September 2010 Archives

This is the first version for my remix project for Writing for the Internet. Everything in cursive text are from different works by Poe. I was going to have readers play the "Guess what this is from" game but most of them are pretty obvious.

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Oh and here's my works cited. workscitedpoe.doc

For those who don't know, Writer's Digest is a bi-monthly magazine that features great articles about writing. They just celebrated their 90th year last year.

While I was browsing their site, I came across an interesting article: http://www.writersdigest.com/article/The_10_Commandments_of_Fiction_Writing/

In a nutshell, the article states that even though every writer is different, there are just certain rules that you HAVE TO FOLLOW. Like me, you might have already seen most of what's on the list. One of the most important rules to remember though is #8-Develop thick skin. Think about it, besides you there are thousands upon thousands of people who are trying to get their work published. With so many people to go through, sooner or later you're going to get rejected. You shouldn't feel discouraged though. In fact, it should prompt you to work harder.

This is a summary post of all the entries I have made thus far for my Writing for the Internet class. The main theme of my blog is Creative Writing, but I have one or two other blog posts mixed in. There's also a link to my Twitter. But before I go on, I'm going to list specific things I learned in this class:

1. Wikipedia is not evil er... I mean that even if some random person edits it, sooner or later the page is going to be corrected by someone who knows what he/she is doing.

2. Being a Twit isn't so bad or in other words... Twitter is a great place to keep up with things such as politics, fashion, media, etc. Oh and here's a link to my Twitter

Now on to the portfolio!

Interaction-Classmates posts on which I commented (LOL and OMG do not count).

Live an Interesting Life--Get Arrested- A post by DJ Beckage about living a meaningful life.

Leo Bloomed-Kaitlin Monier talks about her favorite children's book Leo Bloomed.

Woe is Me a Writer I Will Not Be-April Minerd talks about battling your inner critic.

VMAs What Celebs Wore-Ashley Bamgbopa lists some pics of what stars wore to the MTV VMAs.

Reunion with a Long Lost Friend-Kaitlin Monier rediscovers her love of coffee.

Depth-Posts on my blog where I had something meaningful to say.

Thoughts of a Creative Writing Major-A post talking about how music is one of my muses.

Let's Talk About Characters! Part 1-Naming-First in a series of posts about fictional characters, I talk about my process of naming characters. Includes a helpful link to a site about creating characters.

Discussion-A classmates blog where I contributed to a bigger discussion.

Leo Bloomed-I know I already used this for interaction, but I thought it would fit this section.

Outside Material-Entries in which I refer to something not related to blogging (video, link, etc.)

This is Why I Read Writer's Digest-A post about an article on the Writer's Digest site called The 10 Commandments of Writing Fiction.

Ethos-Entries in which I show the type of writer/blogger I am.

Thoughts of a Creative Writing Major

Let's Talk About Characters! Part 2-Personality-Explanation on what I think I good personality for a character should be.

Convention-A post where I talk about how things work on the internet (blogging, etc.)

I'm a Twit, Man-A spotlight on the 140 character limit on Twitter.

Sometimes creating a believable character is hard. For me, even if a story has a good plot I'll move on to something else if I don't like the character(s). I'm not a fan of totally helpless characters. I'm not saying that all characters need to be super intelligent and have fighting abilities at a master level, they just need to have at least one strength. Now if a minor character was totallly helpless I wouldn't mind as much if they were needed to progress the story. Personality is also a key part for making characters memorable. I could list some examples, but a memorable character for me may not be memorable for someone else.

When I create personalities for my characters, it's a long process. First, I write a little biography of sorts for them, then I would write a sample scene with them to see if that personality would fit the situation I presented on the page.

So what do you do when creating personalities for your characters?

As a writer, I've never been a fan of word/character limits. Mostly everyone knows that the limit on Twitter is 140. At first I thought that didn't seem like much to work with. However, I realized that the 140 limit is in fact a good thing; it really makes you think about what you're going to type. One simple rule to remember when using Twitter: GET TO THE POINT. If you start going into detail you'll find yourself using your character limit. You only have so many words to work with so make them count.

For my Writing for the Internet class, we have to do a remix project. This means taking something that already exists and making a spoof of sorts. For example, taking footage from one trailer and putting it with audio from a completely different movie trailer. My answers to these questions are an outline of sorts.

Planning

Which works, or what kind of works, would you like to mash up or recombine? Why?
--I'm going to say either poetry or stories for this one. I'd love to do video, but sadly I have no clue about using those kind of programs.

What is your goal in recombining elements from this work or these works? What do you want to say or do?
--If you've seen my 'remix' of Dickinson's poem "Hope", I tend not to be too serious about it. I want to have fun doing it.

What tone are you trying to achieve? Is your work serious or playful? Do you want your audience to think, laugh, or both? What other emotions and reactions might your work invoke?
--Playful because I like to poke fun at things like peoms and poets who are considered great yet I just don't see why. I'd like my audience to laugh and maybe I'll throw in a few refereneces her and there and the reader can play "What is it from?" game.

What (if anything) will you reveal about yourself, as the project's creator? How will you reveal (or avoid revealing) yourself?
--My creative and fun side.

 

These next few blogs are going to be about characters because to me characters can be more important than plot.

In my Fiction Writing class, we talked about naming characters. Most of the time, writers go for something symbolic, but I just give my characters names that sound realistic. For instance, in one of my stories, I have a character named Claire Bach. There's no significance to the name whatsoever, I just thought it sounded like a good. Now if I was writing something literary, then I would be going for a symbolic name.

The go to source for names for most writers are baby name books. Over the years, I've probably done this about once or twice. It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that I know enough names on my own to draw from.

Oh and here's a good site for info on creating characters: http://www.fictionfactor.com/characters.html

As a Creative Writing major, I love to talk with other writers about the process of writing. Wait! Don't click away yet! I'm doing it in parts.

Obviously, in order to write anything, you need to have an idea first. What do you do in order to get your mind working? For me, music is a big part of it. I listen to different genres because each evokes a different feeling. The type of music I listen to depends on what mood I want. So if I wanted to write something angsty I might listen to Linkin Park.

I also try the 'Look at an image and get inspired" trick, but it isn't as helpful as music is.

Do any of you have any special tricks/ideas to get writing?