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.