The first day at W.A.T.E.R. was one of many choices, even when telling a personal story. In honor of our theme, “Write Your Own Adventure,” the writers wrote about themselves (in the second person of course), fixating on key decisions they made in their life. But before revealing what they did in those situations, they offered up to their peers choices. In this way, we not only go to know the facts about those around us, but also learned something about their personalities.
From their we began our in-depth exploration of the CYOA genre. We broke into pairs and read some classic CYOA books to several endings before we began talking about the unique features of this medium… it’s not a genre as, one young writer pointed out. It’s a medium.
And then we began brainstorming our own stories. We did a Pitch Session, a unique style of group brainstorming that comes straight from one of TBAWP’s other summer programs, W.I.N.D. and then armed with our new ideas we finished the day by starting off our CYOA stories… right up until the first decision point. Tomorrow, things get complicated!
Another tradition stolen from another TBAWP program, I.C.E: Lesson Learned and Quote of the Day. What follows are writer nominated quotes and lessons and facilitator chosen winners.
Lesson Learned: If you Arne’t sure about an idea yet, don’t sit for along time and overthink it. Wait and it’ll come later.
Quote of the Day: “Oh, and I want there to be a magic panda.” -Ben
