Choose Your Own Adventure

I am shocked that I haven’t thought about doing a blog on this sooner, but it wasn’t until a few days ago I started thinking about multiple ending narratives. I personally love the idea of one major story / plot that can have many different and unique endings. And you see this kind of story in many forms of media. From video games that have many different endings based on you performance and your actions in the game. To choose your own adventure books, that base your ending by what steps you take to get to that ending.  So why do I love choose your own adventure books so much? I love them for one major reason, the immersion.

When you get the choice to pick how the story ends is great. It makes the viewer really feel like their actions matter to the world you have put them in which is a great way to immerse your audience in the world that you have created. The idea of multiple choice endings also can make your viewer think about their own morals and can also create and attachment for the character in this world that you have created.

But there is a problem with multiple choice endings. The problem comes with having too many or too little. Having to little isn’t that big of a deal. Now in some stories you can get away with two or three endings and be fine, but it nice to have a few more options. Now the real problem is having too many. 

You see if you have too many ending it can be hurtful to both you and your viewer. For you it can suck to write and create all of that but for your viewer it may overload the viewer on how to get the ending they want.

So I personally love the idea of multiple choice endings because of how it can immerse your viewer. But do be careful about how many endings you put in.

Harry Potter Just Why?

Hey you probably didn’t think you would ever see a tittle like this again. Well neither did I until I heard that a new Harry Potter book was being released, and how could I not. Almost every book friend won’t shut up about it. And it pisses me off. WARING I HAVE NEVER READ ANY HARRY POTTER BOOKS, THIS IS JUST MY RANT ABOUT WHY I DON’T THINK THERE NEEDS TO BE ANOTHER BOOK. Now that that warning has passed I am hoping that most of the basic Harry Potter fans are gone and now all I have to deal with is the Mega Harry Potter fans. Oh and if you think that there needs to be another book leave a comment, I would to read people’s reactions.

Oh Harry Potter why do you need an eighth book. J.K. Rowling you are already a millionaire why do you think you need even more money. Look I am not a Harry Potter fan by any standard but I can at least deal with the books and the fans. But when I heard an eighth book was coming out I nearly lost it.

First off the book isn’t even written by J.K. Rowling, it’s by the guys who created a play based off of the Harry Potter franchise. Which isn’t that big of deal, I actually kind of like the idea of making a play based off of a book universe and story. But the problem comes in when you are just basically taking the script of that play, turning it into a book, and then trying to sell it as a new book. It’s just horrible.

That and the other thing is I don’t think the Harry Potter world needs another book. You already have an extremely popular 7 book series, and even more successful 8 movie franchise, an entire flipping theme park based on the world, and another set of movies that are supposed to be coming out some time soon. So I don’t feel that Harry Potter needs another adventure.

Look I may not be the biggest Harry Potter fan out there, but I mean I still enjoy the idea of the series. It was a part of a lot of people my age’s childhoods. So this rant to day was just leading to one point that I want to give to all of my Harry Potter fans. Just don’t get your hopes up. (That and there are a lot of books better than Harry Potter).      

The Wonderful World Of Comic Books

Oh now that I am of that huge series about play writing I can finally move on to something else, maybe comic books? See, with all of these new comic book movies and T.V shows coming out I feel so out of the loop, so I have finally started getting into comic books, and now I am hooked. The amazing colors and designs, the great story, I am just upset I never got into comic books sooner. So this blog is mainly just going to be talking about the wonderful world of comic books.

See the first reason I love comics is because they call tell the same story and old book can but they can do it in such a different way. Now this isn’t me saying that books can’t tell good stories, it’s me saying that comics can just tell the same story in a way that I enjoy more. While books are mainly stuck to just words and maybe a few diagrams here and there, comic books have so much more to work with. They can have a story that doesn’t just rely on words. Comics can use pictures, and colors and all of that jazz to make their stories feel more lifelike.

Now books and comics still have many similarities. They both tell elegantly crafted stories, with beautiful dialogue but again comic books do something that I find more appealing. With books that have to tell you in long boring sentences who is talking and saying what, and also has to create this world that it is trying to tell you with only words. Now comics don’t have to tell you who is speaking because of their creation of speech bubbles. See I think the idea of speech bubbles is brilliant because then you don’t have to worry so much about telling your reader who is talking, and at what time.

