I've discovered something that can be kind of interesting if used right.
My play for FYEC is going to involve dragons and people who contemplate suicide. I know that much for certain. However, I making my main character, who attempted suicide multiple times, also fluent in Old Draconic (like Old English for dragons), which brings up the interesting point: will she kill the dragon, negotiate with the dragon, or talk to the dragon in Old Draconic and win it over? (I'm not telling you this. I already know. I've already written that part).
But this proposes an interesting alternative to dragon-slaying.
Yes, yes, I know, fantasy is supposed to teach us that dragons can be beaten. But 'beaten' does not mean 'killed.' 'Beaten' means foiled, quashed, clobbered - not killed.
As the (modified) saying goes, there's more than one way to clobber a dragon. Just some of the ways are more difficult than others. The easy way out is just to kill it (though, considering it's twelve times your size and can breathe fire, might not be that easy); the more difficult way is to talk it out with the dragon; this may be only more difficult because the dragon is older and larger and smarter than you, and a battle of the wits is one of many situations where a Dragon of Old benefits from having a larger brain than you (it means it has plenty of room to think about gold and also clobbering humans).
Of course, talking to the dragon is dumb, according to every movie and fairy tale ever. Who talks to dragons? Who gets along with dragons? WHO CARES ABOUT THE DRAGON'S OPINION?
The dragons care about their opinion, thanks very much.
Showing posts with label one-act. Show all posts
Showing posts with label one-act. Show all posts
Friday, March 22, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
On things in a Series
Last week, my J-term one-act was read in my First Year Course (the course has to do with theater). Having something I put effort into be read in normal circumstances is rather unnerving; I don't know whether I wanted to be excited or terrified about having people read this draft. I'd actually put effort into it! It had been revised more than once! I didn't think it was atrocious, but it wasn't exactly the next Great American One-Act.
Anyway, the point of this is that one of the critiques I got from my theatre professor is that it felt like it could be a part of a series - that there were other things later on that could be learned. While I agree with him on that point, I have no idea how I'm going to do that, or whether I should, and in what format I should do it in (stage play, screenplay, one-act, novel...).
Anyway, the point, I feel, of things in a series is that there has to be some overarching plot, unless they're the shows like 30 Rock or Big Bang Theory where the alternate title could just be The Misadventures of Sheldon and Liz Lemon. If this thing continued into a series, it would have to be the sort of series that has continuity and an overarching sort of idea. The thing is, though, I don't know if I have enough ideas for that, and every show - especially TV series - peters out sometime. Take Glee, for example. I mean, I haven't watched in a while, so I can't be sure, but it seems to have lost a lot of the long-term goals that it had at the start of the first season. They haven't had any multi-part episodes that I recall since the first time they went to Regionals; even outside of the two-part Regionals bit, there were still allusions to the fact that it was looming on the horizon. Late into the third season, though, it became more about the singing and dancing and the theme episodes than the overarching plot, though with some relationship drama.
At any rate, things in a series need to be sustainable. You could write like Jon Flanagan (author of the Ranger's Apprentice series of ten books) and have plots span several books with continuity still between them - you can lump the first four books together, then books five through seven, then books eight through ten (I'm pretty sure my numbers are wrong on that, since I don't have my copies at school, but you get the general idea).
I don't know whether or not I'll write a series based on this one-act. If I do, it won't be for a few months - I have novels to finish writing.
Anyway, what do you, fair readers, think of this?
Anyway, the point of this is that one of the critiques I got from my theatre professor is that it felt like it could be a part of a series - that there were other things later on that could be learned. While I agree with him on that point, I have no idea how I'm going to do that, or whether I should, and in what format I should do it in (stage play, screenplay, one-act, novel...).
Anyway, the point, I feel, of things in a series is that there has to be some overarching plot, unless they're the shows like 30 Rock or Big Bang Theory where the alternate title could just be The Misadventures of Sheldon and Liz Lemon. If this thing continued into a series, it would have to be the sort of series that has continuity and an overarching sort of idea. The thing is, though, I don't know if I have enough ideas for that, and every show - especially TV series - peters out sometime. Take Glee, for example. I mean, I haven't watched in a while, so I can't be sure, but it seems to have lost a lot of the long-term goals that it had at the start of the first season. They haven't had any multi-part episodes that I recall since the first time they went to Regionals; even outside of the two-part Regionals bit, there were still allusions to the fact that it was looming on the horizon. Late into the third season, though, it became more about the singing and dancing and the theme episodes than the overarching plot, though with some relationship drama.
At any rate, things in a series need to be sustainable. You could write like Jon Flanagan (author of the Ranger's Apprentice series of ten books) and have plots span several books with continuity still between them - you can lump the first four books together, then books five through seven, then books eight through ten (I'm pretty sure my numbers are wrong on that, since I don't have my copies at school, but you get the general idea).
