Story Lab: Twine

(My Exact Reaction: made with Cheeseburger)

Hey guys! I made my first TWINE!!!

If you have read a few of my more personal goal post you may know that I have wanted to do this for a while. I finally did it! It is easier than I thought, but also not super simple. If I had to suggest something it would be to test the story every few slides. I wrote my whole story and put the caption in the wrong place. I put it as a tag soooooo don't do that haha.

Overall, it was so much fun. I won't be using it again most likely, but it was pretty cool. I still don't know how to save the file, so I will include a link, but I don't know if it works. The Twine is based of off the story called The Stars in the Sky by Joseph Jacobs. Basically in the story a girl goes on a round robin adventure to find the stars. In the end it is just a dream, but you don't know till the last moment. I used this exact plot in the my twine, except I cut the adventure down a bit. I didn't want to get too carried away with my first twine in case I messed up! If you want to read the original here is the link!

Click Here to Play

Week 10 Lab

Hey there! 

So this week I went ahead and explored writers write. I love exploring that website and finding awesome and beneficial readings. Since I am writing a storybook for children I really try to focus my attention on article centered around how to write for kids. 

Lets start with the 

Do Your Characters Have SMART Story Goals?

This one was great to check Vela in my storybook. She kinda acts as my main character/ narrator. It is also good to check each main character in each sub story. Here is the condensed checklist!

My Main Character Has A....

• Specific Goal: define the goal using these 5 Ws...
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When ?
• Why?

• Measurable Plan: we can measure their success or failure if we know... 
• How they will achieve goal/ execute the plan?

• Attainable Goal: its gotta be realistic...
• Does your character have the resources?
• Does your character have the ability?

• Relevant Goal: does the goal make sense...
• Will my character grow/benefit ?
• Is my character motivated?

• Time-bound: create tension and urgency 
• Will my reader feel a need to keep reading?

The other article I really want to save and utilize is the 

140 Words To Describe Mood In Fiction

I'm not going to write all 140 words out, but please use the link to explore some great descriptive words for mood! Mood is what the reader FEELS. 

If you have any suggestions for articles to read, please leave them in the comments. There are some pretty great articles on the writers write website!

(Mindset Cat from Feedback Cats)

Week 6 Lab

Writers Write Notes:

10 Dialogue Errors to Avoid at All Cost (link)

• This article was really eye opening to me. One of the tips the article provided was to read your story out loud. I actually want to add to this tip. If you get super distracted (like me) and you lose focus while reading out loud (uhh definitely me), you can copy and paste your story into Microsoft Word. There is a function on there that will read the paper out loud. That was you can sit back and just listen. If something sounds off, go in and fix it! The other tips in the article really focused on characters and their dialogue. I will definitely come back to this because of that. I really struggle with making dialogue sound natural. It will definitely take some practice, so I will need to play around with it some more. 

20 Myths to Use as Writing Prompts (link)

(20 Prompts for Writing Myths by Writers Write)

• While this article may not prove helpful for my storybook, it will definitely be a great source of ideas for other stories. The article is pretty short and list 20 great questions. By brainstorming answers to these questions, a great story may play out! I remember reading someone's story in this class. In the story they explained why snow has this wonderful connotation to it, but thunder and lighting are loud and scary. This writing prompt list has several prompts just like that (including those three too)! My favorite is creating a story on why flowers lose their leaves. 

7 Things to Avoid When Writing for Children (link)

• Since I am writing a children's book for my storybook I just had to read this article! I am glad I did too. One of the biggest things I kept changing in my storybook stories were the bad guys. I would just remove the bad and the sad because I didn't think that would be good for children. The article reminded me about literally all of the villains in every childhood movie and book. The bad guys emphasis the good guys. I will have to rethink some of my stories because I definitely think it is good to add a villain after this article. The article also said things like:
• Don't make them wait for the excitement/ don't drag out the beginning
• Don't preach 
• USE PICTURES
• And don't underestimate them