Week 14 Lab: TVTropes

The story lab that I did this week was to explore TVTropes. Initially, when I got to the site, I was confused by where I was supposed to go on the site and what I was supposed to look for while there. After a few minutes of looking around, I finally found the tropes that were spoken about. I realized that in every story, there is usually a trope that is used to further along the plot of a story. A few of my favorite tropes that I found on this site were the death glare, beware the nice ones, and a love triangle.

I think the death glare is really funny if used in a comical setting. When I saw death glare as a trope, I initially though of April from Parks and Rec. She is constantly giving out death glares and trying to be intimidating. Sometimes it works, but most of the time, I think it loses its effectiveness which I think is funny.

Another trope that I enjoy in stories is beware the nice ones. I like this one because I think this comes as such a surprise. Often, the watchers do not expect such a nice character to blow up. Honestly, this usually is not the fault of the nice character. They are often pushed too far, and all the emotions they have been suppressing while trying to stay nice come out all at once. I think I kind of relate to these characters, so I appreciate when this problem is brought to light. Hopefully, people get out of this trope that they should not push people past their limits.

The final trope that I always fall for is the love triangle. Love triangles just create so much drama, and I always end up picking a side. This is almost like a game in the story, and I end up rooting for my favorite character out of the two vying for the main character's love. I usually go for the good guy in the story, but often in these dramas, there is often good and bad to each person.


Image Information: TV, Pixabay

Week 12 Lab: Telling a Story

For this week's story lab, I opted to read the second chapter in EmpoWord about telling a story. The chapter began with a nice quote from Doctor Who that got me engaged in the reading. I am a fan of Doctor Who, but unfortunately, I am not up to date with the latest doctor. Either way, this began the chapter off on a good note. The writer really wanted the reader to consider how one quote can mean several things depending on the mindset of the reader. This is reflective for all reading in life. Each person that consumes ideas will put together their own thoughts about the matter.

Next, the chapter went into more specifics about storytelling that I had already learned in previous classes in high school. These basic concepts covered items like narration, point of view, and mood. The explanation brought together that depending on how you approach each item, the writer can greatly alter how the reader engages with the material. Scope of a story was also brought up. The writer mentioned that some writers try to put too many events or details into a story when really they should be focusing on what is the most important. I find that I struggle with this a lot myself. I like to include a lot of details and make sure the reader understands what I am trying to convey, but I think that sometimes I just cloud up everything even more than I should have. This past week, I have tried to focus on doing short and straight to the point writing.

The technique spoke about next in the textbook was pacing. In result of including too much detail, I think I slow down the pace of my stories a lot. I like to elaborate on creating the setting when, really, the setting is usually not the most important part. If I could get down a basic description that can set the scene, then I need to work on just getting to the events of the story that I am writing.

From this chapter, I think that I have learned that I need to work on scope and pacing the most in my writing. I understand the basic fundamentals of creating a story, but working on these points of writing could easily help me become better.

Bibliography

Telling a Story, EmpoWord

Image Information: Writing, PxHere

Week 10 Lab: Creative Life

The first video that I watched was A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman. This video brought up the importance of prioritizing the different aspects of human intelligence. A key point to this talk was that people have various skills and not everyone should be held to the same standards. This becomes a problem with standardized tests and having different parameters for how some people get into certain schools. A problem with having so many enforced unspoken rules for how intelligence should be assessed is that people that do not possess those chosen valued skills lose their value. This means that everyone does not get to reach their full potential as they force themselves to be valuable in this society. I have found that even in my own life, I have made myself become something that is more desirable in this society's culture. Top companies want people that produce quickly and effectively that serve a customer's need, and that is how I have learned to shape myself which I found to be something I had never planned.

The second video was Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley. This person that gave the tech talk was an artist, and she shared the story of her struggle with creation with the restraints of copyright. She explained that with every piece of art she made, she realized there was a subconscious amount of limitations in her work. The cause of this hesitation she had was caused by the copyright and permission culture that we have existed in since birth. She brings up that copyright and permissions for use of artwork are something that we never chose to opt into. In this way, we have a set of rules that I think we have even experienced in this class. Every time we want to use an image for each blog post we make for this class, we have to make sure that we go through the steps to make sure we are abiding by the rules of copyright. This greatly diminishes the options we are allowed to use to express ourselves when creating our blog posts. I cannot image having to be an artist in a creative field where my options to help my creative process are so greatly restricted.

Bibliography

A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman

Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley

Story Lab: Creative Life

Image Information: Human Intelligence, Pixabay

Week 6 Lab: Creative Writing and Style

From this group of videos, I enjoyed the first two videos the most. I liked these videos because they correlated more with my interests in life. The first one was about reaching limitations and finding new ways to surpass them, and the second one was about heroes. The first video called The power of creative constraints by Brandon Rodriguez from the Story Lab: Style playlist really got my attention because of the scientific approach they took to explaining their concept. In engineering, I often have to use my creativity to figure out a way to make something work if I even have any idea how to start. This video was also pretty cool for me because they mentioned rovers. Since I am on the rover team, I actually learned how the top engineers of the time approached dealing with realistic constraints in creative ways. Their ideas in theory did not sound super great, but they definitely did get the job done which is what mattered. Their innovation and new ideas helped to bring about the landing of multiple rovers that have now explored another planet for years.

The second video that caught my attention was What makes a hero? by Matthew Winkler. This was a really neat video to me because of all of the animations that brought the lesson to life. We learned about the monomyth and how this pattern for heroes is used constantly for the majority of our most popular heroes in fiction. The person narrating the video brought up examples like Harry Potter and Katniss from the Hunger Games to prove how theses heroes follow the same storyline. The basic storyline is the hero starts in their ordinary world, they are called to adventure, they have help from an older mentor, they head out to action, face their biggest enemy, and then eventually head back to their old life but with new hero status.

Bibliography

The power of creative constraints by Brandon Rodriguez

What makes a hero? by Matthew Winkler

Story Lab: Style playlist

Image Information: Harry Potter, Pixabay

Week 4 Lab: Stories and Storytelling

The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had a deeply meaningful message about the stories we consume every day. She shared her story about how she grew up reading books that described characters that were nothing like her. In result, she wrote stories about these people and did not stop to consider that she could write stories that were about people like her. How she put it, she was stuck reading a single story. A single narrative that had not been changed by the different people all over the world. This changed when she finally read an African book that was more about her experience in life that showed her she could write stories anyway that she decided upon. This opened her to realize the influence she could provide. I think this is a powerful lesson for most people. Each individual has an unique story to tell, and if they do not share their life's experience with the world, then the world is deprived of that person's journey. This message has made me realize that I should try to immerse myself more in a people's culture before I make any assumptions based off of what could be a single story.

Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences: Parasocial Relationships by Jennifer Barnes was as deeply intriguing as the first video. In this video, she explains the relationships between real life people and fictional characters in movies, books, etc. The relationship she found was not entirely shocking, but still somewhat hard to digest when said aloud. In her studies, she found that most people have a much stronger connection with fictional characters than they do with people that they actually know in person. When asked how they would react when their favorite fictional character and a real acquaintance died, most respondents replied that they would be more upset about their favorite character's death. This shows how much people can bond with characters that are not actually real. Even though they are not real, they can mean more to readers than someone that they just know of in person. I have personally made strong connections with fictional characters, and I can understand why this is the response they received in their study. This has made me evaluate how I can use this energy for positive change in real life.

Bibliography

The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences: Parasocial Relationships by Jennifer Barnes

Image Information: Old books, Pixabay