I remember when I was younger and I was excited about the Family Day long weekend because it meant no school or it meant time and a half pay if I had to work. I was missing the entire point of the holiday which was created in 1990 by Premier Don Getty for two reasons: to celebrate the family unit, and to lead the war on drugs. So, in my efforts to be a good citizen, I asked my family if they wanted to go out and have fun as a family. This is where the lesson is. As you will see, the idea that something will be fun and what is actually fun are so very different. Of course, there are many factors that play into the “having of fun”. Some of these include: the activity, the demographics of the people partaking in the fun, and the time of day the fun occurs. During all this “fun” I was live tweeting the events as they were folding.
Beginning
After I convinced my husband and five-year-old son that it would be a good idea for us to do something for Family Day, we had to find something, safe, age appropriate and available. While all the ideas put forward were fantastic ideas, especially the all-inclusive vacation my husband suggested, we ended up going back and forth between bowling, mini golf and swimming. The deciding factor was the amount of effort required for the activity. This final factor led us to mini golf.
Middle
If you haven’t been to Monster Mini Golf in Edmonton, check it out! The entire place is glow in the dark. It includes an arcade, live DJ and 18 holes of mini golf with moving monsters. We were given our clubs and balls and set off to hole number one. Not so bad! This is going to be so much fun! Until about hole four, then reality set in. My husband and I both looked at each other knowing exactly what the other was thinking…yes, we were only on hole four and had another 14 holes remaining.
As we are making our way through the course, it becomes apparent that no one showed our son how to play mini golf. I think he may have even been using the club backwards at some points. No one was really “playing” anymore. I think we were in the “let’s get this over with and get the hell out of here” stage. That’s when, we weren’t paying attention, and our son decided to drive the ball instead of putting. Well, that ball went flying! It bounced off a fake tombstone, jumped the glowing barricade, narrowly missing the head of a girl waiting to putt on the next hole, hit the wall behind her and landed by her feet. I notice my husband, who seen the entire event occur, do what husbands do. He casually walked away trying to act like he didn’t see the whole the thing. I send our son over to apologize while receiving dagger stares from the girl’s parents. Thankfully, no one was injured, and we reluctantly continued on.
End
Around hole 13 was when it got tough. At this point we were really debating the necessity of actually finishing the game but I’m always trying to teach my son that he needs to finish what he starts and there were really only five more holes. So, when we got to the last hole, it felt so good, almost like we were free. Don’t get me wrong, looking back, it was a fun evening with the family, would it have been better with a group of friends? Probably. Would it have been better in the evening with a babysitter? Probably. Would have been better with some pre-game cocktails? Probably. But will I do it again? Probably!
Live Tweets
In the live Tweets, I did my best to create a timeline of the events by mentioning which hole we were on. I was able to take some video and pictures throughout the experience which I included in the tweets to help give more context to the post and create a feeling. The posts were also short and concise, written how I would speak and included only the relevant details. I tried to make the posts relatable to anyone with young kids.
Storytelling Principles
Great Stories Are Universal
The mini golf story I was telling on Twitter would be relatable to many people with young children. They can relate to the pressure of trying to plan a family outing, the anxiety of a new activity with a young child and the relief when the activity is over.
Good Stories Have Structure
I set up my Twitter story to have a beginning, middle and an end. In the beginning, I introduce the situation and the characters. In the middle, there is tension and surprise. And at the end there is relief.
Good Stories Are Simple And Focused
This story was documenting events as they unfolded. It was simple since the subject matter was easy to understand. The story had an arc which kept it focused.
Good Stories Give you a Character to Root For
With the audience being parents, I would hope that they were rooting for me and my husband. I hope they would relate to the story and understand the predicament and challenges we were facing.
What family activities have you planned? Were they a success? Would you do them again? Let me know in the comments.
EXSM 3989 - Digital Storytelling Class Blog 