Week 1 - Three Favorite Stories and What ifs
My three favorite stories have strong similarities and differences in the disparities the characters face and the emotions their stories invoke. For example, A Little Princess is a story about a 7-year-old Sara who is sent to live in a boarding school with a very strict Mis Minchin while her father is off fighting in World War 1. Sara has to conform to the strict rules of her new home. Sara and Miss Minchin become aware of Sara’s father’s death. Sara is soon relinquished to a life of servitude and torment from Miss Minchin. In A Bug’s Life, the main character, Flik, a story of a colony of ants who is tormented by the grasshoppers who come and demand food to get them through the cold season. Flik’s unconventional way of thinking helps come up with a plan to defeat the grasshoppers and end the control they had over the colony of ants. American Tale is a story about a family of mice that immigrate to America from Russia in an attempt to escape their tormentors, the cats. On their journey to America, the main character, Fievel becomes separated from his family. Although his sister believes Fievel is alive, his parents succumb to the idea that Fievel is dead. All three stories for me, each and every time, evoke feelings of sadness, hope, and courage. All three stories leave me with a feeling of longing. A Little Princess and An American Tale make me long for the love of a father, while A Bug’s Life leaves me longing for friendships.
I think putting any one of the main characters from the three stories into the other’s world would probably yield the same outcome. Each character is courageous and imaginative enough to survive in each other’s world. Each of their struggles included fighting their tormentors, whether grasshoppers, cats or Miss Minchin.
What ifs:
What the “little princess” was a mouse sent to live an all cats boarding school?
What if a human could fly?
What if twins only gave birth to twins?
What if inanimate objects could talk and had feelings?
What if there's a pill that allows you to see your future?
What if there's pill that allows you to time travel, to anytime in past?
Remy is ‘chemist’ who has developed a drug that allows people to see their future. During his lab testing, he notices that the lab mice are dying sooner than expected. His testing confirms that not only is a person’s life span shortened by 2 years each time the pill is ingested, but it is also highly addictive. He knows he can make a fortune with his discovery but also knows that the drug will never be approved by FDA so decides to sell the drug in the black market.
Remy lost his wife and 16-year-old daughter in a car accident last year. Stricken by overwhelming grief, Remy has not left his house since the funeral. While browsing the dark web, he comes across an ad for a pill that will let him travel back in time. After reading through the side effects, he discovers that each dosage takes 2 years off of his lifespan. This pill is also highly addictive.
Overwhelmed by the yearning to see his daughter and wife just one more time, he decides to try the pill. He travels to a time when he had just starting to date his wife. The pill allows him to spend the entire day with her.
After spending the day with his wife, the next morning he wakes up surrounded by the same four walls he desperately wants to escape. He looks in the mirror and finds that the time travel has produced some wrinkles that weren’t there before.
Remy quickly takes another pill and lays in bed. This time, he travels back to the time his daughter was born, he hears his daughter cry for the first time, once again.
Remy becomes so addicted to the joy he gets from seeing his wife and daughter that he spends all of his money buying these pills and traveling back in time. He does this so many times that in the end, his wife and daughter are burying him.
Week 2 - Working with Story Arcs
Week 3 - Vogler's Writing Journey - 3 Quotes
“Campbell's thinking runs parallel to that of the Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung, who wrote about the archetypes: constantly repeating characters or energies which occur in the dreams of all people and the myths of all cultures.”
This statement is interesting in that our dreams are structured in a way that reflects storytelling. Our unconscious minds mimic what we see and surround us in everyday life. We have grown accustomed to the structures of storytelling because of the movies we see, the books we read, and even stories that are passed down to us from our ancestors and cultures. This same structure influences our thoughts and helps us break down and understand certain events that come up in our unconscious mind. Our dreams are a method that helps us problem-solve real-life situations, it makes sense to me that our brains break down this problem in a form of a story to help us process it better.
"The stages of the Hero's Journey can be traced in all kinds of stories, not just those that feature "heroic" physical action and adventure. The protagonist of every story is the hero of a journey, even if the path leads only into his own mind or into the realm of relationships. "
This quote re-enforces the versatility of the Hero’s journey and how it can be adapted to any storytelling avenue. This storytelling structure works in the context of an action-adventure thriller or a psychological thriller where the character is on an inward facing journey.
“What happens to the hero happens to us. We are encouraged to experience the brink-of-death moment with her.”
Although I find all the stages of the Hero’s Journey important to help a story make more sense, I feel that the Ordeal is one of the most important stages. Like the idea quote points to, this is the stage where the audience is pulled into the story so much so that the reader or viewer empathizes with the hero to the point that they can see themselves in the hero. We become the hero, this is why everyone wants to see the hero cheat death.
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The main take away from the Practical Guide chapter is that this writer’s map is a valuable tool to help writers and storytellers structure their story in a way that makes sense and is engaging for their audience. This guide also helps us as the reader or audience understand stories in a more effective way.
It is also important to understand the rules of storytelling to be able to break them down and bend the rules to fit one’s own writing style.
After further reading the 12 steps in the Hero’s Journey, I could not help but wonder, if all storytellers followed this structure, is it inevitable that all stories become predictable thus making them boring no matter which why the each stage is laid out?
