Film Club 3/19/10

The meeting last week last week was pretty successful as we were able to finalize the characters that we hope to have in the movie. We pretty much know what they're gonna do, and we've made some very good progress on the script, and hopefully will be done with it soon. As the ideas behind the characters have been finalized and they seem rather solid. We also finally named our main character, and we wanted him to have a relatively common name, but not so common it's cliche. So we settled on Jack. And we were sure we didn't want him to have a last name, because we felt that a last name would merely give the character too much of an identity, when the whole point of the story was to keep his identity fuzzy and keep him questioning everything. We want the whole situation to somehow have this unreal sense to the whole thing, and to sustain a feeling of mysteriousness of the whole experience.
I feel that I have grown tremendously through this experience, as I have definitely learned much more about movies and film through this process, though there is undoubtedly still room for improvement. I also feel that I can look at movies in a different way now.

Creative Writing 3/17/10

I was able to present my story last week, and got lots of feedback, and recommendations on how to improve my story. I think I've got the plot line now, and how it'll eventually end, but it's not certain as of now. But as for the meeting last thursday I felt I got sufficient feedback to improve the story. I feel that it's come along pretty good. Obviously there is still room for improvement, but I like how it's going. The ending I have may seem a bit harsh and maybe a bit depressing, but I think that's how it has to end. It's not supposed to be happy.

The part that I put forth at the meeting last week began with a flashback, something I think will be integral to this story, because he is being hunted by his past. The majority of the story takes place in the past, and what he's doing now as a result of that past and how he's dealing. I feel I have grown as a writer over this period, and my writing has definitely improved, although there are areas I could work on, and there are still time's when it's hard to get the audience to connect to the story, but overall, I am a better writer for it.

The portion I submitted for review for the meeting last week:

And the bullets struck. Moving in slow motion he toppled over backwards, blood spurting from his wounds, falling, falling…

He woke up shaking, sweating. He hated it. He hated having to relive hell every time he slept. He hated it all. Sometimes he hated living.

After work later that day, he decided that he didn’t want to go through actually making himself dinner, and despite his misgivings, ended up at the same fast food joint he’d eaten at the night before. The night when Gerald paid him a visit.

“You never used to be this predictable”

“Your term’s run over.”

“So?”

“Your task force is supposed to be disbanded.”
“Supposed to be? Really?”
“I already said no.”

“I’m telling you that you can’t.”
“Watch Me.”

“You know, I would’ve been able to find you at any restaurant, but coming beck to the same one, that’s just making it easy.”

“You’d have found me either way. Might as well get it over with.”
“You always were stubborn.”

He didn’t respond. He didn’t know what he was doing. He remembered what he’d done. And yet there was an eerie thrill that his missed. The idea that somebody wasn’t coming home. The thrill he hated. The addictive air of danger. He wasn’t normal. He didn’t know what normal was. But he hated it as much as he longed for it. And he couldn’t do it any more. Couldn’t tear his soul apart any more. He didn’t care if he lived or if he died. He just didn’t want to torture his soul anymore. And then Gerald’s voice cut into his consciousness.

“You’re a journalist now. Never pegged you to have the writer in you.”
“You’d be surprised.”

“So, how long you been working there?”
“Oh, cut the crap. If you found me, you know what I’ve been doing. Hell, you probably know what I’ve had for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the past six months. So don’t screw with me. Now, if you don’t mind I’m gonna leave. And if you follow me I’ll kill you.”

Gerald just smiled as he walked away. Bastard.

What was he thinking? Why’d he go back there? He didn’t get it. He didn’t want to go back to that. He walked across the kitchen, shaking his head, took a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water. Why’d he go back? He drank some of the water. What the hell was he thinking? What good could possibly come from it?

“GOD DAMN IT!” He shouted and threw the glass against the wall. He looked at the broken glass on the ground. “God damn it.” What now?

