Building your own VOC sailing story
Imagine you are a Dutch sailer in the 17th Century. You have been asked if you are willing to join a VOC expedition to Batavia. The pay will be fantastic! But what about the danger? The sad reality was that many VOC sailors never made it home again from their voyages. Sailors faced the perils of storms, shipwrecks, disease, and attacks by pirates.
Our goal is to write a narrative about the voyage that you take. The focus in your writing will be on how events are connected within a plot. To help us do this, we will firstly complete a brain storming mind map. Then, we will use our ideas to build a dynamic story simulator. Finally, we will use our story simulator to build a narrative plot.
To begin with, try using the mindmap below to add some events that might happen to you on your voyage.
Some of the events will affect the chance of other evens happening. For example, if there is a bad storm, then your ship might sink, and then you could drown. Three events, but they are all connected.
Our goal is to write a narrative about the voyage that you take. The focus in your writing will be on how events are connected within a plot. To help us do this, we will firstly complete a brain storming mind map. Then, we will use our ideas to build a dynamic story simulator. Finally, we will use our story simulator to build a narrative plot.
To begin with, try using the mindmap below to add some events that might happen to you on your voyage.
Some of the events will affect the chance of other evens happening. For example, if there is a bad storm, then your ship might sink, and then you could drown. Three events, but they are all connected.
Building a simple weather spinner.
The short video below describes how you can build a simple weather spinner, using the software application known as Tinkerplots.
Linking the outcome of our weather spinner to other events on the voyage
We know from our mind mapping activity that the type of weather a ship encountered would affect the chances of other events happening on a voyage.
The video below describes how you can connect your weather spinner to some other event spinners.
The video below describes how you can connect your weather spinner to some other event spinners.
Resolving our dynamic VOC sailing story
Finally, the depending on whether we sunk, lost, sick, or stayed well during our voyage would determine if we would make it back home as 'rich' sailors,......, or never see Holland again.
There was of course one more possibility - Pirates!
See how we can resolve our dynamic story generator in the final video below.
There was of course one more possibility - Pirates!
See how we can resolve our dynamic story generator in the final video below.
Writing up your own story
The dynamic story simulator can be used to create your own, unique sequence of problems and resolutions. You can use the output of your dynamic story machine to write your own narrative of the voyage of a sailor.
Think about your sailors name and character. Why are they leaving Holland? Where are they sailing to? Why are they taking the voyage? What happens to them on the voyage? Do they make it home alive?
Think about your sailors name and character. Why are they leaving Holland? Where are they sailing to? Why are they taking the voyage? What happens to them on the voyage? Do they make it home alive?