A preview of the Alcyone story

Where is Alcyone in development?

I feel that Alcyone is developing pretty well. She has a very distinct presence in my head, with a sardonic sense of humor and a haunted sensibility about her. I hadn't known that St. Valentine was the patron saint of epileptics, which may call for a post from Alcyone regarding her condition, her lack of a "normal relationship", how her perception of time and reality affects her relationships with other people, and maybe some insight into her dynamic with poltergeist buddy Fachtna, or even her desire to have as much pink colored cake as she could possibly eat. I will need to do more research on epilepsy as well. I have some outside knowledge since two of my siblings are epileptic, but medical accuracy is a point to check.
She'll have some trouble coming her way later on. I intend that some aspects of her past and the people she left behind in Pikeville will catch up to her. Her parents are actively searching for her, and want to bring her back to the church, even if she really detests this idea and everything the church stands for. Will they be able to accept that she is an adult? Do they think that her neurological condition is reason to always treat her as unable to know what is really best for her? Will they still love her knowing she is not a Christian or will they disown her? Considering how controlling and manipulative they've been, did they love her in the first place?

Things to keep in mind

I have found the Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling to be a valuable resource not only for the class project, but personal writing projects as well. A number of the methods referred to within the text could be employed for Morgantown Association of Paranormal Investigators as well as Albireo Star Charmers (a transmedia work in the magical girl genre that I am currently forming with my collaborator in Charlotte, NC).

1.       Story archeology will be an important factor. Alcyone will leave notes on maps aside from the MAPI to talk of her unusual experiences within the town, and the audience will need to look for these, as well as checking the personal blogs of other MAPI members since she longs to have someone to connect with and to have someone believe her about the strange things she see. With regards to Star Charmers, the eventual goal is the have a virtual Morgantown to explore to find components of the plot.

2.       Fostering an audience connection could be done in a number of ways. Alcyone will respond to comments left on her blog, when she gets them. I may have to get the ball rolling on comments by creating some other characters for her to interact with, and demonstrate that she will respond to the audience.

3.       For Alcyone, I would like to incorporate real life objects within Morgantown as part of the interaction. I suppose one easy way to do this could be QR codes showing her trails around town. She enjoys walking in the park and going to local eateries. Curious passers-by would be able to scan the code and find a link to her blog or Google maps.

4.       Expanding on the real life objects, I may try making some props of hers to be left at key locations, maybe art of Fachtna, diary pages, and articles like her decorative cigarette case or “forgotten” items of hers.

5.       With world building in mind, I intend to use Alcyone’s reaching out through her writing and connecting it through the above mentioned techniques to ground it in the town we see around us.  Perhaps I could build a site for the fundamentalist church that her parents attend, old doctors’ records from the hyper-religious quacks they would take her to in hopes of assuring care in line with their religion, regardless of her actual wellbeing and denying her actual condition.

6.       Chekov’s guns, multiple possible plot thread to be activated later, will be of great importance. Alcyone will mention a number of things that strike her as unusual about Morgantown, but how much of what she’s seeing is real and how much is simply in her head? Which aspects will the readers want to investigate?

7.       The element of time is something I still wonder about. Alcyone largely writes about things after they occur, but Star Charmers is intended to occur in real time along with the audience guiding the girls.

8.       Voice is most certainly an element to pay attention to. Alcyone is a foul mouthed Wiccan who is just now allowed to cut loose without supervision of her parent and doctors. She has a tendency to overdo things as a result and overcompensate for her insecurity by acting tougher than she is. She also likes to end her blog posts with “Blessed Be” and indicate the music to which she is listening. The girls of Star Charmers, being young, will be likely to use emoticons frequently, but their tones will be very different. Studious and methodical Maris’s writing will reflect her proper nature and passion about science. Carefree and flighty Estelle writes with a more stream of consciousness style, reflecting her preference for unusual structures and poetry and her love of art.

9.       The audience in Alcyone’s story would have a role as possible pen friends of the young woman, even as she discusses simple things like her favorite films. She has her own email address for interactions now. I may make a Google + account for her, as her email is Gmail based. Within Star Charmers, the audience may take the classic magical girl role of the cute animal companion and mentor for the pair of superhero witches in training, guiding them as they learn magic.

10.   Story bibles are something I have some familiarity with, as I have been working on one for a larger comic based project for a while now. They are of great help when considering world building and all the elements of the story to keep track of for believable continuity. I will need to finish writing Alcyone’s profile and history to distribute among my fellow team members, as well as a number of her possible plot threads.

Alcyone and the transmedia narrative structure

“Cheap, deep, or massive-audience, pick two.” P.106

I intend on going cheap and deep with the Alcyone project. After all, this is a locally focused narrative and I lack a large budget that a marketing department would have at its disposal. Given that she’s a pretty defined character in my head, and one that I have written works with before, she already has a back story and distinct attitude.

“If you background and strength lie in text, then stick to that. Focus on books, blog posts, emails, and updates on social media.” P. 109

Text will likely be my main means of interaction with the audience, as I don’t know very much programming at this point. I may record some audio posts, but if we’re pairing with theater students, I may select an actor to portray Alcyone. I will write up some of her hallucinatory encounters as journal entries and perhaps a few to be performed. It will be for the viewer to determine if Alcyone really have supernatural sight or is simply experiencing hallucinations due to her neurological condition. (She has temporal lobe epilepsy, and seizures can manifest in a number of ways, from feelings of déjà vu and jamais vu, as well as sensory perceptive effects.)

With regards to redundancy discussed on p. 123, Alcyone will communicate frequently with other members of MAPI, partially because having moved recently to Morgantown and run away from her previous connections in life (her parents and doctors), she doesn't have very many friends aside from Fachtna. While she enjoys hanging out with the monster in her closet, his hobbies of bad television and trolling the neighbors only provide so much entertainment and interaction for her. Alcyone is kind of a lonely person. Her desire to reach out may have her grabbing for a number of story elements, or the Chekov’s guns,  just so she feels less alienated. On this note, I may have her interact with audience members through social media for this reason as well. Hopefully I would have the opportunity to get players to mine information from her as discussed in social engineering challenges on p. 143.