Blog Post

(set: $hours_to_post_due to 24)(set: $topics_to_visit to (a: "storytelling", "interactive", "argument")) You sit upright with a jolt. It is a Wednesday night, and your Clio Wired blog post is due tomorrow. Although you had two hours of free work time earlier today, you spent that time editing Wikipedia instead of working your blog post. Classic blunder. You've just stopped grading papers, because you realized you //need// to start working on it now. Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours. What do you do? [[Start writing the blog post]] like a normal human being. [[Decide to embed a Twine game]] in the place of the blog because... actually, I don't why you would do this. It's more work and you have other assignments due this week. [[Procrastinate]].

(set: $making_twine_game to false)You sit down to start writing your blog post. Thank god you didn't decide to do it as a Twine game, haha... that would've been crazy. What do you want to write about first? Your love of [[interactive media]]. How non-linear narratives affect our ability to [[make an argument]]. The [[relationship between storytelling and history]]. Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.

(set: $making_twine_game to true) Putting aside any semblance of logic, you decide to try to embed a Twine game in your blog post. You do some research and find a blog post about a plugin for hosting Twine game in blog posts, though some of the stuff around it seems a little dated. [[Give it a try|Try the plugin]]? Or try [[something else|Try hosting another way]]? (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

(set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 2) Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours. (if: $hours_to_post_due >= 20)[ Well. That was a collosal waste of time. ](else-if: $hours_to_post_due >= 12)[ You're starting to get a little nervous. Better start writing! ](else-if: $hours_to_post_due >= 2)[ You either have to start doing this now, or get an ADHD diagnosis. There's no in between. How have you wasted this much time? You gotta do something ](else-if: $hours_to_post_due >= 2)[ Oh my god it's so over. It's never been this over. There's no time left to do this. ](else:)[ (go-to: "Game over") ] What do you do now? [[Finally start writing your blog post|Start writing the blog post]]. [[Do it as a Twine game|Decide to embed a Twine game]], even though now you have //even less time//. (if: $hours_to_post_due > 12)[ [[Procrastinate]] again. ](else:)[ [[Please don't do it|Procrastinate]]. ]

You ran out of time to turn in your Clio Wired assignment. RIP your grade contract... (text-colour:red)[Game over] [[Restart?|Start]]

(set: $topics_to_visit to $topics_to_visit - (a: "interactive")) You begin writing a new (if: $making_twine_game)[Twine passage](else:)[paragraph of your blog post] about how you've loved interactive media for a very long time. In undergrad, you were really into the idea of multimedia, incorporating many different types of media into a single narrative or argument. You're excited to see that happening more and more now with history, and Twine along with other non-linear methods of telling history seem like a great bridge into using multimedia as a new way of communicating in the digital age. (if: $topics_to_visit's length > 0)[What do you want write about next?](else:)[[[Continue...|Time to turn it in]]] (if: $topics_to_visit's length > 0)[ (if: $topics_to_visit contains "storytelling")[ The [[relationship between storytelling and history]]. ](if: $topics_to_visit contains "interactive")[ Your love of [[interactive media]]. ](if: $topics_to_visit contains "argument")[ How non-linear narratives affect our ability to [[make an argument]]. ]] (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

(set: $topics_to_visit to $topics_to_visit - (a: "argument")) You sit down and start writing a new (if: $making_twine_game)[passage](else:)[paragraph]. You think it would be a good idea to write about how non-linear narratives affect our ability to make academic arguments in media. You write that both linear and non-linear historical narratives have arguments, as it is inherently impossible to have a historical narrative without some kind of argument. At the end of the day, you have to pick what to include or not include, a starting and ending point, and an order with which to tell your reader about the events. All of that is opinionated, whether we want it to be or not. In a linear narrative, though, the reader must consume the work exactly as you've laid it out. In a non-linear narrative, the player/reader is given agency over the narrative. Even if you try to force them down a specific path, the act of giving them a path causes them to question where they are being led. They may even want to do something you don't let them do, which can be a form of "ludonarrative dissonance," or what game designer Gabe Newell calls a "narcissistic injury" to the player, as you did not respect their choices. Even if you do successfully get them to follow the path you want, it probably won't be as enjoyable for the player. Though, you can always get some of that back by railroading the reader down the path you want. Speaking of which, you think now is a good time to write down some of your [[thoughts on Twine]]. (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

(set: $topics_to_visit to $topics_to_visit - (a: "storytelling")) You write a new (if: $making_twine_game)[Twine passage](else:)[paragraph] about what you think about the relationship between storytelling and history is. In class, you discussed a few models for history's relationship with storytelling. Lena proposed a Venn diagram model which you generally agree with, which posits all of history as a form of storytelling. Your one issue with this model is that it doesn't capture how different works of history lie on a spectrum of storytelling, with some being more narrative than others. You're very interested in the relationship between narrative and history. In some ways, the fact that history is a narrative is fundamentally a betrayal of the truth of the past, since narratives are a construct that we project on to past reality. There are also works that blur the line between fiction and history, like Edmund Morris's //Dutch//, which uses a fictional character to tell a real biography about Ronald Reagan. The book was quite controversial at the time, but Morris defended it as being mostly true factually and true narratively. You write that you think this example speaks to the complex relationships between history, fiction, and narrative. You find yourself [[reflecting on film school]]... (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

