Week 11 25/05/16 Wednesday

It has been decided that the story will have the theme of the fear of neglect and loneliness. How can I convey this through my interactive comic? How can it help children with this issue?

A rudimentary idea is that the protagonist is constantly being left alone by her parents, and therefore she searches other company (similar to “Coraline”). The protagonist is very attached to her computer (like most children today), but one day it breaks down and she is forced to find other stuff to do.

I want the readers to make tough decisions during reading. Moralistic decisions that will alter the story, but I don’t want the narrative to be too complicated either, as it will be difficult to manage.

I was thinking that the fear of loneliness can be represented by the monster, or the "big bad". And it is something that appears when the protagonist is not occupied by some sort of activity or when she is alone. I've decided to bring back the old greenhouse, and it is where the monster dwells. The monster is something that lurks just behind the protagonist, something that she knows is there, but she can't really pin point what or where is really is (I'm ranting at this point, but I just want ideas to flow freely right now). The monster ensnares the girl's family, as a symbolism that work and other priorities have made her family too busy to be with her. The girl then faces her fear and burns the monster, freeing her family from its claws. 

I think there should be some educative information in the in the beginning of the story. Information that will further the narrative later on, or affect the decisions made. An idea is that when the girl tries to look for things to do, she can learn the names of the roses, which the readers will be required to remember in order to journey further in later parts of the narrative (I was thinking that these could be presented as challenges later on; if the reader doesn't get it right the first time, they enter a different path. No second chances). There are many things to consider when writing a branching narrative. I don't really want any "dead ends" in my story, as they seem rather lazy and meaningless. For my project, I am looking to develop a couple of narratives, and create the illusion of a multicursal story line. Goodbrey's works are a good reference point, but his comics are mostly single-paneled and they are all static. I hope to incorporate animation and sound into my project, and the interactive elements are what affects the narrative, which are then determined by the readers (i.e, certain items picked up by the character will have an impact on the story later on). 

I think I might sleep on these ideas for now. I've tried to continue with my narrative, but I am just not happy with it. My supervisor has been unwell the past couple of weeks, so I haven't been receiving a lot of feedback. But nevertheless, I will push forward.

It rained again today; so I went and coloured this piece.