Day 9: Lots of Writing

When I planned this Independent Study, somehow it hadn't occurred to me just how much reading and writing I'd be doing. Not only would I be writing the better part of a book on the evolution of amusement parks, but I also had a business plan on my schedule as well as daily blogs. With it comes a lot of reading, since of course all of this requires research. Yeah, it's a lot of work. But the good thing to remember about all of it is that at least it is something that I truly enjoy.

That said, the last few days I've been reading a lot of very interesting books as part of my research. I've been poring over Cedar Point's gift of Cedar Point: Queen of American Watering Places, as well as checking out a few others from my library (pun intended). A few of them have already helped me greatly to fill in a few blanks in my iBook.

As far as the iBook goes, I've been doing quite a bit of work on that too of course. Aside from my reading and research today, I've been reworking several sections to improve its organization. After much debate I've decided to keep a standalone interactive section that uses Kennywood as an example of a classic trolley park. It's one of the creative-writing style pieces from the original project and it does well to serve my ultimate purpose of showing the growth and change in the amusement industry. There was an interactive section that focused on Disneyland as well, but I've changed that slightly and instead demoted it to simply being a supplement to the textual section on Disneyland that had followed it. I've begun writing a section that will focus on the revival of wooden coasters with Kings Island's Racer, as well as the second wind that the industry felt in the 1970's not only with wooden coasters, but also with looping coasters.

Lastly, I've been revising a section that highlights the "coaster wars" beginning with Cedar Point's Magnum XL-200 in 1989. It had been written as a kind of news article to fit into the creative writing ensemble, but I wanted to remove that styling and leave it purely informational for the final product. After some reworking this afternoon, the coaster wars section is finished.

Before I go, I would like to share this "first look" at the project. Here is one page from the first section on the earliest roller coasters:

Tomorrow I'll be continuing to write and refine the various sections of this project. By no means will this be an exhaustive history of the amusement industry, so dont expect it to be a lengthy iBook; I am, however, very committed to making sure that it is of the highest quality. I look forward to continuing tomorrow. After that, it's off to Orlando next week for IAAPA and a few park visits! As always, stay tuned!

-Wynn