A Brief Primer on WRI 220
What even is this course, right?
​
At the University of Michigan, there are a few options for studying writing. English major, creative writing minor, but if you want a broader range, somewhere where students can tackle journalistic endeavors alongside screenplays, then the Minor in Writing (MiW) is your deal.
Once you’re admitted into the minor, your very next semester you are supposed to take WRI 220, the Gateway into the MiW course. For the past few years, the format of the course (flexible to each professor, of course) has ran like this:
​
1) genre explorations and a motif journal and weekly discussions taking place early on, followed by
2) the introduction of the experiments, which will then take place concurrently, where, after taking one chosen piece of past writing, we were to transform it by genre, audience, both, or more. Normally there would be three experiments, but to lessen some of the pressure in our heightened-stress online COVID environment, our class only did two experiments. These experiments then led into
3) a final project and
4) the creation of this e-portfolio/website to host our project and share our experiences!
​
Walk with Me through WRI 220
First Stop: The Origin Piece
A fantasy microfiction piece that I titled “Seeking a Companion for Eternal Life!” It was an entry for one round of the NYC Midnight 2020 Microfiction contest and my prompt had been fantasy, sleepwalking, and the word betray.
This idea was one of the first that came to mind simply because I’d had so much fun writing it and had already toyed with the idea of exploring it further. This just happened to seal the deal when I started trying to work with something else and realized NOPE, not gonna work.
​
Second Stop: Experiment One
​
So I started with this romantic lens, you see? I'll talk a bit more later about how that shifted.
​
Experiment One came about because I’ve always followed a lot of writers on twitter, for inspiration and for amusement. Earlier this year, there was a trend of posting about the main conflict from your work-in-progress (WIP) as if it were someone asking for advice on a reddit /r/relationships post. I thought this was hilarious and decided engaging in this would be a fun way to think about my project. Experimenting as a single tweet was a valid option, but I wanted to take things a step further, so I photoshopped a /r/relationships screenshot webpage to look as if it were from the perspective of my unlucky in love vamp.
I originally wrote out a text-version of this (which you can view here), but then chose to make the edit, which I framed as a follow-up of sorts. That edit is pictured below:
Third Stop: Experiment Two
This one came about because I was thinking about the game Dream Daddy (a dad dating simulator!) and because I thought a dating sim would be a fun way to imagine solving the problems of my poor unlucky in love vamp. Developing out the character cast and potential love interests (LIs), so on and so forth was fun, and I appreciated the chance to practice dialogue. As I worked, I also decided upon the goal of ensuring there would be a happy ending even if someone didn’t try to end up with a love interest.
As I mentioned before, I like following writers on twitter and came across a twitter thread about trying to play dating sims as aro and ace characters. I personally identity as ace myself and the idea resonated with me, so I wanted to craft a game that would pass this test, so to speak.
That got a little out of hand, but this snippet will provide you with some context. This then led into my final project…
​
An End but not The End: Fully Realized Project(-ish)
It’s changed, in production. And if I’m honest with myself, at the time of posting, this will not be a complete product. But I’ll keep working on it--I will.
Technically, initially, I chose to try continuing experiment two. Yes! Right? I was gonna make a dating sim! But making a dating sim on a tight schedule when you have trouble focusing and prioritizing your classes--well, these two things do not go hand in hand.
You see, my initial plan was this: dating sim moves forward as dating sim. To account for my aro/ace success goal, I created an A plot (full romance) and a B plot (mystery investigation) that were meant to be of equal importance and experience. Depending on the player’s choices early on, they would be nudged in one direction or the other to have one of the plots become their main plot and the other to become an optional side plot.
The thing is, I started to have a lot of fun building and shaping the B plot. To the point where the intended romance just felt absolutely shoe-horned in when I tried to apply it to all the intended LIs. It was just easier to write, and when it was late and we were sharing excerpts with our writing groups the next day, I wanted to have something to talk about.
And so I hit the conundrum of this: do I accept that this is going to be a much more major and difficult project than intended and try to soldier forward with the dating sim concept
or
Do I pursue the contemporary fantasy mystery option and make it more interactive fiction/online CYOA?
I’ve leaned pretty strongly toward the second option and frankensteined what remained of the first. And even with that change, this is still going to be a major on-going project, but I intend to stick with it. In all its unfinished glory, I hope you still enjoy.
​