This summer, we had a dedicated group of young people working together in a program we called “Crash & Code.” We tackled creative writing skills, group collaboration, and introductory skills in coding using a web language called Twine. Our summer reading theme was “A Universe of Stories,” and the premise of our program centered around a space ship crashing on an alien planet. Our medium was interactive fiction, like a “choose your own adventure” story.
Before the first meeting, an interactive story was created which provided choices for “you,” the main character, to fly the spaceship and handle a couple of different difficulties, leading to an inevitable crash. From there, the group thought of many, many different ways that the crash could happen, as well as what might follow. Several different scenarios were decided upon, and smaller groups wrote multiple options and effects for those scenarios. All of these were collected, and they were coded into what became the full story of the crash.
On the last day of our program, the young patrons got to write AND program their own creations in Twine. Each of their stories are available online, as well as the Crash & Code prequel story and the full story of the crashes as created by the participants. Twine is free and available to use online at Twinery.org. For more information, stop by the library and talk with Julia.
Macedon Public Library 