Full Circle

Veronica

Tomorrow, I graduate with my bachelor’s degree in the place where I began my journey in 2015. There’s a bit of irony in returning to the same small town university that I left after one semester and never thought I’d be back. Regardless, I’ve been feeling really grateful for the choices I’ve made and things I’ve learned. Without this journey, the realm I’m building probably wouldn’t exist, and honestly neither would my motivation to write a novel. Sure, poetry was something I always loved and experimented with, but passion for writing styles beyond that remained undiscovered.

I painted my grad cap, too! It’s pretty relative to my journey since it involves Shakespeare’s Hamlet. A giant skull with a tilted crown sits between the words [ ENTER GHOST ] and over “Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.” My love for Shakespeare runs extremely deep, and I’m passionate about the stance that he’s not the man that historians claim he is (which was solidified by a course I took about the author). It’s reflective of my time here, growth as a reader, and knowledge all in one.

Needless to say, I’m excited to find a job where I can thrive and put my experience into play. My multimedia knowledge only enhances my ability to present the best work possible, and that’s my dream. When I get to be creative and experiment with new things, that’s when I find motivation paired with happiness. So I suppose that’s what I’m hoping my next step involves: Acquiring a job where I can finally use my experience and education to grow as a writer and employee. Wish me luck!

Novel Notions

Veronica

My summer involved a lot of thinking, planning, reading, and napping, and I’ve never been more grateful! In an effort to gather up every possible bit of inspiration, reading popular fantasy novels has been my go-to whenever I’ve had free time. Writing my own novels is no joke, but I’ve put my heart and soul into the start of this project, so I’ll be damned if I don’t finish it strong. The duty of worldbuilding slowly spirals into discovering side characters and untied strings that I track until I get to the end before starting all over again. Finally picking a direction for the story has made it significantly easier, and I let my characters’ choices come naturally from the traits I’ve given them.

It’s interesting, looking at the early stages of my realm and seeing its evolution. In reading, I’ve stuck with the popular choices on TikTok to better understand my desired audience’s wants and needs (especially because I may or may not be included in said target audience). The worst thing is that each series brings heartbreak along with its victories, and I’ve been hurting as a result of every fictional death or mistake. The Thirteen. Cardan’s missing letters. Poppy’s brother. Sam Cortland. UGH there’s more, of course, but just to name a few.

My goal is to envelop readers with so many emotions that their senses become invested in, their adrenaline rushes in effort to find answers about, and their hearts burst with love for these characters. I want to keep feeling sad when a fictional person dies or happy when they finally smile after so many moments of pain, because I felt what they did, too. That’s what makes up the beauty of reading. We find connections to the invisible, to the unseen and untrue, in order for us to make sense of the world we live in.

I’m so close to finalizing this plotline and move on to writing the adventure, but it’ll wait for now.

Goodbye Spring, Hello Summer!

Veronica

Well, I can honestly say that I put a ton of effort into this semester’s courses, especially this one. This blog is now connected to two professional portfolios and my novel in many ways, and I look forward to being able to add more content. With 3 credit hours left, I’m absolutely astonished at how close I am to being done. It’s like the one-mile warning before I get to the exit and I’m actually in the left lane going 10 mph over the speed limit in traffic at 4:30pm. 

I wish so badly that I could be done with everything and graduate, but I think seeing the light on the horizon made me push harder to do better this semester. Being older in this course was extremely beneficial, and I’m glad I could utilize my professional experience and knowledge within an academic environment. The best takeaway from this class is that I find myself implementing what I learned every day. 

Multimedia content is more ingrained in our culture than we realize, and Dr. O did a great job at tearing apart each side to writing for multimedia. The course material will be something I reference in the future, especially for UX and game writing. I plan to keep working on projects like my game and other tinkerings, too! I think it would be fun to create a fully-fledged SCP and implement other game elements I wanted to have originally.

college finals memes - Google Search | College memes, Student memes, School memes

Never have I been more grateful for the effort I gave when crafting my drafts until now. My final portfolio was a breeze to piece together because I did it throughout the semester. Planning ahead has always been my strong suit, and it was essential in keeping me on track with the blogs, readings, tinkerings, and drafts. 

Did I have any mental breakdowns this semester? Absolutely not externally. Internally, I was practically on fire at all times with stress. Luckily, the hard work was worth it! The skills and portfolio I’ve built throughout multimedia are beyond useful in my future career. Maybe I’ll keep this blog going, just for fun, but we’ll have to see!

