Investigation and Application of Writing Structures and World Development Techniques in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Abstract

This thesis is an example of creative practice that uses contemporary transmedia storytelling techniques to build a fictional environment that content creators can collaborate in and contribute to with their own fictional works. Within this thesis, I refine my methodology and identify new methods and processes that apply to the context of the creative project example – the fictional world of Chaos Reborn. The most notable of these are 1) making use of invented and real mythology to project depth into the work 2) presenting information to other contributors so they can switch roles as creators and consumers of the franchise content and 3) Identifying the ways in which my creative work interacts with other elements of the transmedia narrative of Chaos Reborn. This thesis also identifies issues around continuance of production for this franchise after an initial raft of publications and suggests a consistent way to approach further development of content. The main creative component of this thesis is a novel set in the world of Chaos Reborn. This is Dreams of Chaos (2016), the first of a planned trilogy entitled The Death of Gods, which tells the story of how the world of Chaos Reborn came about from its alternative history root in Earth’s 14th century. This operates as the background to the game world and anchors the fantasy genre context to a version of our own history. This work is only a part of the writing undertaken to build the world of Chaos Reborn. There is additional material in appendices which contain the other associated writing from this work and from my previous science fiction case study on Elite Dangerous to illustrate the progression and development of my methodology across the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

Date of Award	10 Jan 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Andrew Melrose (Supervisor), Laura Hubner (Supervisor) & Marcus Leaning (Supervisor)