I don't know whether or not I'll write a series based on this one-act. If I do, it won't be for a few months - I have novels to finish writing.
Anyway, what do you, fair readers, think of this?
Monday, January 28, 2013
Final Weeks
My J-term class ends on Friday. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm excited that we're going to be on break and that spring semester is coming, but I'll be sad to see the excessive amount of time leave.
More relevant, I'm also not sure how I'm going to feel about the final product of the class. If there's one thing I've learned about my own writing process, it's that the editing part is never done. I have a measly seven scenes - I originally had eight, but one got cut before it got typed up - but all of the editing won't help my nerves, in the end. Does the pacing work? Are the characters relatable? Will anyone be able to pronounce Siofra's real name? Am I using too many cliches? Is the timing right? The list goes on.
I know the reason that I'm getting nervous about it, too - more nervous than my other writing. It has nothing to do with my peers accepting it as decent work - that was what I had issue with at the beginning of the course, a long time ago when I only had to write five pages. At this point, the trouble is me accepting it as decent work. When you spend just as much time editing a piece as you do writing it (more time, actually), you tend to worry about it. If this were a longer work, it would be like a child. You want the best for it, but sometimes it gives you hell. A lot of times, actually. Some things you love to go over, other things you fear to even glance at.
Though this is not my longest work - it barely counts as 30 pages, even with the title page, the character list, and the page-happy formatting that a script must follow - it's still causing me a bit of worry. In comparison to some other people in the class, I think I'll do fine, and I don't mind how it's written, but sometimes I wonder how it would turn out if I had done things differently. I could have killed my main character. I could have made the future relationship of two of my characters less ambiguous. I could have made one character more sympathetic to the antagonistic party.
When it comes to it, though, I'm glad I had the chance to do this course. It taught me how not to format a script, and it taught me what to look at and what to ask when going through the editing process.
More relevant, I'm also not sure how I'm going to feel about the final product of the class. If there's one thing I've learned about my own writing process, it's that the editing part is never done. I have a measly seven scenes - I originally had eight, but one got cut before it got typed up - but all of the editing won't help my nerves, in the end. Does the pacing work? Are the characters relatable? Will anyone be able to pronounce Siofra's real name? Am I using too many cliches? Is the timing right? The list goes on.
I know the reason that I'm getting nervous about it, too - more nervous than my other writing. It has nothing to do with my peers accepting it as decent work - that was what I had issue with at the beginning of the course, a long time ago when I only had to write five pages. At this point, the trouble is me accepting it as decent work. When you spend just as much time editing a piece as you do writing it (more time, actually), you tend to worry about it. If this were a longer work, it would be like a child. You want the best for it, but sometimes it gives you hell. A lot of times, actually. Some things you love to go over, other things you fear to even glance at.
Though this is not my longest work - it barely counts as 30 pages, even with the title page, the character list, and the page-happy formatting that a script must follow - it's still causing me a bit of worry. In comparison to some other people in the class, I think I'll do fine, and I don't mind how it's written, but sometimes I wonder how it would turn out if I had done things differently. I could have killed my main character. I could have made the future relationship of two of my characters less ambiguous. I could have made one character more sympathetic to the antagonistic party.
When it comes to it, though, I'm glad I had the chance to do this course. It taught me how not to format a script, and it taught me what to look at and what to ask when going through the editing process.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
another week of writing
I'm halfway through the second week of J-term now, and, for the record, J-term has come with a few surprises, not all of them bad.
Good things:
1. I have way more free time than I do during the normal semester. If I don't want to go to the gym in the morning, I don't have to wake up until 9:30 or 10:00. After maybe 1:45 or 2:00, when I'm done with class and lunch, I have almost nothing to do except homework until 6:00, which is our normal dinner time.
2. The spare time has led me to actually get to the gym, which is always nice (except when I get scared of judgement from the actual athletes). Also, I actually have time to write for my class, which is nice, but I also tend to procrastinate on my own writing because of podcasts and yarn. Nevertheless, J-term has been fun so far because of all the time I can actually use now.
3. Since I actually have time to do homework during the day and I don't have to wake up early, the evenings can be spent doing things other than sleeping (sleeping does get involved). These new activities include Apples to Apples, Capture the Flag, Marco Polo (played on the football field and not in the pool), and Hide and Seek. All of these activities have commenced at around 10:00 PM and proceeded until midnight or later, which is fine, because I can still get sleep.
4. The course itself is really interesting - though it is a workshop class, the feedback really helps with what I'm writing.