Portfolio Plans

Veronica

For my final portfolio, I’ve chosen to revise my pitch deck and my game and produce an expanded game writing sample and podcast. I debated on making a realistic version of my board game, but my 3D printer knowledge is limited and creating the pieces that way would be ideal. With more practice, I could definitely make a prototype, but I’ll save it for a later date. I also thought about expanding the color design document into a brand book, though I love the game writing project more so it totally won.

I think revising my pitch deck would be extremely helpful because these are popular in many professions. We discussed pitch decks being useful for potential movies, projects, and positions in our future careers. Because of this, I think it would be a good option to revise. I got a bit of feedback with the suggestion to add a mood board for costuming and add the links for the revenue which I’ve implemented already. With the game, I’m really excited to incorporate the feedback I received in my revision. I have other concepts that I would love to include, but the mechanics of it are a bit complicated so it may be a project for later, too.

Picking projects to expand on was hard for me, but I settled on game writing because I’d love to get more into that field. I enjoy crafting the narrative of a thought-out story in my own writing, so combining my writing experience with a game character was one of my favorite things we’ve gotten to do. I really liked trying out the barks and creating more of them will be super great practice. And the podcast, of course, was an expanded draft already! We’ve taken the feedback and made lots of edits (hours of edits). We cleared up the audio and adjusted the clips so there’s a much better flow. Overall, I think my plan for my portfolio is pretty straightforward. I only really need to expand my barks themselves, write the reflection, and revise my game!

Game Writing & Progress

Veronica

After chatting about careers the other day in class, I’ve really been thinking about how serious I am about getting into UX writing. I know it’s not “game career” related, but I can see how my skill set is growing now that I’m developing my game. I’d love to take the Google UX course this summer if I can manage it, but it’ll probably have to wait and that’s okay. The resources that we’ve been given are extremely valuable when it comes to fulfilling our potential and using our degrees, so I’m taking advantage of them and doing everything I can to understand my career options. 

When it comes to game progress, I’ve been grateful that I sketched out my storyboarding before starting my development in Twine. The rule of 3 has been my guide for this project, too. I have 3 objects that are required to win the game, 3 opponents, 3 starting locations, and 3 intertwining locations that lead to opponents. I’m choosing to use the weapons as passages instead of inventory items to streamline my coding. The inventory feature is going to be used for the objects required to win and return magic back into the world, so I eliminated a bit of the confusing bits of the code that might bog me down.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Ray Bradbury

Luckily, I practically have everything coded and need to just make sure the passages align before starting the description and writing legwork. I’m excited for that part though! This game is inspired by my novel that I’ve been working on since my long form fiction class, so the world is already created in my head. I’m going to save the descriptions that I use and reference them in my novel too, so this serves a dual purpose. It’s going to be fun to share bits and pieces of the kingdom I’ve forged in my mind with everyone, and I look forward to trying out the other awesome games my classmates make!

Intro to Twine Games

Veronica

So, like…Twine, am I right? I’d be lying if I said I fully understand what the hell I just did in any of those games I played, but it makes me excited to try and make my own. The first thing I wanted to research when playing with Twine was how it worked. A few websites explain it as “an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories.” I feel like that’s pretty on par with the experience I had when I played Seedship and Rage Quest.

Now, Seedship was really cool. The concept was even more intriguing than it sounded in the description, and I liked that the creator gave the AI a bit of a bias in some situations. I’m not sure if that’s even intentional, but I think it was a really good way of showing that the creators of AI programs will inevitably pass on their own biases into the programs they create. Finding a potential new planet took what felt like a million years, though. I visited 26 planets before settling on one, and it still didn’t end well so hopefully you did better than me if you chose this one. It was fun to navigate through the program and actually see the consequences to actions being chosen on the left side of the screen. I really enjoyed the challenging thoughts and dilemmas the game provided when asking about the cultural/scientific data, passengers, and potential to tear apart the ship or make repairs. This was super creative, and it’s making me think hard about what I’d like to do for mine!

Rage Quest was interesting to say the least! I thought the comment about increasing rage after selecting to heal myself was a bit funny, like why am I mad that I’m increasing my health? But obviously I understand that it’s rage about the circumstance and situation. I love that it had the medieval, fantasy feel to it with the terminology, images on the screen, and actions. The plot was really cool to unravel as I kept going onward through the questions which I was really hoping for. And the imagery? I mean, come on! You’ve got to have detailed imagery for something like a Twine game. I totally recommend giving this one a shot, too.

Intro to Games

Veronica

Now why in the hell do we have to ruin everything by putting it in a box? We have to categorize every aspect of our lives and break things apart so they can be better understood, and for what? Our brains are wired that way I guess, and my first instinct when reading our article over digital storytelling was to say “Why can’t we just appreciate things for what they are?” There’s so much irony in that because I’m 100% one of the first people to probably ask why, how, where, what, who – you get it, all of those things. But I’m also having a hard time deciding if I agree with the narratology or ludology perspective, so I’ll have to think more on that.

