Introducing Story Duel - The Joy of Writing in Community

Writing is an art, craft, and a necessity. Good writing is a joy and a gift. At Story Wars we have seen young writers blossom and bloom into amazing, passionate, and devoted writers. We have seen children grow in their language mastery and writing skills. The engaging and unique environment fostered by the Story Wars community is one where writing is truly magical. It is a place where writing is a real superpower!

Education is key to all learning. And finding new and innovative ways to educate people about writing is something that has proven results. Writing can be intimidating for some. Making it into something fun, engaging, and that utilizes the best of the social media community, can decrease stress and anxiety over writing and increase feelings of confidence and mastery.

Writers- and readers too - can explore a vast and expanding universe of writing on Story Wars. The online world of Story Wars includes trips to fiction, poetry, humor, mystery, food writing and recipes, horror and romance and so much more.Story Wars exists as a community library of real-world writing but with the special bonus of being able to see one’s own work added, shared and expressed as part of this treasure trove of online writing.

This relationship between writing, reading, and then being inspired to create in a community is what makes Story Wars unique and exciting to those with a passion for writing. This is the spark that fosters great writing. As writers read, think, add to, share, they also grow stronger as writers which then gives the community better and better writing to read.

Story Wars is an educational powerhouse. Members can read, write, and fully engage in the learning environment. Writing can often feel like a solo and solitary effort, but coupled with the actions of sharing, voting, adding to stories, and co-creating pieces with a community can improve success and commitment to writing.

Based on the successes and lessons learned of Story Wars, we are ready to expand and bring more to the world of writing. Introducing Story Duel! Story Duel will build upon the community and culture of Story Wars and take it to the next level by relying on gamification as motivation. Why you ask? Because kids love games, they love using their imagination, and they love to play and adults do too! This method ensures reader engagement and quality writing.

Creativity thrives when people can use their imagination, engage in play, and when they have other people to bounce ideas back and forth with. This dynamic process is a core element of both Story Wars and Story Duel.

As part of Story Duel writing will be an even more innovative and rewarding experience. It all starts with one person pitching an idea for a story, or starting a story. But the moment this idea is out there, or this story is published, it can be adopted by the entire classroom community. The ideas can grow, stretch, transform, and branch out.

Different users can write a chapter to a story that they liked. In this process, creativity is sparked and passed on. Once a writer has their chapter or addition to any story completed, it then comes up for a vote. The entire community can read the chapter and decide if it should be added to the story in progress. This is meant to encourage and reward meaningful efforts and to increase a sense of consistent improvement in writing. It adds challenge and it adds excitement to the process of writing and story creation.

By going up against different writers and by putting their best workup for a vote, this encourages those with passion and drive to be better writers. Also, a fun part of Story Duel is that writers have the chance to duel with other writers and their writing friends for the most votes. Think about this like one of the many popular social media games, but with writing and the quest of improving writing as the reward! These elements make things really appealing to the younger generation of writers who might need to turn things into more of a game in order to encourage practice, improvement, and to fuel both the passion and discipline for writing.

Another core element of Story Duel is the all-new quest system. Teachers can create their own daily, weekly, monthly quests that students can select from at the public quest bank. These unique quests then give students access to new things to think about, write about, and create. It is a world of possibility. Students can find a quest suited to their level and interests and then get to writing, creating, growing and learning.

These educational tools foster, inspire and nurture creativity in writing. They encourage the best of independent learning and achieving matched with the best of community feedback and support.

Story Wars, and Story Duel, are unique, engaging, innovative, and rewarding spaces for new writers to learn, grow, share and create. We look forward to seeing what you write!