Welcome to Trans-Media Writing

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine convinced me to take a free online class with her on trans-media writing. It doesn't have anything to do with LGBTQ+  narratives or writing transgender characters. It's actually a writing process that allows for a story to be told on multiple platforms.

An example might be how Pokemon was an anime, video game, card game, and manga. You didn't have participate in the card games to enjoy the anime, but some people did. Each platform was tied to a single world built on the idea that kids could battle their "pocket" monsters that could do cool moves depending on the monster's "type" (grass, flying, fire, water, etc.).

Pokemon has since built a huge empire and is still producing stories and merchandise.

One of  my favorite Pokemon

The idea of trans-media writing isn't new. In fact a lot of the examples from this course went back to the 70s and 80s. However, specifically developing stories around the idea that they will jump from one media consumption to another is becoming more common.

I'm not going to summarize the course or give you guys a point by point retelling of why trans-media writing is cool or the future of story telling (I don't know if it is). The course is free on Coursera with an option to purchase a completion certificate for $50 (I did not select this option) and runs on a monthly basis (there are assignments which are peer graded).

Though I came into the course blind, I found myself having a lot of fun developing how I'd tell a story across multiple media platforms and make it interactive for my readers. Having an interactive portion of the story is apparently very important in trans-media writing.

Eventually, I developed the idea of having an interactive or digital story (like the digital novels you might find on Steam) for kids to chose their own adventures (remember those books). It would have some game elements such as having multiple story endings, allowing the player to see how their choices play out, and allowing for multiple play-thrus. There would be a tie-in novel with the "true" ending of the story and a website for social interaction from me and the audience.

Though I have a general outline of the story, I have no way to execute my ambitious idea of making it digital - not without a lot of computer programming and art classes.

However, developing the story for the class was fun and challenged me to think outside of the box when it came to story telling.

There's no denying that I prefer the traditional narrative (and holding a physical book), but I think that trans-media story telling is going to continue to grow. Advertisers love it and big movies often come with an app or game that ties into the story.

Sometimes trans-media writing can even resurrect a canceled show like how Firefly finished its narrative as a comic book or Star Trek's many, many novels.

There are a lot of possibilities when it comes to telling a story. Which method will you chose?

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week.