"Creative" writing

[craxyguy562]

"Follow me!" declared Daniel. raising one of his arms into the air.

"Um..." Tonya muttered.

"Oh ya! Turn 80° right and go forward." Daniel ordered. Tonya and Kam followed Daniel's orders like soldiers in the military.(sorry for the bad simile)

Later

After traveling through miles of the large, green forest they arrived at the first gateway, a train. A rusty cargo train to be specific with many rusty colorful carts behind it that carried a variety of different things from ant farms to zucchinis stood perfectly still on a long line on train tracks in a large field with yellowish short grass. "Wow," said Kam trying to think of some good words to describe the first gateway. "The first gateway is truly magical...in it's own way."

"You can say that! It's even alive!" Daniel screamed in an excited voice. Tonya and Kam gave Daniel bewildered looks. "Was it something I said?"

"So. How do we go through the first gateway way?" asked Kam changing the subject.

"Hop on a cart, wait a couple days, and poof, your instantly in the city! Magical huh?" Daniel explained.

[xcriteria]

LOL. The military reference is great. Ant farms to zucchinis...

Keep going. I'm curious how this story progresses.

[craxyguy562]

“Hey that’s actually pretty easy.” said Tonya. Though Daniel was way off fact wise the three still followed his instructions. The faster the Hero’s Journey the better.

A day

The Journey was going great the gang got plenty of food (I know ghost don’t eat) an- “Since when were we a gang?!?!” interrupted Tonya rudely. Since I said so! And sleep (I know ghost don’t sleep) after all they were conveniently in a car carrying soft clean white mattresses and fresh hard cheesy nachos with jalapeño slices. “I’m bored.” whined Tonya. Shut Up! You’re a hero! Hero’s don’t whine. “And narrators don’t talk to the characters.” Replied Tonya sarcastically. There is not denying Tonya is quite a rude skunk. Tonya immaturely stuck out his tongue.

"GO TONYA!" Kam dumbly cheered, stuffing her face with nachos.

"Who are you talking to Tonya?" asked Daniel unaware of my existence and the fact that he was a character in a Hero's Journey.

"The narrator." replied Tonya.

"Stupidhead." teased Daniel. Suddenly the train stopped moving with a loud screech.

[craxyguy562]

The speakers on the cargo train turned on. “Since when did cargo trains have speakers?” Tonya wondered out loud.

“Shut up! The train’s trying to talk.” scolded Daniel.

“Attention cargo! I repeat! Attention cargo! It appears we have freeloaders on board on! Please sit perfectly still while we check each cart for freeloaders!” A man hollered on the speakers.

“Wait! The train expects us to pay for him teleporting us to the city?!?!” Daniel screamed in shock. Tonya panicked and tried to hide under a mattress with Daniel, Kam just simply turned invisible. That little cheating brat.

Minutes later the door to the cart was opened by a huge muscular man in a blue suit with a dangerous bazooka in his left hand and a scar on his right eye. The man sniffed the air and started to smirk, “I smell freeloaders.” His eye quickly darted to the mattress that Tonya and Daniel were hiding under. He shot at the mattress causing the entire cart to explode. Bits of the fluffy white mattress, chunks of rusty metal, loads of cheese and crushed tortilla chips went flying everywhere. Tonya went running from the flaming, disconfigured cart with Daniel on his back and Kam obediently following since she was Tonya’s "slave"(the relationship between Kam and Tonya is really complex).

[TreyLina]

(02-19-2014 10:33 AM)fish20 Wrote:  Creativity is practically born in limitation.

For me, creativity mostly comes from abstract thinking. Getting random, sometimes unrelated ideas and seeing how to put them together. Those random ideas can come from observing experience, daydreaming, or experimentation (in the case of art, music and design). If you make the rules limited, you may even get less unique results.

It may be the nature of me. When I think of creating things, I think of new concepts, not working in existing rules. I want it to stand out. Of course, there are habits of mine where things end up looking similar.

Who's more creative? The guy who made a completely new product, not based off anything that has a use, or the guy who just made yet another brand of soap, but it smells of cats?