Bad things:
1. Though the class is fun and I like that I get to write, sometimes the peer editing aspect can get kind of irritating. Don't get me wrong: I do like to read and comment on other people's writing, as well as receive feedback on my own. However, quite a few people in my class seem to be unaware that Spelling and Grammar check is correct on many occasions (there are times when it is incorrect, but when one is in college, one should be able to tell the difference). Sometimes I have to edit my classmates' grammar and spelling as I read their work because it can get rather distracting.
2. Sometimes having all of the extra time can get kind of boring. Though it's easy to find ways to pass the time, afternoons can get long, tedious, and unproductive.
In all, though, I'm glad I took the J-term class that I chose: at the very least, it shows me how not to write a script.
Good things:
1. I have way more free time than I do during the normal semester. If I don't want to go to the gym in the morning, I don't have to wake up until 9:30 or 10:00. After maybe 1:45 or 2:00, when I'm done with class and lunch, I have almost nothing to do except homework until 6:00, which is our normal dinner time.
2. The spare time has led me to actually get to the gym, which is always nice (except when I get scared of judgement from the actual athletes). Also, I actually have time to write for my class, which is nice, but I also tend to procrastinate on my own writing because of podcasts and yarn. Nevertheless, J-term has been fun so far because of all the time I can actually use now.
3. Since I actually have time to do homework during the day and I don't have to wake up early, the evenings can be spent doing things other than sleeping (sleeping does get involved). These new activities include Apples to Apples, Capture the Flag, Marco Polo (played on the football field and not in the pool), and Hide and Seek. All of these activities have commenced at around 10:00 PM and proceeded until midnight or later, which is fine, because I can still get sleep.
4. The course itself is really interesting - though it is a workshop class, the feedback really helps with what I'm writing.
Bad things:
1. Though the class is fun and I like that I get to write, sometimes the peer editing aspect can get kind of irritating. Don't get me wrong: I do like to read and comment on other people's writing, as well as receive feedback on my own. However, quite a few people in my class seem to be unaware that Spelling and Grammar check is correct on many occasions (there are times when it is incorrect, but when one is in college, one should be able to tell the difference). Sometimes I have to edit my classmates' grammar and spelling as I read their work because it can get rather distracting.
2. Sometimes having all of the extra time can get kind of boring. Though it's easy to find ways to pass the time, afternoons can get long, tedious, and unproductive.
In all, though, I'm glad I took the J-term class that I chose: at the very least, it shows me how not to write a script.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Homework...
Well, I got homework on the first day of J-term. For once, I am actually kind of excited about doing my homework (being excited about doing homework? Yes, that can happen. Who knew?).
As I may or may not have mentioned, my J-term course is called "The Playwright's Process," where the final is a one-act that is fully written, edited, and thought out. This is turning out to be (in the one class I have attended of this course) more of a workshop environment than one of instruction - there will be a lot more peer editing than I expected, and a lot less of the professor saying, "LET ME TEACH YOU HOW TO WRITE A ONE-ACT!"
About an hour ago, I went to have a meeting with my professor about my one-act - everyone has to, just to brainstorm ideas about what each of us is going to write about. From that, the professor has given us each an assignment that is supposed to help us figure out what we are going to write about further (at least, that is what is happening for mine, because I need to work some details out). I have to do two scenes: first, a scene in which the murder victim is the main character, and has to persuade the murderer not to kill them; second, a scene in which the being tasked with the murder is the main character, and, to maintain the secrecy of their mission and society, they must convince a relative of the victim to kill the victim. This is supposed to be to help me decide which side I want to focus on - the secret society, or the being who investigates it (and who may or may not wind up dead).
So far, I think I like this course. The professor is interesting, and the discussion today really helped with just generating ideas. I came in with half a plot I threw together in ten minutes, but came out with something that I can actually work with (I'm not saying what it is, because I haven't finalized it yet, but I'm excited). The main parts of the story - a secret society and a murder - are things that I don't normally write, because I feel that I'm really bad at coming up with plot twists and good reasons for a secret to be kept (she did once say that a secrecy motive I suggested was boring, which is really true. I don't remember what it was, but I remember agreeing with her).
Anyway, I have to go forth and do cool stuff. Farewell.
As I may or may not have mentioned, my J-term course is called "The Playwright's Process," where the final is a one-act that is fully written, edited, and thought out. This is turning out to be (in the one class I have attended of this course) more of a workshop environment than one of instruction - there will be a lot more peer editing than I expected, and a lot less of the professor saying, "LET ME TEACH YOU HOW TO WRITE A ONE-ACT!"
