Modern Day Storytelling

With libraries and bookshops commonplace and access to the internet essentially household and more needed than twenty years ago, it is clear that writing and storytelling has developed and still is.

With novels still being standardly published in physical forms, some tradition remains. However, physical form isn't the only way that people read books anymore, eBooks were first created in 1971, by Michael S. Hart, and have since exploded with the now commonplace creation of the kindle, as well as Google having the option of Google books, meaning that in some cases, readers don't even need a physical book to read stories anymore, just modern technology.

Sometimes, we no longer need to actually read the books anymore, as audiobooks have become increasingly popular, with apps such as Audible allowing readers to listen to thousands of their favourite stories for only £7.99 p/month. Alongside the rise of YouTube, where anyone can upload audio files of books (granted, copyright may affect this), and the fact that people can do other things while they listen to the books has caused audiobooks to become increasingly popular.

But storytelling has never been just about books. With the rise of the internet, the idea of web series and ARG's have become increasingly popular.

ARG's, or Alternate Reality Games, are a form of interactive storytelling where the audience get involved in unlocking the narrative by interacting with various codes, clues and puzzles. One example of this is the Blair Witch Project ARG, which the creators of the movie made to run alongside the release. It was a big part of their marketing involving their website and pushing the idea that the movie was a work of truth, not fiction. The latest Batman movie The Batman (2022) also used this, with their ratalada website having avid fans (me included) solving riddles both together and alone to gain more background lore for the movie, as well as bonus content such as a deleted scene and comic announcement. This also inspired a project by a friend of mine, wo created a website called Bulldog Investigations, following the fictional Private Investigator Damien Drake who accidentally uncovers a murder while following a separate case. She has even developed it into an art piece (pictured below) which depicts Damien's notes in his temporary office in the B&B he's currently staying in while solving another set of disappearances.

These became popular due to allowing the consumer of the story have an active part in pushing the narrative forward, giving the story more intrigue and excitement.

(Photo credit: Bailey Griffin)

Web series are similar, however, don't always have the audience solve clues, though they may leave interesting details for their fans to uncover, such as Ashvlogs, a vlog channel on YouTube that used unlisted video links hidden in the bio of their videos, as well as other big YouTubers to push their narrative forward, and Dad, a web series created by Nathan Barnett, who could have a blog post about all his own projects, which focuses on the character of Dad, a stereotypical depiction of a dad, in love with his wife and daughter, working at 'the office', building a bigger shed than his neighbour and being an alien who crash landed to Earth and is now being held against his will in a government facility.

All in all, storytelling has developed from oral stories told in small communities and campfires, to physical and audio books that can be enjoyed together or alone, and modern day web series and Internet games, which though strike a resemblance to oral storytelling in communities (such as, they're all told through audio and visuals, some even full performances, the only difference being that modern day, they are done using more modern technology and can be accessed at any time, so they aren't just live performances - though, they can be told through livestreams). But just because many modern forms of storytelling differ from novels and books, that doesn't mean they're any lesser. Even the hard work that goes into most forms of modern storytelling, such as recording audio for audiobooks, filming for web series or even creating entire websites and art projects for the story is impressive and one I hope the future embraces more of!