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Week 6- Six Word Story

Asylum is sanctuary, mind is not.

Trying to tell a story in six words is actually harder than I thought it would be. I came up with w few, but they tended to be better statements than stories. The six words above are meant to convey a story of how an asylum creates a safe environment for a person, but they can still not escape the demons in the mind.

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Class Notes for Artifact

I’ve learned a great deal within this class and taken various notes, but I feel these three will help me most within my artifact.

Description is key when establishing a character- With my artifact only being 4500 words in length, it will be crucial to try and give Tommy his own identity quickly and establishing a good description early is certainly going to help with that.

Try and be original with metaphors and similes- For my story to be compelling, the reader needs to understand Tommy’s headspace. Using both of these can really connect the reader to Tommy’s feelings.

The Iceberg Theory- This theory implies there's a lot more below the surface, that a perfect story are found within the subtext. Tommy isn’t going to say he is Bipolar or he has anxiety, the reader is going find that within the subtext.

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Week 2- Song for Isabelle Lyrics

For this task we had to bring in a song we liked and then examine the lyrics. We were told to look for things such as themes, characters and point of view. I decided to look at Song for Isabelle, which is a song by the band Pierce the Veil.

The song is written for a girl the lead singer Vic Fuentes met at one of their concerts, with that girl expressing she could no longer live in the society we have today and wished to commit suicide. When you study the lyrics closely you can clearly see many references to suicide, but also many references Vic has made in regards to bargaining with her and possibly saving her life. It’s really quite an emotional song when you consider these facts because on the one hand he agrees that the world is not what it should be and understands the need for her to exit this world, but he also wants her to keep living. The musical composition really ties into this emotion also, which is why I have included a link to the actual song underneath.

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Writing Fiction an Introduction to the Craft Citation

“Writing comes out of a deep-seated need for self expression and to make sense of life, tell stories, entertain and capture what we feel when we read fiction that moves and enthralls us” (Disher 2001, p. 4)

Self expression is such a huge part of my writing process, quite possibly the biggest part of my writing process. When I devise a story, no matter what it’s structure, no matter what it’s plot, it is always a form of self expression and that’s because writing is my biggest outlet. Within my blog you will see my creative piece entitled Hope and this piece is a perfect example of self expression within my writing, it encompasses all of who I am. I believe writing may be the most powerful tool a person has at their disposal to express themselves, putting all your thoughts and feelings on a page for the world to see.

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Week 4- Everyday Experience

The air is crisp as it hits my face, not quite sure how it’s meant to reach the maximum of 20 degrees today. Living in the hills you tend to get an unrealistic feel for what the weather will actually be in Adelaide, usually if you subtract 3 degrees from the maximum you tend to get a realistic view of how warm it is at home. I gaze out into the paddock and look at our pet sheep, they certainly don’t tend to mind the lack of warmth, but if I had their wool I probably would be feeling the same way. As I put my bag into my car, one of the sheep Billy comes over to the fence, walking up and down the fence line he obviously wants a pat. I quickly run over give him the attention he craves, before getting into my car and heading off to university.

Birdwood’s main street is busy, but that’s understandable being 9 o’clock. Business’s are just opening and the buses dropping of the students for the high school are just arriving. Normally I don’t stop in Birdwood, but we were out of milk this morning and as such had not had my daily caffeine fix just yet. Normally on the days I go to university I get an energy drink while I’m on campus, but today I decided I was going to buy one on my way there. The main street may be busy, but the Foodland carpark certainly isn’t, as I park I’m just one of two cars filling the thirty or so spaces. As I enter Foodland I am greeted with a friendly hello by the sole staff member at the counter, I offer her the same courtesy back as I move toward the refrigerated drinks section. I look at the options in front of me, them being Red Bull, V and Mother. I take a few minutes to decide, even though I went in there knowing I wanted a Red Bull, decisiveness is not my strong suit. I pay at the counter and continue my journey onward to university.

