chapter. This was enlightening and offered sort of a text for this class. It really gave some introspect to what we’re doing and offered supplementary learning regarding what digital storytelling really is. This helped my thought process regarding the material we had to do for this week. Then I watched the short video from Vonnegut on The Shape of Stories. This video was quite old, but relative. I enjoyed how he joked around while getting his point across. Sometimes learning videos can be agonizing, but his sense of humor made the short 4 minutes ACTUALLY feel short. Then I brought all of these ideas together in a Story Analysis. I chose to do Kingsmen (once again, as I wrote my Slack comment on this last week). I chose to do this movie because I am able to recall it the best and reflect on what made it a perfect candidate for the analysis. I was originally going to do S.A.L.T. but in order to do this I was going to rewatch the movie to refresh my memory. Let’s just say commuting to an 8 a.m. this morning got the best of me and my hysteria led me to take the easy way out (as I probably should not admit this). I have to give myself credit though, for doing all my work and not just calling watching a really good movie doing homework. I read some blog posts about how other people interpreted this assignment before doing it, and I enjoyed how one blog in particular used gifs from the movie in their post, so I used this idea for my post as well. I enjoyed diving deep into the story of this movie to decipher it’s true meaning and how it relates to spies. Next was the character dossier. I thought this would be more difficult than it was. I am not very creative, and that seems to be a weakness of mine. I can barely even draw a stick figure without being ridiculed. However, I always seem to amaze myself when it comes to writing something out. Obviously it’s not up to par with Shakespeare, but it’s pretty accurate for a college student who is trying really hard in a class. I thought the dossier cover page completed the assignment perfectly. It really tied everything together. I found the image of my character off of google, and I don’t think it could fit her and her beauty any better. Her story might be a little far fetched, but this is a storytelling class, so stories should be as crazy as one desires. I did have some friends start to shout out some ideas for her, but some of them were even too far fetched for my character. I asked what her favorite possession should be and I had someone scream back at me, “A SIGNED JOHN WALL JERSEY.” I guess that’s what I get on asking a group of men advise for a female character. The writing assignments were tedious but rewarding. Last week I did a couple haiku’s and I found a couple assignment banks with haiku’s that I did. Haiku’s are simple, but actually quite interesting. In my head, when I write them I have a specific meaning behind them, but since they’re so short, they have to be vague, and the reader can interpret these short poems into an array of different messages. I wrote a haiku about myself and my growth. I found this so pure and it boosted my self esteem. Sometimes you don’t realized how much you’ve grown until you reflect back on your past, which is exactly what I did to write my haiku. The next haiku was to write one about haikus’s. Some inception vibes there I might add. This one was longer, but more difficult. However, this was such a cool concept that I had to do it. It wasn’t too difficult once I got the ball rolling, and I think it turned out pretty decent. My third assignment bank was to make a bucket list. This assignment really caught my eye. I’m sure you can relate, but all the time I say something is on my bucket list, but never actually record it to make a complete list. I thought this assignment was going to be the easiest of them all, but it proved some difficulty. I thought my list would come flowing out as soon as I made the post, but this was not the case. I actually had to go onto Pinterest to get ideas to comprise the list, and after that, the justifications on why I chose those tasks was easy. The last daily create of the week was to write about living a day as someone else. This assignment made the ten star limit into a ten and a half star total overall. I used this as an opportunity to incorporate the spy theme and my character I made in the character dossier. It was incredible to make up a person from scratch, and then have to write an interesting story to live a day in their life. I opted for something a little more unusual. I chose to talk about her getting captured and her recollection of the events before. This was one of my favorite assignment banks I have done so far. I really enjoy the daily creates. They provide an incentive to check what’s going on with the class and contribute everyday. This is a great way to keep the class rolling all together and provide a form of constant communication. Last week in my weekly summary, I expressed how I should have started these sooner, then essentially I could pick if I wanted to do a daily create or not without being forced to due to the fact that I wouldn’t get the necessary amount. I ended up doing three in a row and completed them way earlier than I did last week. I have gotten a lot better at commenting over the past couple of weeks. Obviously it is a task to comment on posts everyday, but this is the concept I have improved the most on. I try to comment on at least three blogs every time I get on my computer through out the day. This is something that I still need to work on, and comment more, but there is nothing better than to see improvement in yourself in such a short span of time. Next was the Slack comment. I emailed Professor Bond to see if we should make a blog post about this and soon after he made a Slack page for these questions. I had already been thinking about them, so once I got onto Slack, it was super easy to express my opinions. Questions: What makes a good blog post title? A creative title? How does a title make you want to read the post?How is writing for the web different? How does it change the way we write? My Response: A good blog post title has to be a play on words or just blatantly catchy. For example, if I had a food blog post I could make the title, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” A creative title is an intro to your work. It makes the audience WANT to go onto your blog and dive into all of the posts. If you have something mundane, your audience will think that that is how you’ll write. If you show some life in your title, you’re more likely to get people to see your blog. This plays into how a title will make you read a post. It’s almost like a hook for an essay, you title is designed to give an overview of your topic while reeling readers in to reading into your blog. This also makes readers want to dive into your other posts. Writing on the web is different because there are no rules. You can write about whatever you want without consequences or someone telling you you can’t. It is also more convenient, as all you have to do is type to your hearts desire, when normally you would have to have some form of writing materials and a way to get your writing posted. It changes the way we write because now we can write however we want. We can write more laid back, or more proper, or even whenever we want. I believe having the web changed how we write for the better. And that is the end of week three! Overall, I am enjoying this class. It is allowing me to see that I can be creative after all! I greatly enjoy the amount of freedom we have to do our assignments, while also sticking to a syllabus that offers guidance. Each week, I tend to enjoy the class more and more. This weeks work I took into my own hands to get done as early as possible, and even though I pack all of my work into a few days, I enjoy it like that. I love how we have the opportunity to do this, and I look forward to the weeks to come!