I am so proud of my final project. My final project was a writing project. I choose writing out of the several forms of digital storytelling skills we have worked on throughout the semester because it is the way I felt like I could express myself to the fullest extent. However, just writing would be too easy, I also wanted to show off the skills I learned so I incorporated other visual and audio production. created a sort of illustrated story with a couple of embedded Instagram and SoundCloud posts to add to my story. I thought completing my project would be a piece of cake because I had a really detailed outline that I had been working on for the past couple of weeks but I was wrong. No amount of details compare to the amount of articulation a story requires. Another thing I wish I did was outline my supportive material like the Instagram posts ahead of time as well.
But basically, the process of creating my story was pretty straightforward. All I had to do was look inwards and think of what mattered to me. What is my story? What is it I want to share? What story do I want to tell?
I choose to tell the story of my life within just a single short story. And that is the story of how I have been divinely protected all my life my my grandmother. I see her as a sort of guardian angel and believe that her prayers and blessings while alive have been the reason for my protection in this crazy thing we call life.
So I wrote a story about how a girl by the name of Holly gets through her senior year and survives a multitude of obstacles and dangers because of the protection of her grandmother’s presence. I will not spoil it you’ll just have to read it yourself but in short my story is inspired by my connection to my grandmother. My name Hermela actually means in the likeness of her maternal grandmother/ ancestors so it only makes sense.
Now for the nitty-gritty details. I wrote my outline on a google doc and I referenced it as I wrote my short story on Word Press. I used my iPhone camera to take and edit the pictures that I posted on Instagram to embed into my short story. And lastly, for my auditory aid. I created an audio clip to aid a very specific scene in my story. I used free sounds to collect sound effects for the scene and imported and layered them on audacity. Once I was happy with the audio file I uploaded it on to SoundCloud and embedded it into my short story.
Overall, I am so happy with my final project and I have read and reread it so much because of how much I love it.
I think it is a good representation of all the skills I have gained in DS106 this semester. I was able to be so creative with this project and that’s the best part of this project. I created a story. I created a character. I created a fictional world. I love being able to create and at the same time using that creativity to express such an important part of who I am.
The moment we have all been waiting for….the reveal of my final project. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