Although it's unrelated to writing, it's why I hate creating low-scale sprites (asides from sucking at it). Sure, you're going to have to think harder to distinguish, but it doesn't look as unique. At some point it becomes a matter of changing colours and moving a few pixels.

If you can only make a picture from 4 straight lines, or creating a new tree species, which one will have more unique results?

With trees, there's so many different shapes and sizes. There's so much what constitutes as a tree, so there's much space for symbolism.

With the lines, at some point it simply becomes a case of "Where can I rearrange them so it looks different?" and so then it becomes dull. The line is the symbol itself, so you cannot deviate from it. Okay, well that's on the extreme end.

"But this has nothing to do with writing!" Well, if you limit the themes, location, and personality you're basically telling someone what not to do.

TL;DR: Less space for other concepts = More similarity, less creativity at the end result.

[craxyguy562]

A couple days later Tonya, Daniel and Kam were in the city. The city was like any other city. It was big and loud. You could hear horns, ice cream trucks, humans talking, dogs barking and you could smell food. What do we do now? Tonya thought to himself. Tonya took out his flow map. “Kam, we need another problem.” He told Kam. Kam rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Suddenly Kam grabbed the area where her stomach would be if she had a body.

“Oh! Tonya! I’m sooooo hungry!” moaned Kam. Tonya gasped.

“We need to hurry and find food before Kam dies!” Tonya screamed heroically. “again.” he added awkwardly.

“There’s a hotdog stand over there.” Daniel emotionlessly pointed out. Dramatic organs played in the background.
(missing sentences)
“You do know I’m not actually hungry.”

“I know, but I’m still going to get food anyways so it’ll seem as if I have solved another problem like I’m supposed to.”

“You can’t do that! That is way too boring!”

“Do nothing. And have me faint, adds more drama. Every hero’s journey must have a healthy dosage of drama.”

“Okay.”
Kam held her hand to her forehead and dramatically fainted. Tonya gasped in horror.

“She’ll get over it.” Daniel said in a bored tone, “In the meantime let’s get some ice-cream.” He added in a happier tone. Tonya crossed the street with Daniel and headed to the ice cream parlor. Later when they came back Kam was conscious “again”.

“Oh, hey. Kam is better.” noticed Tonya.

“Tonya, I would like to have a serious-” Kam started.

“KAM! BEING SERIOUS?!?!?” Tonya screamed in disbelief.

“Hey! Everyone serious sometimes.” Daniel said.

OOC: Since this is due tomorrow, I'll end here.

[craxyguy562]

missing sentences-“But…Where are we going to get the money to buy a hot dog?” Kam wailed dramatically.

“I know! We could steal some.” suggested Tonya. Kam floated over to Tonya and started whispering to him.

[James Comey]

Looks good so far. Nice to see a small tale evolve into something big.

Hooray for creativity outside school!

[Nikki]

I agree with you when you say creative writing is far from creative and I've always hated how we're given so many limitations but I've found that you can also use creative writing to your advantage in a way. I use it to give me a place to vent out. Even with their constrictive rules I've managed to complain about school in almost all of our activities last school year. (this school year actually but it's our exam week so in two days it will officially be last school year) When they asked us to write about the most important thing that has ever happened to us I wrote about how the only time I'm actually alive is during summer because it's the only time I am free and how even that freedom can never compare to what freedom should be like because we know that that freedom won't last. Then I went on and on about how school is keeping us from living and how it takes away all our rights... That was a 3 page essay.

[xcriteria]

crazyguy, you have such biting humor in these. It's giving me a lot of ideas, actually.

Meanwhile, are some annotations... mostly related tropes and so on.

(03-12-2014 09:18 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  What do we do now? Tonya thought to himself. Tonya took out his flow map. “Kam, we need another problem.”

Trope: So What Do We Do Now?

This also reminded me of this lyric"

"I need another story / something to get off my chest
my life gets kind of boring / need something to confess"
(link)

(03-12-2014 09:18 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  “Oh! Tonya! I’m sooooo hungry!” moaned Kam. Tonya gasped.

“We need to hurry and find food before Kam dies!” Tonya screamed heroically. “again.” he added awkwardly.

