Writing Video Game Stories

free images from pixabay.com

When I worked at a local high school, many of my students wanted to become video game designers. Video games often contain great story plots! I created the powerpoint below to give struggling writers a simple way of creating a story using the format of a video game. Ideally the powerpoint would be downloadable for each student and they would write directly on the slides. I'm still working on a way to make that more accessible, so sign up for my newsletter on the CONTACT page if you want updates. In the meantime, you may share the link below to the power point/YouTube video with your students. You will have to pause each image or it will automatically move forward since it is a video.

A few years ago, I conducted a writing workshop with a group of dyslexic students, grades 5-12, at the Annual Conference for the Southwest Branch of the International Dyslexia Association using this same power point. I spent 90 minutes talking to students about story structure using my story plotting technique called The Secret Language of Stories. Megan Shanley, Occupational Therapist and Assistive Technology Specialist, downloaded my powerpoint below onto iPads for each student and showed them several strategies for recording their ideas, such as the voice-to-print feature of the device along with apps for word prediction. Her husband, Dan, a high school English teacher, then helped us go around the room and assist students with creating original stories for the last half of our session. The results were phenomenal. By the end of our workshop, several students stood up and shared their insightful and funny stories. It was exciting to see students who struggled with the written word be so successful and creative with stories.

So try it out and let me know how it goes. I love finding new ways to inspire struggling writers.

How to Create a Video Game Story