Now please do not take this the wrong way there is still something that I don’t fully like about comic books and that is their length. See with most books you pay 20$ and you get 300 to upwards of 1000 pages to read. But with comic books you pay about 5-10$ and only get about 20-30 pages maybe.

So comic books aren’t the best type of literature in the world. But I love them because there different. They take the idea of the normal every day book, and change the way that we read them. 

How to Pick a Piece for Speech Contest

WARNING, IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IHSSA OR SPEECH YOU CAN SKIP THE FIRST PARAGRAPH.

So in my state we have a thing called IHSSA (Iowa High School Speech Association) which is basically a giant competition which includes everyone in the state of Iowa. So the way that speech works is that depending on if you are doing an individual category of if you are in a group event you will pick a piece to work on practice and then preform for competition (this also can change depending on what category you are in). When you start competing you start at districts which is where about 70 schools come and compete. At competition you preform you have one judge and are rated on how well your performance was (1=Excellent t 2=Good 3=Fair 4=Disqualification) the way you move on from districts is that you have to get a 1 in your performance. After districts you get about two weeks to relax and prepare for state which is the next level, (the reason why I bring this up now is because my high school is hosting state). State is obviously a lot harder than districts. Instead of competing against 70 schools your competing against about 130, instead of 1 judge you have three, and the only way you have a chance of moving on is getting a minimum of at least two 1’s. The reason I say chance is because you then have to get nominated by your judges to move on to the top of the top all-state. I am not going too to go into the process of how they decide who goes to all-state is so complicated to explain even I don’t really understand it. So if you do get picked for all-state there are two possible categories of all-state preforming and non-preforming. Non-preforming all-state is that you were good enough to go to all-state but there wasn’t enough room for you to compete. And finally all-state preforming, this is the best of the best come to compete, and it is also the hardest to win, because instead of you getting judged base off of scores, you get judged based on the judges preference. And if you get all the way to all-state and win, what do you get? A banner, that’s it (you also get bragging for the rest of the year but that’s about it).

So you’re probably wondering why I went through so much trouble to give you that huge explanation of what IHSSA is and what it is all about, well I am going to help you. I personally know that a lot of states around the country have something very similar to IHSSA, and I feel like helping out my fellow competitors. But how am I going to help? Well I am going to give you some advice on how to pick your piece to perform for speech. And we are going to go step by step both for large group and individual categories.

Individual categories

Step 1: Pick something you can relate to.

In almost every individual category you can pick what piece you want to preform so if you are pick something that is close to you. This can comedy, drama, anything really.

Step 2: Make sure it matches the category that you are in.

This is a very simple point make sure that it fits the category.

Step 3: Make sure it’s short or can be edited down.

There are time limits to every speech category so do make sure that the piece you do pick is within the time requirements of the piece.

Step 4: Make personal edits to the piece.

Now this isn’t saying that completely re-write the piece (which is something you can technically do), but to help make the piece more personal add something to it to make it your own.

And that’s it for individual categories now on to large group categories.

Large Group

Step 1: Find a piece that works to every one’s strengths.

When it comes to large group a lot of the times your director will pick the piece for your group but if for some reason they don’t find a piece that really works to a least one strength of every person in the group.

Step 2: Make sure it matches the category that you are in.

This again is a very simple point, make sure that it fits the category.

Step 3: Make sure it’s short or can be edited down.

Again there are time limits to every speech category so do make sure that the piece you do pick is within the time requirements of the piece.

And that is really all the advice I have for picking pieces in large group and individual Speech contest. I do know that this was a very long blog post but I felt that if I didn’t give an explanation of what exactly speech was, a lot of people would have been extremely confused. 

Play Writing in Depth (Part 7: Final)

Welcome back to Play Writing in Depth part 7. Yes this is finally the last part of this 7 part series, so your probably wondering, what is this last part about? So this part is going to be mainly talking about everything that has to deal with getting your script out there into the world. So you have finally created this masterpiece of a script so what do you do now. Well there are a few options for you.

1. (this is mainly for high school students only) ask your school to help you put it on.

If you personally have been with the blog for a long time you will remember me talking about my school’s student directed one acts way back in the blog writing and rejection. Even though my script wasn’t selected it is still a great way for you to get your play out there. It also serves a second purpose which is allowing students to try their hand at directing instead of acting.

