For my live-tweet, I chose the latest episode of Bob’s Burgers recently added on Disney+. As I said in my thread, it’s a show my family has watched since the pandemic lockdowns last year. I opened up with a casual call to read along to grab reader interest, establish the tone of my writing, and inform people what my thread would be about. I also included a thematically appropriate gif at the end for additional visual appeal.
It was challenging trying to actively use storytelling techniques during a live-tweet. It was important to provide active commentary that wasn’t just summarizing what was on the screen but also a story of how my family watches the show together. Ideally, during a live-tweet of a show or film, others are following along. At the same time, a live-tweet thread should provide enough engagement that a reader would want to follow along even without being able to watch.
To better achieve this, I tried to follow some of the storytelling principles we’ve learned to encourage engagement and the advice found in the articles by Gary Vaynerchuk and Nick Reese. I mixed “passion with practicality” by not being overly concerned with the episode plot summary and instead putting snippets of my live experience into my story. Structure was provided by my introduction where I also established the setting of it being a family watch after dinner. It continued with the body of my thread where I provided brief summaries with commentary and visual interest of supporting gifs. Then I established an ending with closing tweets describing what happened with my family after the show was over and one thanking the reader for joining us.
If I were to do this again, I would pick a longer show or film in order to give myself time to provide better commentary not only of what was happening onscreen but of what was going on in my head or my home. It would also give me more time to be aware of my writing and search for any interest-grabbing accompanying images or video. Overall, this was a great way to practice storytelling techniques and allow my family to be part of the experience.
EXSM 3989 - Digital Storytelling Class Blog 