As I stare at the finished first draft of my story, I’ve been torn between what I’ve wanted to do for a chatroom-driven dialogue between two characters. At present, I have it designed so that the dialogue looks similar to what it would look like in a chat, with breaks in between for the character’s thoughts to be shown.
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Example:
Character 1: TEXT PLACEHOLDER
Character 2: TEXT PLACEHOLDER
Character 1: TEXT PLACEHOLDER
FIRST-PERSON THOUGHT PROCESS REGARDING CONVERSATION SO FAR PLACEHOLDER
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I was wondering if more people find it easier to be in a character’s head if we’re looking at the “screen” as though he/she were (as in the example above), or if it is better for the dialogue to be written in a standard format. As I’ll be e-mailing this in tomorrow, I would hope for some feedback today, but, will certainly be asking the same question next Thursday after people have read the story.
I’ve always found unlikable protagonists very intresting. Both of the main characters in my short story are unlikable protagonists and its been really fun to write with them. Some of the recent stories in class have had protagnists that were unlikable and they were very well written. It can be challenging to write with an unlikable main character. Does anybody write with unlikable protaginsts a lot and have any tips?
There’s a new page on Freak Thoughts devoted to research on our creative space. You can click the link or you can click on the creative space tab at the menu on the top of the site and it will take you there. This is mainly for the 407 students, but if there is something you’d like to see on there, then leave a note in this comment or contact me (red) or Dean and action will be taken.
Severe action.
I apologize for how long this took, but we began making it right before spring break and, well, spring break woo! I forgot about it. But now the info is assembled into one source. Hurray!
I can smell your excitement.
I would like to write a story about an introverted teenager and what social relations the individual actually does have. In addition to this I want to focus on the teenager’s thoughts more than his spoken words. When the teenager feels the need to keep quiet or feels unable to speak I will focus solely on what he is thinking in addition to his surroundings. I am not fully an introvert, but I do find myself in situations in which I do not want to talk and others always attempt to make assumptions in regards to reasons for this. My (least) favorite ones are, “Are you alright?” and “What’s wrong?” This is due to the fact that there is usually nothing wrong when they ask me this but the very question is annoying to me. When they ask this and there is something wrong I usually don’t want to talk about it anyways. I do have this look on my face that makes things look like something’s wrong when many times I am really just fine or zoning out. Oh well. It doesn’t matter how many times I ask people to stop asking these b.s. questions; they never do even though I’m not fully an introvert. I guess I am what people would call a selective introvert. It works just like selective hearing except it is not always a conscious decision. It comes about from a certain (more tired usually) state of mind being bombarded with trivial questions. People who know me know I can be loud just as much as I can be quiet, but in this story I want to focus more on why the teenager is an introvert and the sometimes unexplainable nature of this phenomenon. I want to go right inside his head while also focusing on the details of where he is, what he is doing, and how he reacts. I want to make a story in which silence becomes lively (through thought.) Through his thoughts I would like to convey the character’s imperfect yet persistent personality and all of the troubles and hardship this quiet nature can cause. I may want to propose the introversion as a natural state of mind that is irreversible, or I may want to focus on how this character grows to overcome his introversion. I am still uncertain of all the details but I need to start brainstorming and writing story maps like I haven’t done for quite some time because this creates the ability to make the story full and cohesive rather than starting a story I only hope to finish which has been a bad habit of my attempts as of lately. I shall overcome this through mapping out my story for once. I again realize the essential nature of actually planning the story.
The following song did not exactly inspire this idea but it did come to mind when I thought to write it. It is one of my favorite Shadows Fall songs of all time and it is slower you you can probably handle it even if you’re not a metal head. Here are the lyrics.
Shadows Fall- The Art of Balance
I am sheltered by this apathy
Nothing left to do but torch the day
Retreating deeper into my mind
What is it that i hope to find?
This is the aftermath in me
Tendency to keep it all inside
A fool’s disguise
I am strangled by this sympathy
Empty words with no meaning
Must release myself into the void
All illusions must be destroyed
This is the aftermath in me
Tendency to keep it all
How dare you compromise
The balance of our lives
Excuses you devise
An internal suicide
I struggle to survive
A perfect goal for which to strive
Ignorance cannot disguise
The balance of our lives
Hiding the meaning of
Hiding the meaning of
Feel free to offer me any criticism of this intended form or ideas to help the story seem as realistic as possible/ easy to follow. Thanks.
My story has changed a lot from the original draft. Characters have come and gone and the plot has changed about a dozen times. Is this normal?
I’m a little torn. I really like the characters and the plot I have now but its not as “big” as the last plot. Not as much happens and I’m worried that this is a bad thing. Does it really matter? Is it ok if a story isn’t ”big” if it has creative characters and funny situations?
In my Comm 255 course, my prof. told us a story about a convicted bank robber/ slash murder she did a story on (she is a reporter). Shortly after the story broke of his escape, his mother called the paper to submit an obituary for the paper about the escaped convict. My prof. happened to be the person who answered the phone, and she recognized the man’s name. He had been murdered in Mexico and Mexican authorities were sending his body back. The Feds were still looking for him, and wanted to examine his body to be sure it was really the escapee. My prof. was the only person the mother of the deceased would speak to, so her editor forced her to do a press conference and be interviewed by other media who were interested in the story. Another twist is that my prof. was 6 months pregnant, and her family didn’t know. She didn’t want the interview to expose her.
I thought this may be an interesting short story written from the reporter’s point of view.
For our 407 collab story, I want to write the story of the girl whose fiance dies. I’m considering making her pregnant. Is that too much?
I think I will use the mines as the catalyst for this tragedy. I’m planning on having them communicate through dreams and strange occurances. He is trying to tell her something. What point of view would work best?
I want to be in her head, but I don’t if it would be easiest to stay there, or if it would be better to be omniscent. I kind of wanted her family to be rich, and disapproving of her choice of mate; Kind of a “Pretty in Pink” scenario but backwards, with some twists, death, and a much more bizarre ending.
Any suggestions?
I’m currently working on a story about a little girl who is molested and abused at the hands of the babysitters. I’m at the point of the molestation, and am unsure where to go. I don’t know if I should give details, or skim over the event. Similarly, I don’t know if I should just stop it at the point just before the molestation, or continue on and let the girl tell and the molester recieve his punnishment. Here’s the paragraph I can’t seem to get past:
I asked him if the other girls were going to play, and he said, “No, of course not! They’ll never play with you. You’re naughty. This isn’t a fun game. This is punishment”. And he undid his robe. Usually, he would pull the thing our through his pants hole, but this time he was totally naked. His old wrinkly body still makes me cringe. I can see his body, but no face. Perhaps it was too scary to look at.
I read and have noticed that some students are having issues with grammar and punctuation. I also have difficulty remembering all of teh little rules, so I have compiled a list of sites that may be helpful.
I have found more resources for our 407 collabrative story. Here’s a link to a site with a bunch of stories from Appalachian people who worked in coal mines. I found it very helpful
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