Writings and Other Creative Work

No, that is not the name of this week's game. It is an aside where I'm going to talk about other creative projects I'm pursuing or wish to pursue.

First is using Twitter as a medium to tell stories. I was bouncing around the idea of trying to write a short story using the popular web service for a while, but after getting one and actually experiencing the limit 140 characters have I almost wanted to give up. Then I had an epiphany. A story told by three different characters in the same world, experiencing the same story over three different time spans. I also wanted to be able to justify only using 140 characters or less to tell the story. The story is chronologically out of synch. Sounds too confusing? Bear with me.

Its a sci-fi horror story about an alien invasion. The three characters are the Decaying Astronaut, the Infected One and the Operator. The Decaying Astronaut is floating out in the black, devoid of ship and hope. His oxygen reserves are running low and he is fairly certain he is going to die. He is trying to preserve what oxygen he has left and thinking is getting more and more difficult for him. He'll be telling the origin of the invasion, when he isn't having flashbacks to happier times in his life. His story is told over the course of the few days he has left to live. The pain and lack of air justify the 140 characters.

The Infected is a man in the woods of Michigan infected by the alien parasite. His story is what is happening on Earth during the now. It is told over a longer time period than the astronaut, as he is going to be experiencing weeks and possible months as the infection's host while the Astronaut only has a few days left. The justification of 140 characters here is his frantic thoughts as he tries to piece together what is going on and the reader is likely to gain insight into the parasite's mind as well.

The Operator is locked down in a secure government facility. He is trying to monitor whatever broadcasts are left after the invasion. He is our eye on the rest of the world. If the Astronaut is the past and The Infected is the now then the Operator takes on a kind of future. His posts are days, weeks, months and years apart, don't worry it'll say when. He is keeping a log. The lack of power in the facility he is in is why he can't use the computer for long and justifies the 140 characters.

Yeesh. I've created the Twitter accounts and I want the story going for a while before I release them. Lets see if I can pull this off.

The second, smaller and easy bit, is that I recently wrote a page for a Horror Anthology comic called Horror Haikus. It needed to be a one page, seventeen bubbled or captioned story. Its a little rough grammatically speaking and there are few typos, but it gets the message across and it will be cleaned up soon. You can read the draft here:HorrorAnth1.2

Alright. That sums this up. I'll be back Sunday with another game. I know you just can't wait.