Creative Writing 3/9/10

I submitted the second passage of my story, and hope to receive some feedback Thursday, so I'll be able to further improve this story, as I've already gone over the first passage and it seems better, and hopefully I'll be able to see if I need more work on this piece, and thereby be able to include these suggestions in further passages of this work and others.
Overall I feel that I've been able to grow as a writer over my time in this club, as I've been able to identify areas where I may need to pay more attention, as well as having possible trouble areas pointed out to me by other members of the club. This has led me to become better aware of my strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and allows me to best utilize my skills as a writer to produce a story that can resonate with the reader and stick with them.
This second part of my story is, I feel, a better first draft than the original draft of the previous part. It is more concrete, and as I have established the general idea of the story, and, at least in my opinion, the whole story therefore flows better and smoother than the original piece at first try, although there is undoubtedly room for improvement. As a whole, the story still has a long time to go, and I've already written out the next part, although that part is not finalized, it should be ready by the meeting after this Thursday's, and I will hopefully be ready to submit it this weekend. I also hope to be able to combine parts 4 and 5 and submit them together, and hopefully those five will turn out to be the first chapter.

Film Club 3/1/10

Over break we were able to assign various duties to each member of the club, and some were to work on the script over break, whereas others would be focused on possible methods of lighting and art; possible props and storyboards. I was designated, along with three or four others, to work on the script for the movie, and we will be coming together Friday to discuss the progress we've made on the movie as a whole. Additionally we will go over the script that we've written and edit it during the meeting.
Over the break we were able to make some headway with the script, and have at least the first scene down. The script overall leaves a little to be desired, but I think we've got it down pretty good.

Creative Writing 3/1/10

Over the break I was able to complete two more parts of the story, although I feel they are to short to be considered chapters, I will most likely combine the first 5 or 6 parts to form the first chapter of my story. Though it is coming along nicely as there is now a clear beggining and I feel that the story is coming together nicely. I don't think I'll submit it until the meeting after next, as there are still things I'm unsure of, but hopefully they will be resolved by then and I will be able to present the story and get helpful feedback.
Also, there have been a couple stories that I never finished that I think I may be interested in starting up again, with possible revisions. One I got the beginning down, but just ended up disliking it and the other I wrote a couple pages out handwritten, but just never got around to continuing, and the final one was one that I wrote the first sentence of, and then realized I had NO idea where I wanted it to go. The first two I think I'd be able to continue, but the third one I'm still unsure of. I'd like to see it go somewhere but I don't know where that somewhere is.

Creative Writing 2/4/10

I have continued on the with the story that I have submitted last week, and I have written another part to it, in which I hope I've maintained the degree of suspense which I started out, as well as hopefully to widen the mystery of the story. If I can keep that suspense up I will hopefully be able to successfully pursue this story.

I have also begun a second story, and have finished it's prologue, which starts really suddenly, and rather then being really suspenseful, it lands right in the middle of a battle scene, which also, in a way, helps to build up some suspense. Hopefully this will be followed by more and will build a compelling story.

Over the time I have been in creative writing club I believe I have been able to grow as a writer. The plot of my stories seem to be more solid than they would have been 6 months ago, and my style, I believe, has improved. I write with more purpose and a greater attention to detail than I used to. I've also taken to doing something else recently. I used to begin my stories typing, but now I hand write them out first so as to better form them. It seems odd, but handwriting them actually helps, and by first doing it out on paper I am forced to read the story over while transferring it to the computer, so I edit it while typing it. It seems to really help me and improves my stories.

Film Club 2/4/10 (1/29 meeting)

Last week in Film Club we did not get much done. We determined that there would be a need for some kind of rig for our camera, but as the majority of the club was not there we got absolutely nothing else done. Hopefully tommorow's meeting will yield more results, and we'll be able to get something more significant done. Hopefullly.

We also have started the script, meaning we have a piece of paper with "script" written across the top, but no actual script as of yet. Again, hopefully we will be able to make some inroads on this in tommorow's meeting. But, as of yet, we don't have a start; we've agreed we need to start it, but haven't actually started it.

Creative Writing 1/28/10

This is the part of the story that I had submitted yesterday and which was reviewed today:

He woke up suddenly, shaking, sweating. He had gone back. Back to the past. That horrifying, deadly, appalling past. The past he wanted to forget. The past that he couldn’t forget. The past that haunted him. The past that cursed him. The past that was, thankfully, no more.

