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Future E-Lit Piece: ODDNights

Or ODDN. Or On Dark, Dark Nights. Y'know, in the full title, I've always wondered if a comma should go between the two "Dark"s. Hm. On Dark Dark Nights. Does that look better? Lemme know down in the comments section that doesn't exist! :D

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... I'll figure it out at some point. For now, the comma stays.

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"But what is it?" you may ask. "What is this odd (heh.) acronym mentioned sporadically throughout your master's thesis project, Christina?" Well. 

 

In 2018, I wrote a children's book for my Writing for Children & Young Adults class, titled On Dark, Dark Nights. (Shoutout to Mandark for suggesting the title to me. MVP.) Later on in the same semester, in my E-Lit class, I took that story and started turning it into an electronic literature piece, but with some... big aspirations. Story-wise, I wanted to take other original stories (including fanfic plots) of mine and fit them together into one massive interwoven narrative to act almost as a portfolio of sorts. Like, "Here are all my ideas and characters. Here are my children." Mechanic-wise, I wanted the piece to have choice-based games vibes. (Wrote my undergraduate senior paper on that. Heh.) So there would be different choices and endings. But also. With the amount of characters I wanted to add to this piece, I thought it'd be cool to give the reader the option to change perspectives. The point of view was already second person (i.e., "you walk down the hall"), but who that "you" was... I wanted the reader to have that control.

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Well, "control." That's another thing. Reader/player agency in a narrative/game. Also what that undergrad paper was about. Yes, I'm linking it again. It's rad stuff to think about.

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Anyway. Here's the work-in-progress version of that e-lit piece. (Kinda thought I hid that back button but okay. Guess not. Don't use the back button. Defeats the purpose.)

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I'm sure you've seen the homepage of this site. The big tree with the owl at the top, and several other silhouettes, as well. Surprise! Just a few of the characters of ODDNights. Here, I'll add it for ya.

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I wanted this piece (and this tree, where the story starts) to be a focal point of this project, even in its unfinished state. Because... it was going to be the project at first. Things obviously shifted, but I think it's important to point out that the inspiration for Dichotomy of Fan was an original piece almost 100% influenced by my experiences in fandom. So. We've come full circle, gang. Wild.

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So there's one passion project to come out of all this. Working on ODDNights. I'm always brainstorming for it, honestly. Taking notes, researching, adding songs to that ODDNights Radio playlist... Fingers crossed I get to work on it in the future. I'll update this page if that happens!

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