New Ways to Tell Stories With Tech Tools
Biff Barnes
Stories To Tell is in the business of helping people to tell their stories. So, I’m always interested when I see something new in the world of storytelling.
I want to pass on two innovative attempts to use the tools of new technologies to tell stories both of which arrived in my in-box today. Each is interesting. See what you think.
The first is Qwikstory which was featured in a post on Mashable, the internet news blog that bills itself as Social Media News and Web Tips, titled Quikstory Puts a Creative Social Spin on Storytelling.
The concept is simple. Harness the penchant for social media to tell stories. The Qwikstory site explains:
Qwikstory.com is a new social media site where people come together to create and write a story about a particular topic (or no topic at all). Here's the catch - once you start a story, you have only 1,000 characters to tell your part of the story and you can't continue the story until at least one person has added to your Qwikstory.
Founder B.E. McFadden told Mashable, “I wanted to come up with a concept that combines the good aspects of Facebook and Twitter while also trying to give people the opportunity to interact with their friends in a creative way.”
McFadden says he is hoping to add a feature that will aggregate the entire story upon completion into a printable or e-book format. But mostly, McFadden hopes his site will encourage the fun, imagination and inspiration he used to experience while making stories up with his friends and “just seeing what direction they went in.”
I learned about the second new tool on Twitter, where one of our new followers, Seattle Tales, sent us a message inquiring, “Are you in the "emotobooks" Revolution, too? gritcitypublications.com.” I wasn’t so I checked it out.
Grit City bills emotobooks as, the first fiction medium, designed exclusively for tablets and smartphones.”
Ron Gavalik, who founded Grit City in June, 2011, seeks to create books which, “…deliver our vision of fast, exhilarating story experiences in 30 to 60 minutes.” The result has, “…a unique style and structure, unlike any other entertainment form. Abstract, emotionally provocative illustrations are tied into each story to depict what characters feel during peak moments of tension. These expressionistic elements provide both a cerebral and visual stimulation, which enhance the impact of the experience.”
Grit City says, “The long-term goal of the publishing group is to fill the catalog with an array of fun-to-consume popular (genre) fiction in the form of EmotoSerials and EmotoSingles. GCP seeks to reach those who wouldn’t normally read traditional fiction. Emotobooks span the gap between gamers, comic fans, television/movie enthusiasts, and average readers.”
Post a comment and let us know what you think of these new approaches to storytelling.