About an hour ago, I went to have a meeting with my professor about my one-act - everyone has to, just to brainstorm ideas about what each of us is going to write about. From that, the professor has given us each an assignment that is supposed to help us figure out what we are going to write about further (at least, that is what is happening for mine, because I need to work some details out). I have to do two scenes: first, a scene in which the murder victim is the main character, and has to persuade the murderer not to kill them; second, a scene in which the being tasked with the murder is the main character, and, to maintain the secrecy of their mission and society, they must convince a relative of the victim to kill the victim. This is supposed to be to help me decide which side I want to focus on - the secret society, or the being who investigates it (and who may or may not wind up dead).
So far, I think I like this course. The professor is interesting, and the discussion today really helped with just generating ideas. I came in with half a plot I threw together in ten minutes, but came out with something that I can actually work with (I'm not saying what it is, because I haven't finalized it yet, but I'm excited). The main parts of the story - a secret society and a murder - are things that I don't normally write, because I feel that I'm really bad at coming up with plot twists and good reasons for a secret to be kept (she did once say that a secrecy motive I suggested was boring, which is really true. I don't remember what it was, but I remember agreeing with her).
Anyway, I have to go forth and do cool stuff. Farewell.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
On length of tale
I realized something fully last night that has been in my mind for about four years now.
I admitted to my parents that I think in novels, and I can very rarely fit all my ideas into a short story. We got on this topic when we started talking about my January Term (henceforth referred to as J-Term) course, The Playwright's Process. The final is not a normal final: it's a fully written, developed, and edited one-act. For those of you who aren't fully familiar with the world of theatre, one-acts are generally the short stories or novellas of the stage (you can, theoretically, resolve a larger plot line in a one-act, but I've never seen it done; after a point, you need more acts). One-acts are generally between 20 - 45 minutes long (again, you could see longer one-acts, but I haven't); according to Wikipedia, a new sub-genre has started called "flash dramas" - one-acts that are only around 10 minutes long.
Anyway, this J-Term course is going to be a challenge for me. As I previously stated, I think in novels - stories that take two or three acts to resolve. To scale down one's thinking is something you rarely hear - most motivators I've heard tell their listeners to think big and shoot for the moon.
But maybe scaling down my thinking is not what I need to do. Maybe I just need to think differently. Not scaled-down, exactly, but just not as big a scale. Maybe I should think big, but not as big as I'm used to thinking. Maybe, over the course of this J-term, I will realize that I'm actually more of a short-story writer than a novel-writer, and I've been fooling myself this whole time. I admit, I need to put my characters through a fat lot of crap before they make it to the end when I'm writing a novel, but I always have trouble coming up with more than a little bit of crap to throw in their faces. Maybe that's the main difference: the crap that gets thrown at people is a different sort of crap than the crap in novels (smaller, perhaps, but no less disgusting), and the hands that throw it are smaller than the ones that throw crap in longer works.
So, dear readers, what do you think? Any one-act/ novella/ short-story writers out there who would like to share some opinions on the writing process? Anyone who's done both and would like to offer sage advice to a college student? Feel free to comment!
I admitted to my parents that I think in novels, and I can very rarely fit all my ideas into a short story. We got on this topic when we started talking about my January Term (henceforth referred to as J-Term) course, The Playwright's Process. The final is not a normal final: it's a fully written, developed, and edited one-act. For those of you who aren't fully familiar with the world of theatre, one-acts are generally the short stories or novellas of the stage (you can, theoretically, resolve a larger plot line in a one-act, but I've never seen it done; after a point, you need more acts). One-acts are generally between 20 - 45 minutes long (again, you could see longer one-acts, but I haven't); according to Wikipedia, a new sub-genre has started called "flash dramas" - one-acts that are only around 10 minutes long.
Anyway, this J-Term course is going to be a challenge for me. As I previously stated, I think in novels - stories that take two or three acts to resolve. To scale down one's thinking is something you rarely hear - most motivators I've heard tell their listeners to think big and shoot for the moon.
But maybe scaling down my thinking is not what I need to do. Maybe I just need to think differently. Not scaled-down, exactly, but just not as big a scale. Maybe I should think big, but not as big as I'm used to thinking. Maybe, over the course of this J-term, I will realize that I'm actually more of a short-story writer than a novel-writer, and I've been fooling myself this whole time. I admit, I need to put my characters through a fat lot of crap before they make it to the end when I'm writing a novel, but I always have trouble coming up with more than a little bit of crap to throw in their faces. Maybe that's the main difference: the crap that gets thrown at people is a different sort of crap than the crap in novels (smaller, perhaps, but no less disgusting), and the hands that throw it are smaller than the ones that throw crap in longer works.
So, dear readers, what do you think? Any one-act/ novella/ short-story writers out there who would like to share some opinions on the writing process? Anyone who's done both and would like to offer sage advice to a college student? Feel free to comment!
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