“There’s a hotdog stand over there.” Daniel emotionlessly pointed out. Dramatic organs played in the background.

(Lol @ dramatic organs.)

This part gets into the whole topic of fictional characters and money. Do these guys have money on them? Or saved up somewhere? In a real-life scene like this, the level of realistic drama vs. comic overreacting would probably depend in part on whether the characters are truly broke and impoverished, with no generous friends or sources of credit... or whether they can just pull money out of their pockets.

(Related tropes: See the Subtropes of Hollywood Economics.)

(03-12-2014 09:18 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  “You do know I’m not actually hungry.”

“I know, but I’m still going to get food anyways so it’ll seem as if I have solved another problem like I’m supposed to.”

“You can’t do that! That is way too boring!”

It's hard to convey how entertaining I find it to have characters talk in meta terms about their actions, based on being in a story.

These characters are Genre Savvy (key trope) and have Medium Awareness.

(Meanwhile, dear readers who are bored, here are some Boredom Tropes to find yourself in. )

[xcriteria]

(03-12-2014 09:18 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  “Do nothing. And have me faint, adds more drama. Every hero’s journey must have a healthy dosage of drama.”

“Okay.”
Kam held her hand to her forehead and dramatically fainted. Tonya gasped in horror.

Lol.

On the topic of drama, some related clips:

1) A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square

Hidden stuff:

Watch on YouTube

2) Ed Muzio: "Stop the Drama and Do the Work"

Hidden stuff:

Watch on YouTube

(03-12-2014 09:18 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  “She’ll get over it.” Daniel said in a bored tone,

Trope: Deadpan Snarker

(03-12-2014 09:18 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  “In the meantime let’s get some ice-cream.” He added in a happier tone. Tonya crossed the street with Daniel and headed to the ice cream parlor. Later when they came back Kam was conscious “again”.

“Oh, hey. Kam is better.” noticed Tonya.

Aww, how touching.

(03-12-2014 09:18 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  “Tonya, I would like to have a serious-” Kam started.

“KAM! BEING SERIOUS?!?!?” Tonya screamed in disbelief.

“Hey! Everyone serious sometimes.” Daniel said.

See Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness

(03-12-2014 09:18 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  OOC: Since this is due tomorrow, I'll end here.

Strictly speaking, your hero(s) should return to their known world with some kind of freedom to live, boon for their people, or something like that... (which then leads back to So What Do We Do Now?, at least if the story continues.)

And that, ultimately, is a big part of freedom... figuring out what next.

Fortunately, the world offers a lot more adventures to dive into, if one looks in the right places.

On that note, this clip from the film Adaptation, featuring a fictional version of real-life screenwriting guru Robert McKee, shows the conflict between a writer wondering about stories where nothing happens... vs. the world McKee sees where dramatic, interesting things are happening all the time... and where readers demand something interesting in the stories they read.

Food for thought, at least.



Watch on YouTube

(And yes, this will all be on the test. )

[craxyguy562]

The real reason "Kam" was being serious was becuase she wasn't actually Kam. She was a magicians bunny named Miya disguising herself as Kam to tempt Tonya into quiting. In order to get Kam to leave she payed her 5 bucks to let her impersonate her. Ironically Kam used the money to buy ice cream.

[xcriteria]

(03-13-2014 09:09 AM)crazyguy562 Wrote:  The real reason "Kam" was being serious was becuase she wasn't actually Kam. She was a magicians bunny named Miya disguising herself as Kam to tempt Tonya into quiting. In order to get Kam to leave she payed her 5 bucks to let her impersonate her. Ironically Kam used the money to buy ice cream.

LOL! How does the reader figure that out?

[craxyguy562]

I didn't go far enough into the situation(and may never since the assignment is over), but Kam being serious was a clue.

[craxyguy562]

The character who was going to reveal it was the narrator though, he was too gives Tonya a bunch of hints.

[craxyguy562]

I wonder how my teacher will react...

[craxyguy562]

One thing about this story that really irks me is how OOC Tonya is. Tonya is suppose to be a crazy, lazy, cussing narcissist, but becuase of the strict story line, I find it hard to make him in character.