Week 12 Lab:TV Tropes

TV Tropes

When I was searching articles on the TV Tropes website I found a page on short films.  This caught my eye because in this class we are writing short stories.  What I didn't know is that a shot film is technically a film that is between twenty and forty minutes.  Our stories are nowhere near that length, but I still learned a lot from the page.  Short films are often projects completed by film students.  Disney was the first company that brought short films popularity.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs started out as a short film until Disney realized they could make more money turning it into a full feature film.  While short films are not as popular as the large feature films, I still enjoy them.  I will always remember the short film before the PIXAR movie Monsters Inc. titled Birds on a Wire.  Short films are great, but I think short stories (mostly children's books) have been more impactful and memorable for me.  Books like Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Suess were some of my favorites as a kid.

Bibliography

TV Tropes Website
Image Information: PIXAR: Wikimedia Commons

Week 10 Lab: Writers Write

Writers Write

The Writers Write website is full of articles to help writers of any kind.  I spent most of my time looking through the articles under the creative writing tab.  One article that I particularly liked was called 6 Ways for Writers to Stay More Motivated by Bridget McNulty.  I often find it hard to stay motivated when I am writing, especially when I am writing for my science classes.  McNulty suggests finding a place and time to consistently write.  A writers brain gets in the zone when a writer is able to do this.  As of now I have no consistency when it comes to the time and place I write.  It all depends on when I have time and where I am in the moment.  McNulty also argues that a writer is always writing meaning that in the dead times, a writer is always pondering over writing ideas.  I hardly do that at all so I might need to change my daily mindset.  Other articles I found on the Writers Write website seemed to contain very useful writing advice as well.

Sources

6 Ways for Writers to Stay More Motivated by Bridget McNulty
Writers Write Website
Image Information: Writing Space: Pixabay

Week 6 Lab: Testing Twine

Using twine to create a small story was a ton of fun.  It added a lot of excitement to they story writing process.  I could definitely see myself using Twine to create a story this semester.  One thing that I really love about it is that it gives the reader a change to determine the outcome.  If they do not like the outcome, they can go back and chose a different one.  In some ways, it is like telling more that one story at the same time.

It could also use twine to create a game to play with family or even a biology study tool.

Disney Murder Mystery  Check out my Twine here!

Image Information: Cinderella's Castle: Flickr

Week 4 Lab: Read More than One Story

The Danger of the Single Story

This TED Talk was one of the more powerful TED talks I have ever listened to.  It highlights how as humans, we often use one story to define a person, people group, or place.  When we do this, we fail to see the truth about people.  The reality is that every single person has multiple stories and experiences that make them who they are.  A couple examples Adichie uses are her college  roommate's view of Africans and her view of Mexicans.  When Adichie came to America from Nigeria, her college roommate was surprised and almost a little disappointed that Adichie had many things in common with her.  When Adichie visited Mexico, she realized that Mexican people were all that American media made them out to be.  I also find myself believing in the single story.  This talk opened my eyes a bit.  Storytellers often write stories that are related to what they are reading.  When a story is started also makes a huge difference.  If you do not start at the beginning, you miss out on so many important details.  One of the the most powerful lines spoke in this talk was "The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete."  No one can be summed up in one story.  Every individual is unique.

In my upcoming stories, I want to make sure I look at all the story possibilities.  I could give the backstory to a villain or the position of a main character.  There are many stories out there, but infinite stories yet to be written.

Do you actually know who you are following? pxhere

Imaginary friends and real-world consequences: parasocial relationships

A parasocial relationship is a relationship we make with someone we do not really know through media.  We take the characters we read about, celebrities we research, or people we view on social media and form parasocial relationship with them.  We feel like we really know these people, when we really do not and they do not know us.  The questions is why do we do this? Research has shown that we can draw social and emotional support out of parasocial relationships, especially when one is combating a feeling of loss or social rejection.  Jennifer Barnes and one of her graduate students did a study that showed that on average, a student would be more sad if their favorite character died than if a real person that they see often but to not actually know died.  This is quite alarming as the real person has real aspirations, real relationships, and real lives while the fictional character does not even exist.  We really need to be careful about what is happening to our minds and emotions when we create these parasocial relationships.


Bibliography

The Danger of the Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Imaginary friends and real-world consequences: parasocial relationships by Jennifer Barnes