Week 4 - Storytelling in UX
“When you choose the perspective for a story, you are choosing a subset of all of the experiential possibilities. The perspective (or perspectives) you choose limits what the people in the story see and experience.”
Like the tale of the blind men having different interpretations of what an elephant is based on the perspective of the animal they experienced, the experience of what the user sees and experiences depends on the perspective in which a story is relayed to them.
I agree that the parable is a great representation of how stories and their interpretations widely vary depending on how they are told and their subjective experience. This why important to know the audience of your story and choose the story’s perspective based on the experience you need your audience to have.
“Changes in perspective can also suggest different needs that a new design can meet. For example, one character might describe a nighttime scene as dark and ominous, while a different character might see that same scene as quiet and peaceful.”
I think this quote expands on the point in the previous quote. Not only does the perspective of a story change the experience of the user, but it also can draw out or uncover an unknown user or design need. Telling stories helps designers inspire opportunities and solutions. They provide concrete details that help us provide solutions to specific situations or problems.
“These ingredients—perspective, character, context, imagery, and language—support the events and make the story come alive in the minds of the audience, thereby creating the experience of the story.”
All the components of the story when used correctly can help a story resonate with the audience in a way that takes the audience to a place they can feel, smell, taste, and experience.
This quote, I feel this summarizes the main takeaway from this chapter for me. Storytelling helps the audience empathize or put themselves in the shoes of the users. Storytelling gives the audience more information to help make a decision that will benefit the user.
WEEK 5 - MIDTERM PREP PART 1
Week 6 - Midterm Prep part 2: write your story
As Beyond, so Below
Given the unveiling of current events, I’ve decided to keep a journal of what has occurred after the war. Hopefully, this will be of use in the future. It was October 3, 2070, the air above ground has become so polluted from debris as a result of the tragic World War 3 that humanity had to seek shelter below the ground, in the sewage systems. Given the level of destruction, technologic resources have become so scarce that it is hard for the Angelenos left in the city to grasp how many survivors are left anywhere but in our small community. It had become clear to me that as the only person with in-body technology and the extensive knowledge on fields such as human biology, mechanical engineering, and warfare, programmed in my cyberbelum by the government as the war broke loose, that I would have to be the one to find the solution to bring life back above ground. It is still unclear to me if there are any other surviving cyber-soldiers. My technology will have to suffice.
My solution was to develop prosthetic lungs that would replace biological human lungs and filter out the air impurities found in the atmosphere. Gladly, I have not lost my ability to replicate human tissue from my own during the war. The inner layer of charcoal and PET plastic that are woven into a strainer-like filter in the left lung, make sure the Oxygen is purified when moved into the right lung to complete the respiratory cycle, would be easy to reproduce with old plastic water bottles in the sewage system and burned wood we’ve been using to keep the community warm at Below. I had decided to create a system to ensure the most effective process to rebuild society above ground, which they now call Beyond. The system was simple, humans with special skills that could be used to rebuild society at beyond as well those who are young and strong would be prioritized in the transplant queue. As the only humanoid capable of going Beyond without the need for The Polylungs, I have found a local hospital with barely usable operation rooms that I was able to restore and use to perform my first surgery on Riley who became my second hand.
Six months later an extensive amount of progress has been made at Beyond and I was able to appoint the surgeries to a team of five other doctors, led Riley, while I focused on the manufacturing of as many Polylungs as I could without affecting my livelihood. I remember thinking to myself that within 35 years we would be able to take everyone Beyond. Little did I know that my decisions had led the society below to chaos and panic as airborne and sanitary-related diseases started spreading at a rapid rate and the doctors that remained below could not handle the demand for care. Factions took place to kidnap the current Beyonders and try to reproduce my technology, but I knew that without my presence they would not be able to reproduce the human tissue and lives would be taken in vain. The feeling of guilt and shame began to overtake my body. After seeing the open, lungless body of 18-year-old Devin who had just recently risen Beyond, I knew I had to put an end to this carnage.
Upon going Below, I encountered a woman named Lucy. She was laying on top of an open cardboard box, and her state of health was extremely deprecated. Through coughs and wheezes, she was kind enough to explain to me what was going on. She explained that the elderly that were diseased were left to die without treatment as they had to prioritize care to the younger. Factions such as the Minia planned on kidnapping Beyonders to use the Polylungs as a symbol of wealth and power. The most powerful would rise Beyond and overtake control of the process from me, While the Xios were trying tirelessly to reproduce the technology and take the most affected by the diseases Beyond as they had more chances of survival being away from the sewage. They were willing to do anything, including kidnapping Beyonders to closely analyze the PolyLungs. It dawned on me that my system was not working fairly, a kind woman such as Lucy should have the opportunity of living her last years more humanely. I decided to reach out to Sasha, the leader of the Xios.
Lucy directed me to the location the Xios used as headquarters and I was not well received. People thought of me as an evil inhuman creature and I felt as if they were right. Sasha showed up in front of the tunnel gate and pointed a gun at my face. I let them know I’ve come in peace and without me, they would not be able to reproduce new polylungs. After hours of discussion, we reached a solution that would slow down the rebuilding of Beyond but save the most lives. Now we just need to find a way to stop the Minia.
Week 7 -Storyboards
Week 11- Interaction Relabeling- Storyboards
