Dim's Write Stuff

Stressed Anxious Nervous Drunk Overtired Suffering from Tourette Syndrome? Answer: A Streamer No, not a party streamer, but a video gamer who regularly broadcasts live using the Twitch platform . And while this little black duck may be more inclined to dance around with streamers in her hair rather than pretend to understand the online world of live gamer streaming, she can now claim to have yet another SM platform that she barely comprehends! The good news is, she shares this new found space of interactive entertainment with the clever clogs at Story City and did so in hilarious fashion recently as part of their weekly Adventure Hour eps . Let me explain. Several moon dips and rises ago, I was part of an immersive, interactive storytelling project with Story City. The result was a WA Premier's Book Award shortlisted locative digital narrative cheekily entitled, The Chapel of Unlove . This immersive, choose your own styled, multi ending adventure is a slapstick, riotous romp throug...

Wild undiluted adventure is the theme throughout this set of exciting Choose Your Own Ending ! books by the unstoppable, Jack Heath . This series has been around for a few years now but it never grows less thrilling to experience. And that’s exactly what reading the Countdown To Danger series is – an experience, because like most great ‘ you choose’ adventures, YOU are the hero and responsible for everything that happens from the minute you begin your adventure. Similar in fast-paced style to Heath’s Danger … Minutes series for older readers, this collection rewards the reader with heart-stopping multiple ending scenarios that play out in a finite time frame, 30 minutes to be precise. That’s not a lot of time to save the world or your mates but it sure does ramp up the intensity of these stories. I love the multi-ending aspect of this style of storytelling because just like in real life, not every outcome is enjoyable or good or anticipated. I mean who wants to be eaten by a giant ...

Are you a not-for-profit, academic with social research, or other type of social enterprise trying to do good in the world? On behalf of Story City , I'm super excited to announce the launch of the Story City Social Impact Projects . Their award-winning platform and team are volunteering their time and resources to bring your stories and the stories of those you help to life via interactive experiences, providing you with the ability to literally put the public in the shoes of your cause. Whether you help homeless veterans, residents of a region in historic conflict, a countryside newly ravished by fire, or refugees without access to education, if you’re looking to help marginalised people and those in need to have their voice heard, Story City can help. Find out more about the unique Story City Social Impacts Projects  offer and its  community mentors available by visiting their website . Applications are now open to projects across the world and close Ma...

Winter marks the release of yet more of my picture book stories into the wide blue yonder. This is an exciting time for me and those lucky enough to be flying Virgin Airlines, plugged into the Children's Inflight Entertainment program for that is where you will find my stories, as part of the new Kindergo immersive story app . They are stories aimed for younger audiences, bouncing with fun and frivolity and like my previously published digital narrative, The Chapel of Unlove on the Story City App in 2016, fulfil a maturing desire to expand my repertoire and use of cross media platforms to tell my stories. But what exactly is cross media story telling? What are the various platforms to exploit and how can creators used to pen and ink utilise them? Story Telling Across Platforms with Jyotirmoy Saha This session was moderated by the blatantly cheeky, creative industry crackerjack, Marc Checkley. Between them, they described the conception and development of a Filipino based ...

The argy-bargy that sometimes accompanies the gratuitous use of the terminology 'awards' on social media profiles is entertainment I often find chuckle worthy. Colour me mission brown and call me Splinters if you like, but as a habitual fence sitter, I appreciate both sides' argument: stating you are an award winning author having amassed nothing more than a feeble handful of competition placings compared with someone whose work has gained notable international or national recognition is a bit of a stretch of artistic license and one we have all indulged in from time to time, yours truly included. It does not seem to matter that those very competitions you so diligently entered and conquered no less touted themselves as 'Awards' in the first place. The causal observer may not distinguish the semantics of the situation so easily as they can the sublime subterfuge of it. Nonetheless, if you enter something and are rewarded in some fashion for it, the fact of the m...

Original artwork by Ken Best You've seen my last post telling you all about Story City , the exciting new FREE APP that takes you, the reader, to the very heart of the story, and allows you to quite literally smell the roses, or tread the pavement or in some harrowing cases, stave off mutant zombie cockroaches...well of course you have. Well, wait...there's more. Story City is based on choose-your-own adventure style storytelling that has been re-imagined specifically for the digital age. Not only are the stories compelling, entertaining and informative with something for all ages to enthuse and drool over, they also encourage exercise, curiosity and discovery. Families can do the adventures together, as can tourists or those less familiar with the public spaces they reside in. Tim Baker An eclectic collaboration of local artists, musicians, voice-over talent and writers produce these amazing adventures and now you have the chance to MEET THE LEGENDS in perso...

Accredited artwork of Ken Best No, not Christmas...well yes that is a nigh as it gets, too. But I'm talking about D-Day. In the most incredibly nutty fun - Story City way. Here's what you have to do to be able to smell the roses, join the adventure and become the hero (or villain) of your dreams. Jump on to Story City . Download the FREE Story City app to your smart phone or tablet device. Use the list or map section to browse through the stories until you find the one you’re most excited about. (I'm excited about my story, The Chapel of Unlove set on the Gold Coast in Sanctuary Cove but you can choose from stories in Brisbane , Adelaide and the Gold Coast .) Remember you must be in that location to activate that story. Select your story according to preferred genre, author, location: there are stories ranging in genres from fantasy, urban mystery, sci fi, comedy and historical romance to name but a few.  Start listening / reading your story and choosin...

Some months ago, in a flurry of over-sharing and passing on information to those within the Lit Industry, I happened upon an exciting opportunity. After duly sharing it with all and sundry, the tiny soul named, Do It who perches on my left shoulder and is in constant opposition with the joker on my right shoulder called, Don't Do It , suggested I 'give it a go', too. So very much along the same line of thinking as the awe-inspiring, Dee White (you can read about her quests to expand her writing prowess, here ), I submitted a proposal to become one of three Gold Coast writers to join the Story City team . Story City is an exciting interactive online storytelling experience that allows the reader to become fully immersed into the story. Like the perennially popular choose your own adventure style of books, where the reader makes the decisions and picks the paths the story takes, Story City users are in complete control of their destiny and thus, the story's outco...