Educational?

[systemcat]

So my work is alone on the comic format front. Does anyone else keep the educational aspect live in their fan fiction?

I'm making sure to include it in the current story and even throw in the use of multiple languages.

 

[Lucy]

yes we do. There is a story of Carmen giving Julie clues to find of her favorite places and in the end they have lunch or something. It was Julie's birthday. I've seen other examples too!

 

[systemcat]

Nice, how hard was the research to come up with heists & related clues to them? I have a wealth of notes & outlining over it for plot line B.

 

[Lucy]

I don't know, honestly. Probably very easy for Carmen.

 

[systemcat]

I meant from the stand point of the author.

 

[Lucy]

oh, right. Julie was the author so I know that she does a lot of research before she writes a story.

 

[Claire Yeon]

I like an educational aspect, and not just because it's so deeply ingrained into the Carmen Sandiego brand. How it manifests into the work varies between the creator, the story, and the target audience. For me, writing is a chance to escape from the mundane routine of real life and learn about things that interest me in a way that I find entertaining (and, occasionally, can entertain others). Example: my character here is an art historian, married to an archaeologist. My formal education in those fields consists of exactly one introductory class in Mesoamerican art history that I took to fulfill a liberal studies requirement in college. But you know what? It was super cool, and I've always wanted to learn more. I've been working on an origin story for Claire, set when she meets her husband and shortly before she joins VILE, and one of the chapters is basically a history lesson on the fall of the Aztec empire. I spent a wonderful afternoon surrounded by books and maps at the library while writing it. I'm not as on-the-nose with my educational components as the games or TV shows, but I like to work in something, and I'll find a way to make it relevant.

 

[Tenchi Masaki]

I couldn’t agree more @Claire Yeon! I love the educational part(and random wandering). I loved when the cartoon asked educational questions before they went to commercial break(mostly because I’m a Dork); And appreciated the fact that @Carmen Sandiego was teaching me things without being boring... That being said I’ll still have to arrest her for running scams in Scandinavia, Sticking em’ up down under, and most shockingly; pick pocketing Perth.

 

[systemcat]

I like an educational aspect, and not just because it's so deeply ingrained into the Carmen Sandiego brand. How it manifests into the work varies between the creator, the story, and the target audience. For me, writing is a chance to escape from the mundane routine of real life and learn about things that interest me in a way that I find entertaining (and, occasionally, can entertain others). Example: my character here is an art historian, married to an archaeologist. My formal education in those fields consists of exactly one introductory class in Mesoamerican art history that I took to fulfill a liberal studies requirement in college. But you know what? It was super cool, and I've always wanted to learn more. I've been working on an origin story for Claire, set when she meets her husband and shortly before she joins VILE, and one of the chapters is basically a history lesson on the fall of the Aztec empire. I spent a wonderful afternoon surrounded by books and maps at the library while writing it. I'm not as on-the-nose with my educational components as the games or TV shows, but I like to work in something, and I'll find a way to make it relevant.

Will that story be here or else where?

Outside incorporating the CS fandom into my work this has felt like a long time in coming. Ever since even before writing the first story of the series, research for using real facts was put in earlier works. The last major story sort of drove it home to me I should be sharing that research. Bring up a 19th century novel most have never heard of and see the reaction of discovery that brings to readers. It happened.
But for this current story, far too much research happened for the real facts to get buried into the background like they don't have relevance. I even wrote into the comic's script the character goes into "educational mode" which to me is creatively presenting facts without seeming like a museum's enlightening page over an exhibit piece or Wiki page.