You decide to try to installing the plugin, only to find -- oh no! You discover the plugin was deprecated in 2024, because the maintainer didn't want to fix security vulnerabilities in its dependency tree. You try to find the repository to see if it would be possible to update the dependencies yourself, but have no luck. Time to [[try hosting another way|Try hosting another way]]. (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

In listening to the first episode of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media's podcast //Worlds Turned Upside Down// and watching the Pennsylvania Labor HIstory Society's short documentary //Homestead Strike of 1892//, you were reminded of your time in film school (technically, just majoring in film production at a regular college, which some would say is different). Both these productions used techniques similar to what you learned studying film - narrative structure that builds to a climax, subdivided recursively into smaller narratives. Both used music quite effectively to guide the emotion of their audience. Though neither of them had traditionally filmed sequences, they both reminded you of the power of turning the archive into an audiovisual narrative, something you would like to do at some point in your history studies. As Ken Burns and others have shown, documentary film can be a powerful narrative tool for communicating history. (if: $topics_to_visit's length > 0)[What do you want write about next?](else:)[[[Continue...|Time to turn it in]]] (if: $topics_to_visit's length > 0)[ (if: $topics_to_visit contains "storytelling")[ The [[relationship between storytelling and history]]. ](if: $topics_to_visit contains "interactive")[ Your love of [[interactive media]]. ](if: $topics_to_visit contains "argument")[ How non-linear narratives affect our ability to [[make an argument]]. ]] (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")] Jim Ambuske, host. "Episode 1: The Balance," //Worlds Turned Upside Down//, Sept. 25, 2023. Podcast, MP3 audio, 1:11:35. https://podcasts.rrchnm.org/show/worlds-turned-upside-down/the-balance/. //Homestead Strike of 1892// (PA Labor History Society, 2014).

You think the best way to proceed is by embedding an `<iframe>` codeblock in your blog post. Hey, that's something you learned about in class! It lets you do cool things by embedding HTML from other websites in your post! For example, you could embed the test game you and Katie made in class in an iFrame, like this: <iframe src="https://madelynharrington.net/twine/test.html" width="100%" height="700" style="border: 1px solid #ccc;" loading="lazy" title="Otter Twine Game!"> </iframe> However, you're not sure how to access your public HTML files through Reclaim. How should you find out? [[Ask Claude]]. [[Try to figure it out yourself]]. (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

The class's AI policy allows for its use as long as AI generated material is acknowledged and cited, so you decide to try asking Claude. Sure enough, Claude shows you where the public html files are located. You feel a little bad, though, given the ethical issues around AI... but that's a subject for a different blog post. You confirm that the iFrame embedding works! Finally time to start writing. What do you want to write about first? Your love of [[interactive media]]. How non-linear narratives affect our ability to [[make an argument]]. The [[relationship between storytelling and history]]. (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

You spend some time poking around the dashboard, figure out where the public html files are located, and upload your test project. It took a little longer than if you had just asked a chatbot, but you feel far better about yourself than you would have if you had asked an AI. You confirm that the iFrame embedding works! Finally time to start writing. What do you want to write about first? Your love of [[interactive media]]. How non-linear narratives affect our ability to [[make an argument]]. The [[relationship between storytelling and history]]. (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 2)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

You write a (if: $making_twine_game)[passage](else:)[paragraph] about how in class, you used Twine for the first time. As everyone is probably sick of hearing by now, you also have a career as a software developer, so it was interesting to examine a new form of coding. You're personally not a big fan of Twine's syntax - it's quite bulky and boilerplate heavy, and leads to a lot of copy-pasted code. But, you can see how having the coding language read more linguistically would be helpful to the target audience, who are presumably not coders themselves. You have some experience making games, but mostly in game engines like Godot, which require a decent amount of coding experience and setup. Just to get to the point of doing something like a Twine story would take several days of work. You think it's cool that more specialized software packages like Twine are popping up to help people with an idea do what they need without a ton of technical training. (if: $topics_to_visit's length > 0)[What do you want write about next?](else:)[[[Continue...|Time to turn it in]]] (if: $topics_to_visit's length > 0)[ (if: $topics_to_visit contains "storytelling")[ The [[relationship between storytelling and history]]. ](if: $topics_to_visit contains "interactive")[ Your love of [[interactive media]]. ](if: $topics_to_visit contains "argument")[ How non-linear narratives affect our ability to [[make an argument]]. ]] (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]

Well, you've written about everything you thought should go in this (if: $making_twine_game)[Twine game](else:)[blog post]... time to do some last minute copy editing and then turn it in. (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")] [[Continue|Turned in blog post]] [[Wait! I want to write about those topics again!|Restart writing]]

You've submitted the blog post! You did it with $hours_to_post_due hours left. Nice work! Now, all that's left to do is sit back and wait for comments from your peers. Nice work! (text-colour:green)[You win!]

(set: $topics_to_visit to (a: "storytelling", "interactive", "argument")) You decide you want to try to rewrite the topics you just wrote about. Where do you want to start? Your love of [[interactive media]]. How non-linear narratives affect our ability to [[make an argument]]. The [[relationship between storytelling and history]]. (set: $hours_to_post_due to $hours_to_post_due - 1)Your blog post is due in $hours_to_post_due hours.(if: $hours_to_post_due < 0)[(go-to: "Game over")]