As a kid, I was never really into video games because my younger brother forbade me from touching his PS2. I was even gifted my own PS2 game (none other than the Powerpuff Girls: Relish Rampage), and he was kind enough to let me watch him play it. I settled for computer games and dove right into things like the Sims, Need for Speed: Underground (click it, go ahead), and Neopets. Nonetheless, whatever games I got to play had great storytelling and streamlined tasks that were executed quite well. I loved the graphics and skipped all of the tutorials so I could figure things out on my own. I think that’s what people enjoy about video games, being able to just explore something they’ve never seen or done before.

The Powerpuff Girls: Relish Rampage All Cutscenes | Full Game Movie (PS2, GCN) - YouTube

I actually really liked playing Oxenfree and The Stanley Parable quite a bit, and they were both easy games to play in intervals. And honestly, I hate when you play a game that feels like you can’t pause it or take a break. The Stanley Parable was chaotic, and that shit was even more anxiety-inducing when I was high. It was interesting to see how confusing everything began to feel the longer I explored through the offices and rooms. I also really enjoyed Oxenfree for the most part, but it sucks that it doesn’t save your exact place in the game if you have to exit or refresh, so you end up starting over a bit. The graphics were nice, and the story was clearly going in a certain direction but the little bit of freedom to pick responses and move around is nice. Overall, both were fun things to do while on break, and I’m excited to get further in the plot in Oxenfree!

Podcast Progress

Veronica

One of the most interesting things about the fall of Vine is that it was unable to keep up with the monetization demands created by other social media platforms. Advertisements have been seeping into every aspect of media possible since their creation. This really set in the true reason why Vine failed, and I remember when it was happening in real time. My friends were concluding that Vine sold out to a larger company, and the creator just wanted the money, but it’s definitely appearing to be more complex than that. 

Our podcast research shows that the popular content creators rejected the proposed changes to Vine in a meeting with the executives to discuss the future of the app, causing the monetization of Vine to fail. There were other platforms at the time like YouTube that could house longer videos than the typical 6-second standard for Vine, so the need didn’t fit the wants of the creators. They wanted to keep using Vine for what everyone loved it for, and I wish this could be how “influencers” handled things today. They often utilized social media in ways that the audience loved instead of using it as income (though we all know of some Vine creators who moved on to YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok). And back then, 6 seconds was just enough time to be comical, and quotes from Vines are still used today.

Floral Vine Quote : r/Embroidery

Another thing I’ve been discovering while researching is how much influence Vines continue to have. People will comment on TikTok videos with the phrase “vine energy” and somehow, some way, we as the audience just get it. It makes total sense no matter the genre of video, too. And speaking of Vine in recent events, the hot goss’ in October last year featured Elon Musk proposing the return of the app after he bought Twitter. Of course, like he sorta always does, he talks a lot of talk about it then lets it die out. Does he do this for attention and buzz? Yeah, probably. Its potential revival is definitely something I didn’t know about Vine and learned in my research, so stay tuned for more details in Go Off I Guess: The Rise and Fall of Vine.

Podcast Structure and Brainstorming

Veronica

Go Off I Guess: The Rise and Fall of Vine! It’s time to nail down a podcast topic, and man, I’m excited. Alexia and I will be tackling this topic together, so I hope you’re ready to feel like a fly on the wall because we’re passionate about this. We’re looking to connect the monetization of TikTok and YouTube that exists today as a result of Vine. The driving question: Why did Vine shut down? The closed question: Why was Vine so popular? The open question: What events could have led to Vine’s closure? This will intentionally be only about Vine and will not pertain to its creation or other popular social media during its time. There are a lot of resources on the internet about this topic, and we’ll be using YouTube, articles, and podcasts for the most part. We want to remain neutral with our observations, so we want to take a look at some of the creators and their successes/failures since Vine. 

As for engaging the audience, I mean, it’s Alexia and I. I feel like our energy is electric, and we can share our excitement in a way that the audience wants to learn more about our topic. I know she mentioned using Vines as sound bites for transitions, and I’m all for it. They’re used in conversations like transitions anyway, so we may as well stay on par for the assignment. I’m not picky about this part to be honest. I’m hoping that the audience can remember that we share small bits of universal experiences more often than we think. Vine was a resource that showed us change can be both good and bad, too.