The time between the town’s of Gumeracha through to Inglewood is about 15 minutes, which isn’t very long, but it’s easily the most annoying part of journey. The reason for this is it one lacks pullout lanes for slower traffic to get out of the way and two when you do come across one people never use them. This morning I am stuck in the same scenario and even though I have been driving this road for ten years, the situation still irritates me. The car in front of me is a dull red hatchback, which clearly hasn’t been cleaned in sometime. I know this because I have been staring at the back of it for a good 10 minutes now, the five cars behind me have been have also been staring at it for a frustrating amount of time. This person has passed three pullout lanes but has made no attempt to let any of us pass. I make my way up the hill just before Inglewood, which frustratingly is the only place where the road extends into two lanes. As I pass this person I wonder why common courtesy isn’t prominent within our society, it doesn’t take a lot to be courteous. I take a few deep breathes to calm myself, driving frustrated never leads to anything good and now I was basically out of the hills everything is dual lane. I glance at my radio dashboard to check the time, it reads 9:41, 20 minutes and I’ll be at university.

It seems the only red light I ever hit is intersection of Montacute/ Saint Bernard’s Rd, very rarely do I hit a red anywhere else. It’s always frustrating to stop at this red light because if I’m running late I know the Magill campus is literally 2 minutes away, luckily this morning I was a little early. I tap the screen of my phone to change the song in my playlist, 2 minutes plus waiting for the lights gives me the opportunity to listen to one last song. It’s my OCD creeping in, but I never like a song half finished by the time I reach my destination. The lights go green and I drive away, looking forward to a busy day at university.

My Thoughts: For this exercise we had to write down key words from that mornings journey to university, we then had to use these words to describe that journey. My key words were:

Drive, Town, Stop, Radio, Playlist, Red Bull, Park and Traffic.

This was an interesting writing exercise because my drive to university is pretty straight forward, I had to really think hard about key points in the journey that I could write about. Luckily on this morning I stopped on the way to university, which gave me an extra paragraph to flesh out and describe. 

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When telling a story visually, great acting can be almost as important as the story itself. A character needs to bring that emotion from the page and display it in front of the camera.

This scene from The Walking Dead is one of my all time favorite scenes in television and that’s because Andrew Lincoln’s acting is phenomenal, the emotion in his face, his voice and his body make you feel like this is actually happening.

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Week 5- Writing From Senses

It’s surrounded by trees, not so many trees that it destructs what you’re looking at but surrounded nonetheless. It’s almost the perfect amount, giving a strong representation that we are in fact outside the city. It’s September and you can hear the magpies taking care of their newly formed offspring, each chirp reminding you to stay well clear of their nest, lest you want to get swooped. I’m still about 100m away, feels like I’ve been walking for hours, it is however a mistake I have made so I should count myself lucky I’m not further away. A drop of water hits my right arm, then another one drops onto the back of my neck, looks like the rain isn’t going to hold off for much longer. The last few days have been warm, you can almost smell the rain before it’s even fallen, kind of like in Summer where the heat and rain form that distinct smell. I can associate that combination with happiness, it signals that desperation has stopped and relief is now here. I guess if I hadn’t run out of fuel I wouldn’t have experienced that feeling today, small conciliation as it may be. I reach out to grab the door handle as the heavens open, now you could really smell the rain. I look out over the paddock, I can just vaguely make out my car I the distance. The rain is so ferocious now it feels like someone is hosing you down with a high-pressure hose. I’ll just get a lift back to my car tomorrow, know one’s going anywhere in this downpour.

My Thoughts: This piece is far from perfect, in fact I’ve rearranged it a couple of times, it’s more about the style than it is about the piece itself. Writing from senses gives you a whole new perspective when it comes to writing, a sound or a smell places images in your head, takes you back to a place in time. In a longer piece these senses appear more subtle though, instead of being crammed in, which is why I believe performing a task like this is going to really help within my artifact at the end of the semester.

