Week 9: The Reader Did It

Before the session#

Bring simple materials for a short three- to five-unit prototype — paper, pens, scissors, cards, or your phone. You’re designing one action the reader has to take, not a fully built interactive object.

Nothing Happens Without You#

This is the main studio activity. Build a short sequence or prototype — three to five page/spread-like states or units — where one important story event cannot occur without a reader action. It should move through these conceptual stages, which don’t need to be on separate pages:

1. Situation — something is happening, missing, blocked, waiting, or unresolved.
2. Invitation — the reader is given a clear reason or cue to act.
3. Action — the reader performs one simple action.
4. Consequence — something changes because of that action.
5. After-effect — it’s clear why that change matters to the story.

Choose one primary reader action rather than stacking several unrelated interactions. It should be simple enough to understand, possible with your chosen materials, and directly connected to its consequence.

None of this needs polished engineering. Paper, rough drawing, collage, cards, cut-outs, typography, or simple digital mock-ups are all legitimate — the focus is the relationship between the reader’s action and the story, not the build quality.

Test it#

Give your prototype to another person without explaining what they’re supposed to do first. Observe:

1. Do they notice the invitation?
2. What do they think they’re supposed to do?
3. Do they perform the intended action?
4. Do they understand what changed because of it?
5. Does the consequence feel connected to their action?

If they can’t discover the interaction at all, revise the invitation. If they perform it but see no meaningful consequence, revise the story relationship instead. Keep this light and practical.

Studio check#

After testing, briefly answer:

1. What does the reader do?
2. What happens because they do it?
3. What would happen if they did nothing?
4. Why does this story need the reader’s action?

This Week’s Misbehaviour — Make Me Do Something#

A separate 15–30 minute experiment from Nothing Happens Without You — not another complete prototype.

Make one quick page, spread, or object that silently encourages another person to perform one simple action, using visual or spatial design rather than a written instruction. Show it to someone without explanation, then record:

1. what you wanted them to do;
2. what they actually did;
3. what visual or spatial cue they responded to.

This is about testing invitation and affordance quickly — it doesn’t need the full narrative consequence the main studio asks for.

Afterwards#

Add your prototype and your Make Me Do Something notes to your Misbehaviour Toolbox. Week 8 asked which order a reader would choose to read in. Week 9 asked what happens because a reader acted — turning their action into something the story’s cause-and-effect actually depends on. Next week looks at what happens when a character pushes back against what the story, the narrator, or the reader expects of them.

The spec

What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.

• you have a short sequence where one important event requires a reader action
• you can name the one primary action, the consequence, and what would happen if the reader did nothing
• you have tested the prototype with someone who wasn't told what to do first
• you have completed this week's Misbehaviour, Make Me Do Something