Week 8: Reading and Writing Review

I'm fairly satisfied with the layout of both my blog and google site so far, but I still need to learn how to integrate individually embedded Twine stories with the Google site navigation. I'd like to link to each of the new story pages within the prologue ending.

My reading notes tend to focus more on "what if" ideas, rather than a comprehensive summary of the material. I think this works well for me, as I enjoy imagining the possible backstories, motivations, and character frames of mind in stories which may not provide explicit detail. I enjoyed writing The Wife of Anansi more than any others so far, but I think the actual tale is weak and overly descriptive. Establishing a strong event sequence before filling in the scenery could help me with concise, emphatic writing.

The storybook presents a challenge in organization, as the options in Twine offer far more flexibility than a conventional tale. My goal is to connect several origin stories, presented with distinct narrative styles and potentially different endings based upon the choices favored by the reader.

Moving forward in storytelling, I would like to prune down excess descriptive content and work harder on plot development and action. You can read for the words, or you can read for the story, but the happy balance between is where my favorite authors tend to fall. That's where I'm shooting for the next few stories, and I'm using the gif of Medusa's severed head to remind me that dramatic events in my stories deserve at least as much attention as the scenery.

Perseus brandishes the head of Medusa, Clash of the Titans (1981)

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