Working with Story Arcs

Emotional Shapes

I identified the emotional shapes of my 3 favorite stories that I picked in Week 2, drew them out and annotated the key moments that create those shapes.

Emotional Shape for *Look Both Ways* - Sorry for the wiggly line!

3-Act Story Spine

I created a 3-act story spine of my favorite "What if.. " scenario, and filled it in with the beats for each of the acts. If you are interested in more details of my “What if..” scenario, feel free to check my previous design blog!

My “What If…”

“What if Natalie wants to stay in Paris with Adriana during La Belle Epoque, where the technology Natalie uses to create animation doesn’t exist?”

Act I: Setup

Exposition: Natalie, who just graduated from college in 2022, recently time-traveled back in 1920s with this guy named Gil. One night she again time-traveled with Gil and his lover Adriana, but this time back in 1890s, when Paris was in La Belle Epoque.

Inciting Incident: Natalie was so amazed by the arts in this time period that she decided to stay in 1890s with Adriana, letting Gil go back to future Paris alone.
Plot Point One: Now Natalie is with her new friends. One person says, “So, what do you do?” Natalie says “Well, I’m an animator.” Everyone looks very confused, then Natalie realized there was no animation back in 1890s.

Act II: Confrontation

Rising Action: Natalie is devastated, yet her new friends in 1890s are optimistic and don’t understand why she is sad. “So, what ‘animation’ means?” they ask. As Natalie tries to explain what it is, one person says, “Oh, you mean flip book!”
Midpoint: Natalie realizes that there is one way that she can stay in 1890s AND make animation, which is her passion. If there is no animation that she had in 2022, why doesn’t she at least try to make one back in 1890s?
Plot Point Two: Back in college, Natalie learned that the first animation was made in 1908 by this guy named Émile Cohl in one of her animation design class. She decided to start from making flip books which appeared in 1868 until she has a chance to meet Émile.

Act III: Resolution

Pre Climax: Time passed, and now Natalie made a name in Paris by making flip book and some arts. Although there is no technology she was using in 2022, Natalie never gave up on pursuing her career in animation.
Climax: When 1908 came, she had learned how to make use of “old” ways to create animation, and she collaborated with Émile Cohl, who made Fantasmagorie, considered the first fully animated film ever made.
Denouement: Gil is back in present Paris all alone. He is at a small book store, hoping to find a book to distract himself from the fact that he left his lover and his new friend in 1890s who is dead at that point. When he was almost leaving the store, one book caught his attention. In the book cover, there is a picture of the girl who he just had a wonderful adventure with, and the title says, “Natalie Bennett, The First Animator in the History”.

From User to Character

“How can you predict the goals and actions of a user, when you don’t know anything about the user as a person?” (p.99)

I strongly agree with this part, because literally how can we be sure that what we are “assuming” as a user’s goals or actions actually be true? That’s is like starting with a white board with nothing written on it, and some people would say that “how wonderful it is to have unlimited opportunities to explore,” others think that “well, I am lost.” As the text says, without being conscious of the user as a character, it would be impossible to be involved with the user, especially when the user’s experiences are far from our own. We can imagine and create experience for someone even when we don’t know them at all, but we do need to do lots of research so that we can have a broad idea of who we’re are designing an experience for.

“The dimensions include both present and past, both self and relations to others. Considering these dimensions can help and facilitate the creation of rounded characters.” (p.103)

I thought this idea was very interesting because while we would connect their action with their past or past experience when we actually interact with other people in real life, we are more likely to just see the information we are provided when we look at a character which we do not know personally in real life. By using a character’s past, we can create more depth in our stories. What made this person to act like this? What kind of relationship this person has with that character? There are so many question to ask!

“Horton has, like Egri, an emphasis on society, location and era which influence the individual that is to be created. ‘Knowing the place and time makes knowing the character much easier.'‘” (p.103)

When we create a character, we tend to, at least I do, focus on their personality or the relationship with people surrounding them. However, it is almost essential to know the importance of knowing the place and time, such as society, location and era as the quote says, to capture their goals and obstacles (pain points). For example, when we just look at a female character who is trying to be financially and socially independent from her family, it sounds common to those who’s in their 20s right now. However, we still don’t know which era she is in. What if she’s in 1860s Massachusetts during the Civil War like March sisters in the loved novel Little Women? Now having a goal to be financially and socially independent from her family sounds like a completely different story, right?

Thanks for reading! :)