Vine/meme Sticker - Etsy Israel

I’ve outlined a different podcast episode below as an exercise for this week, and I feel like this is something that made it really easy for me to quickly think of ideas for my own podcast. On the podcast episode “Sad Ass Songs” from Dolly Parton’s America, our hosts explore the work of Dolly Parton and the way she unifies her fans. Here’s my outline:

  • Introduce Dolly Parton with praise and a personal connection to her from Jad who grew up in Tennessee. 
  • Mention the election in 2016 and Dolly’s presence on Twitter during that time. Jad also provides a personal story of meeting people of all kinds who adore Dolly and saw her on tour. They are even polite regardless of their differences.
  • Jad notes that Dolly is a unifier with support. He tells a story of meeting Dolly (she’s friends with his dad) and asking her what she thought about the way she brings people together.
  • Jad talks about having Dolly in the studio in 2017. There are some audio snippets from that included discussion of her musical talents, her early music, and how she used to write “sad ass songs.” 
  • Jad interrupts the archived clip to discuss why he made that choice. 
  • Plays a clip from Dolly on Letterman being able to one up with her own statements.
  • Another clip from Helen Morales discussing Dolly the sheep’s name choice. Jad asks her about these instances.
  • Jad mentions the way that Dolly was seen as a joke maker. 
  • Dolly talks about the story behind “Daddy Come and Get me”
  • Dolly talks about “The Bridge”
  • Dolly opens up about her hardships in the 80’s and relationship with God/suicide
  • Dolly talks about women losing children. Audio clip from “Down from Dover” and the archived interview plays.
  • Audio clip from Jad calling a journalist named Paul Slade about the Knoxville girl who was killed and thrown in the Knoxville River.
  • Discussion of Dolly’s ability to speak about experiences she has never had between Jad and Robert Orman.
  • Dolly’s first interview in 1967 briefly plays. Helen Morales is brought back in to discuss Dolly.
  • Advertisement.
  • Jad and Shima briefly do a re-introduction.
  • Shima provides context for Sarah Smarsh’s idea that Dolly is the OG 3rd-wave feminist.
  • A clip plays of Jad talking to Dolly about this. Shima and Jad discuss further.
  • Audio clip of a conversation with Sarah’s grandma, Betty, who was born in 1945.
  • “A Coat of Many Colors” plays
  • Jad reflects on more of the interview with Shima then moves on to the next time he saw Dolly, clip plays from that time
  • Credits and Final Wrap Up

The outline of podcasts seem to vary, and I think that’s why they’re such a popular outlet. There’s always an introduction and a conclusion that summarize the topic. I found it interesting that this podcast included a lot of audio clips, and that was a bit jarring but I think they did their transitions well-enough. I enjoyed the way they reflected their topics in the audio. If they’re going to include so many archived clips, they’d absolutely have to be relevant for listeners to keep on. The songs were a nice touch, too. I also felt like there was a good balance of summary, quoting, and discussion of the topic. Overall, I really liked listening to it and I can truly say I learned something about Dolly Parton that I didn’t know before.

Intro to Podcasts

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A couple of years ago, I drove to Iowa for my friend’s bachelorette party and arrived at 3am after stopping to put air in the tires of my mom’s 2010 Honda CRV about four times along the way. Podcasts were the only thing that kept me going, and I listened to one about true crime before feeling a little spooked at midnight in the middle of pitch black farmland. Needing to laugh, I threw on Trixie and Katya’s The Bald and the Beautiful and made it safely to her house. 

“I’ve got my little microphone, my cigarette burning, and I’m at my coffee table with no pants ready to talk about my life.”

Katya on The Bald and the Beautiful episode 37, “Inside Katya”

This was back in 2020 and led to one of the most chaotic weekends of my life. Since then, podcasts have become so ingrained in our culture that the options have greatly expanded — even audiobooks have risen the ranks of popularity. Technology has made it easier to listen to things on the go which has undoubtedly contributed to their success. People listen to and love good, compelling stories. The reader of the books and speakers of podcasts also bring in a wider audience. 

We all connect to displays of our lives as humans, right? That’s why we love to cry during sad, cheesy movies and feel the adrenaline rush of a horror film. And I may not rave over podcasts like some people, but I see their value. When we can universally hear a story and relate to it, there’s something special about that connection. 

Podcasts are about connecting people in the best of ways through a variety of genres. We thrive on empathy. There are podcasts for everything these days, and some people just spend time talking as friends or colleagues over topics that pertain to a universal experience or our lives as humans. Others might have a solo host that presents stories with their own voices and plotlines, or maybe they want to ramble on about their personal opinions. Either way, they’re one of the most effective forms of communication today and deserve the attention they get!