2. Find a local acting troupe to put on your show.

Many, many small acting troupes are always looking for new shows to put on. So if you go to them and give them your script they would most likely be willing to think about it at least. Now with this tactic you do have to be willing to get rejected from time to time but if it does work out for you, it could end up being a very good thing.

3. Try entering a competition.

See this is a little difficult because finding the competitions. See I know of a few play writing competitions around the country so if you can find one throw yourself in there and see what happens, but do be careful about being denied again.

4. Put it on yourself.

See this is the hardest of the four methods but it still possible. Now the problem comes with finding everything, a stage, actors, tech, and etc. But if you can pull it off it is the most satisfying of the four ways.

So that is it. This is the conclusion of the series Play Writing in Depth. I do thank you guys for sticking through this 7 part series but I felt that was how many parts it needed and I truly could have done even more parts but I knew by then it would have gotten really old and really boring.    

Play Writing in Depth (Part 6: Props and Set)

Welcome back to Play Writing in Depth. So this part is kind of going to be an addition to part 5 but in much less of a rant format. This part is mainly going to be talking about how you should always be thinking of your sets and props during the entire writing process.

When focusing on your set and props there is a list in which you need to go through.

1. Does it work with my setting?

Imagine your play takes place in 1920’s England and all of your cast is sitting around a table having a nice brunch and a cup of tea. Then during the conversation one of your character I-phones goes off and it’s part of the script. Does that make any sense to you? Now the exception to a situation like that is if it is a completely comedic play and that what used for comedy, but still try to keep you props in the correct time period. The same thing goes for props. You would see the same cast of characters having tea at a sports bar in 1920’s England, again the same rule applies for comedy.

2. Make sure your sets and props are somewhat reasonable.

So you this amazing script with space battles, and fights on top of volcanoes while mid-explosion, with people flying all in the back ground. Yes that sound extremely amazing but two questions on how are you going to afford all of that and two how are your techies going to build all of that. Now maybe some of that is possible but like what I said in my last rant techies aren’t builder gods who can do everything that you desire and the snap of a finger. It take time, money, energy, man-hours, and a huge amount of experience to do all of that. And it most likely isn’t going to look exactly like what you think it will.

So there is my very, very basic list of what to keep in mind when writing scripts with set and props. So my next post will finally be the end of this series. And I can hear all of the cheers from anyone who actually read my blogs. But next post will mainly focus on all of the little things that I missed over this very long series, so see you then.  

Play Writing in Depth (Part 5: Techies)

Welcome to part 5 of Play writing in Depth. So finally we have gotten out of the actual writing portion of this series now the next few parts are mainly going to be focusing on the technical aspects of plays, and me being a trained in the technical arts, this will be hopefully very easy. So this part is mainly me going to be ranting about what you need in your scripts to make the lives of people like me a butt ton load easier.

First off write in your script what you want for you stupid props.

I cannot tell you how many times in my three years as a techie (technical person) I have had to ask “so what do you want for props?” and what is the usual response that I get. “Oh I don’t know I will just let you decide”. First things first you never let a techie decide what to do for props because you will either get one of two outcomes. One basically the most basic set of props that you need, or two the most elegant designed props. And what is usual response that most techies get after showing off the props they have created, “that’s not what I wanted”. That’s about it, and you don’t understand how much that angers us. Because you told us to pick it and now you don’t like it.

Secondly know what you need for music and mics.

Again I have learned that when it comes to sound and mics no one understands. What most of us have to do is watch the show at least three or four times to figure out what people need for mics and what sound goes where. So if you want to make your techies life a lot easier tell us how many mics you need not want need and write in where your music and sound effects go.

Finally do not mess with a techies stuff. (I know this doesn’t have to do with actual writing but it’s just something that needs to be said).  

Oh now if you really want to piss off techie do one of two things. Move a techies props/stuff, or two not tell us where it is. This is the one thing that so many actors do and don’t understand how much it pisses us off. It would be like a techie taking an actors costume and not telling them where we put it. You don’t understand I am pretty sure that some techies have hit lists of which actors touch our stuff without permission.

So if you want your show to run smoothly please treat your techies with some level of respect because if not we can very easily make your shows a living nightmare. Well there is that rant next we move onto more on stage and props.