He looked at the clock. It was half past two in the morning. “What the hell?” he thought. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. Not now that his past had reared its haunting specter. He might as well do something. He’d run it off, like always. This wasn’t the first time he’d woken at two in the morning. And he doubted it’d be his last time.

Five hours later he walked into the office. He was a journalist now, and did reasonably well. He began to approach his editor, who’d pissed him off the day before for refusing to let him pursue a story, but decided that another disagreement would probably get him fired. Well, not probably. Definitely. He was too much of a loose canon. So he went back to his desk and proceeded to begin the story his editor wanted him to pursue. He was an idiot, but that wasn’t a surprise. It seemed that all the people he’d ever worked for were idiots.

He decided to grab a bite before heading home. He pulled into the lot of the nearest fast-food joint, and went inside. He got his food, and went over to a table and had just begun to eat when he heard that hellish voice that had haunted him for years.

“Still eating your way into your grave?”

He closed his eyes. Prayed to god he’d imagined it. He opened his eyes and turned around. He hadn’t. Damn. It was him. Gerald. No last name, just Gerald. The man who’d controlled him. Who’d damned him. The one man he never wanted to see. And he was back. Damn.

“What do you want?”
“Now come on, no asking how I am?”
“No. What do you want?”

“Really, there is no need for hostilities.”

“I want to kill you.”

“If you wanted me dead, I’d be dead. And so would you. And you’re not into suicide.”

“Maybe I should be.”

“You’re not the type.”

“What do you want?”
“You need to come back”

“There is no way in hell I’d come back.”

“One way or another you’re coming back.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just what I said.”

“No.”

“You don’t want to say no to me.”

“I just did.”

“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

And with that Gerald got up and left. He shook his head, trying and failing to clear the demons away. He went back to his meal. Yet as he went to his care he had a strange feeling of unease. Something was wrong.

Most of the areas for improvement centered on the style of the story, areas where there could be improvement. Also we discussed parts that seemed to work well, and parts that didn't work as well. They seemed to like the short sentences, but said I may have overdone them, with to much repetition, and looking at it, I'm inclined to agree with them. They also mentioned other areas where there was too much repetition. That seemed to be the main thing I got wrong, that I used to much repetition throughout the story. But, overall, I think my story went pretty well.

Creative Writing

I finished up the beginning to the story and have submitted it. I feel reasonably well about it, although there are still some parts that trouble me, but hopefully I'll get some advice on it tomorrow. There is one important element I've maintained throughout the beginning; the mystery behind the main character. I want to keep him as much of a mystery as possible. I've avoided using his name at all, which I hope will help me accomplish the mysterious element. The whole idea is he has a really bad past, and it comes back. I've no idea how I'm gonna finish it but at least I finished part of it.

Creative Writing

I've got a good beginning of story, but there is an aspect that seems to be missing. The whole story flows good at some points, and at others there seems to be slight loggerheads. I feel like I've been able to maintain a sense of mystery in relation to the identity of the main character's past, which I feel is an important aspect of this particular story, and I'll probably be able to bring it in for the meeting Thursday. Hopefully then I'll be able to get more feedback on it and enhance it.

Sturgis Soundings Review

I hope to have completed by the end of the week a review on one book that has had a profound impact on me, Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy, which was perhaps the most compelling fictional story that I've read, mainly because I find it harder to connect with older books, and one thing that has always stood out to me about this book is the factor that sets of World War Three in the book: oil.

Creative Writing January Meetings

I made one and I missed one. But I should have a passage ready for next thursday's meeting. I am still having trouble satying with the story, and have edited the same 20 lines at least ten times. It's frustrating, starting a story and not coming back to it for weeks, and then not knowing where you wanted to go with it. But when I can complete the thought it turns out to be very succesful; so my main problem is putting my head to the grindstone.

Film Club, January 8th and 15th

We have started our planning process the past two weeks and only recently have I realized how limited we are in what we can do as well as our ability to acually brainstorm. Yet we have managed to come up with what seems to be a rather compelling and interesting story. But we are making some progress, and it's looking like we'll be able to do it. How well it may turn out is another story.

I feel that I have become more able to effectively engage in conversations dealing with film and the aspects of it. I already feel as if I've learned alot and we are still in the planning process. It should be interesting to see what happens when we get to the making and shooting process. Very interesting.