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Week 3- Message To My Fans

Good evening to all my fans,

Tonight I am going to let you all in a little secret, on this day thirteen years ago I nearly passed up one of my favorite rolls to date. In 2005 I voiced Roxas in Kingdom Hearst 2, but originally was going to pass on the role. At the time I was portraying my role in Summerland and I thought I was the biggest thing ever, but then I read a script for this character called Roxas. Problem was he was a nobody, literally he was character that was a nobody, A nobody was apiece of a fully fledged character, so why would a person who was on a hit show choose to do something that. So I passed on it, but then Summerland was cancelled and I then became a nobody, what an irony. Pleading them to become a nobody, because I was now I nobody they hired me back at a third of the price. Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out next year and I will again be a nobody, but people all over the world love Roxas and the nobody he is. Moral of the story is never forget anybody can become a nobody. The first game had been three years prior and I didn’t know much about it and had never done any voice acting of note before. I was encouraged to play it and from that point on I was hooked. I nearly had to pass up the role I had been cast for because I was nervous about doing something I had never done before, I didn’t know I would perceived. My manager convinced me to give it a go, if I didn’t succeed I was still on tv. I had the time of my life voicing Roxas and I’m glad I decided to take the role on. Now we are thirteen years down the track and I have just finished recording the voice of Roxas again for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3. I know your all going to enjoy Kingdom Hearts 3 which is now just 6 months away.

Sincerely Jesse McCartney.

My Thoughts: What I loved about this exercise is how creative you can get, with a celebrity you follow closely. Within our class we each chose a celebrity and then developed a message for that celebrities fans. Interestingly I didn’t even suggest Jesse McCartney, I suggested Jon Hamm, but as soon as as I saw his name on the board I had an amazing idea of combining the word nobody with McCartney’s well known role within the Kingdom Hearts universe. Thinking about other peoples work really does open you mind up and give you ideas.

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Character Development

The most crucial aspect whenever it comes to reading a book, watching tv series or playing a video game is character development.

The character of Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and the character of Pete Campbell are my top two favorite character from any tv series. The main reason for this is their amazing growth as individuals over the course of both series.

Spike is described as a breakout character, initially he was only ever intended to appear in a handful of episodes. The character was so well received plans to kill him off were abandoned and he became main character by Season 4. He started his time on the series as one of the “Big Bads” (A Buffy term to describe the villain of that season) for Season 2, but by the end of the series he had become one of Buffy’s greatest allies.

When Mad Men first started Pete Campbell was probably one of the most hated characters on television. His selfish attitude and his lack of disregard for other human beings made him virtually impossible to like, from Season 1-3 there is nothing likeable about this character. Pete becomes a partner in his firm at the start of Season 4 and with it starts to mature into a more worthwhile human being. While it’s impossible to see at the beginning of the show, Pete becomes the most likeable character by the shows conclusion.

In it’s simplest form both these characters start their respective shows as villains, but end them as hero’s.   

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Another post from my blog, but this is a short story I submitted for the UNISA Verse Magazine.This short story is about an appointment with my psychologist one Friday afternoon. This short story has particular relevance as it’s about mental health, which is the subject I will be writing about within my artifact. It is also written from my perspective and my artifact Diary of the Unfinished Product will be written from Tommy’s (My protagonist) perspective.

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Citation used in essay

“From at least the time of Shakespeare, actions became not only the means by which plot is forwarded, but the determiners of incidents, which in turn function to illustrate character” (Oatley 2011, p. 104).

This was one of the most important citations within my essay, it defined correlation between character and action within the theory of Narratology. When I went back and proofread my work, I could see just how much this citation applied to me within my day to day writing. I always plan out my creative pieces with a main character in mind, but as I move the narrative forward his actions always seem to define him or her as a character. I’ve done this on countless occasions without even realizing and this citation just illustrated that a characters actions go a long way to defining that character.

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On my blogspot site I write detailed reviews for video games and television shows, this is an example of my review process.

I started doing these as a way of combining my love of all things media, with my love of writing. It is also a good way to continue writing, even when I’m not at university.

When I’m writing a review I really try and enjoy the video game or television episode first and then will go back and study it hard on the second play through or viewing. For example with this review I played Assassin’s Creed Origins as a fan first and then replayed it as a critic second. I feel it allows you freedom within the review process and it allows you to come at it from different angles.