Sci-Fi Short Story Project: Pandora's Book
Another book to publish with my class. Apparently one book was not enough, and I can agree. Even though the project was quite similar to the one we worked on before, we still went through a different process and therefore, a different product. The main difference between these two books we've published is that we now had the opportunity to explore the Science Fiction world. I can definitely say that most of us were put out of our comfort zone, and that's what made this project particularly challenging.
Preparation:
Step 1: Premise "What If?"
Before starting writing our story, we read a couple of other Sci-Fi stories to give us a sense of the level of creativity these kinds of stories have. After doing this, it was time to come up with our own creative idea for our stories. The way we did this was by writing different premises ("what if?" statements). Here are a couple of mine.
Step 3: "Seed Text" Mind Map
To create this mind map, we were divided in groups of four people. After reading a couple of real life science articles, we wrote a premise inspired by those articles, in my case we chose an article titled Nasa Spacecraft that found water on Mercury prepares to crash into planet by The Guardian. My partner and I sketched the following mind map, the only problem was that we both loved the story our premise led us to and we both wanted to develop that story for our piece. |
Step 3: Planning our story
Before starting writing our story, we first had to know what we were writing about. We were assigned graphic organizers so we could understand what the story was going to be about, in what world would it take place, what characters would be part of it and what the science behind it. Here is all my work.
Before starting writing our story, we first had to know what we were writing about. We were assigned graphic organizers so we could understand what the story was going to be about, in what world would it take place, what characters would be part of it and what the science behind it. Here is all my work.
Writing
Step 4: Down Draft
After all the research an planning, the time finally came to write the actual story. My story changed multiple times. I started off writing with one idea and ended up completely different, just like it did with the last project. At first I felt like all of those Graphic organizers were useless because my final draft was not related in any way with my graphic organizers, but then I realized that all those first ideas led to another and another and another which brought me to the final product. Since I had technical problems, I lost my final draft and, therefore, my final piece was not published in the book.
REFLECTION:
Once again, my original idea was transformed into a completely different story when I was finished. This was no surprise to me since it also happened to me on our last project. I started off with the story of a child, to a girl and it ended up being about to scientists. As I said in the introduction, even though this project was very similar to the last one, it was very different at the same time and that is mainly because most of use had to get out of our comfort zone. I had to get out of my comfort zone. I love writing, but I had never written a Sci-Fi piece, until now. I have to say that what I loved the most about this project was preparing to write a Sci-Fi story. The whole preparation process really pushed us to explore and be creative. I always associated creativity with liberal arts, but this project proved me wrong . I think that in this project I particularly struggled with turning in my final draft, because I had technical problems. The fact that my story was not published made me feel sad and disappointed. I know that sometimes things happen and nothing can be done about it, but still I feel like I could have prevented this.
FOUR WEEKS LATER
Exhibition is around the corner and I'm very proud of our book. I honestly don't think I would change anything about the project or about the process. I'm sure people will enjoy our stories as much as I have during the rehearsals.
Step 4: Down Draft
After all the research an planning, the time finally came to write the actual story. My story changed multiple times. I started off writing with one idea and ended up completely different, just like it did with the last project. At first I felt like all of those Graphic organizers were useless because my final draft was not related in any way with my graphic organizers, but then I realized that all those first ideas led to another and another and another which brought me to the final product. Since I had technical problems, I lost my final draft and, therefore, my final piece was not published in the book.
REFLECTION:
Once again, my original idea was transformed into a completely different story when I was finished. This was no surprise to me since it also happened to me on our last project. I started off with the story of a child, to a girl and it ended up being about to scientists. As I said in the introduction, even though this project was very similar to the last one, it was very different at the same time and that is mainly because most of use had to get out of our comfort zone. I had to get out of my comfort zone. I love writing, but I had never written a Sci-Fi piece, until now. I have to say that what I loved the most about this project was preparing to write a Sci-Fi story. The whole preparation process really pushed us to explore and be creative. I always associated creativity with liberal arts, but this project proved me wrong . I think that in this project I particularly struggled with turning in my final draft, because I had technical problems. The fact that my story was not published made me feel sad and disappointed. I know that sometimes things happen and nothing can be done about it, but still I feel like I could have prevented this.
FOUR WEEKS LATER
Exhibition is around the corner and I'm very proud of our book. I honestly don't think I would change anything about the project or about the process. I'm sure people will enjoy our stories as much as I have during the rehearsals.