Oh blog, It's been so long.
Don't worry, we are still friends.
Just because I have been writing on real pieces of paper
doesn't mean I don't love you anymore.
I just had a momentary lapse of reason.
But here I am. Back in your arms.
At least for tonight.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Seriously moving forward
I am so proud of myself and Jessica.
We had a super successful week and today we put in order a project we have been working on since October.
An idea that came from a spark. A half joke, half serious conversation
we had in Provence in September.
And here we are less than 4 months later having written 76 pieces on our story we are working on together.
The past few days we have read them out loud together, made notes, comments, laughed our asses off and today we put the pieces in chronilogical order of how they occur in the story.
I'm super psyched and happy and can't wait to continue on our story.
We had a super successful week and today we put in order a project we have been working on since October.
An idea that came from a spark. A half joke, half serious conversation
we had in Provence in September.
And here we are less than 4 months later having written 76 pieces on our story we are working on together.
The past few days we have read them out loud together, made notes, comments, laughed our asses off and today we put the pieces in chronilogical order of how they occur in the story.
I'm super psyched and happy and can't wait to continue on our story.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Character develpment
An exercise from class Monday night when we were discussing character development.
The exercise we were given was to write the gender, profession, 5 internal details and 5 external details of a person we know or a character we created.
And then we passed that list to our right.
Then we took what we received from the person to our left and created a list of what we would find in that character's garbage can.
Then...we took the garbage list and wrote a story about the character based on the garbage list and not knowing any of the details other than that.
I was given as the garbage list:
sand, receipts from Flax, # on napkin with the name Melissa next to it, empty bottle of hair gel, boarding pass from last visit to see his niece, City college course catalogue, last month's muni pass, empty sunscreen tube, empty film canisters.
So...here's my non-revised story we wrote in 10 minutes:
As the sun began to lower close to the horizon, Justin decided to call it a day. The water gets colder and darker at the end of the day and he would prefer not to be alone in the ocean where Great White sharks were known to linger and mate.
Justin threw his keys on the white, scuffed lopsided table as he entered his apartment a few blocks from Ocean Beach. He laid his surf board against his wall in its typical place. Sand fell off of the board and onto his floor as he shook his curly damp hair and pulled the zipper cord on the back of his wet suit.
Walking over to his answering machine, he left little puddles of footprinted salt water.
Beep. "Hey uncle Justin. I just wanted to say thanks for coming to visit me in San Diego last week. It was so cool how you taught me to surf. Mom says I can ask for my own board for my birthday. Bye." Beep.
Justin rinsed off his worn out body in the shower, attempting to get all the sand and ocean off of him.
He stepped in front of the mirror, reached for the gel and felt its lightness. A few strong squeezes but the only contents in his hand was a tiny bubble of clear gelatinous hair gel. he ran his fingers through his hair.
He stood in front of the mirror for a minute, smiled at his ripped body that helped him catch some righteous waves today and then put on some shorts, a t-shirt and som flip-flops.
The sun was down now and he walked back into his kitchen to decide if he should eat or do his homework.
Upon opening his wallet, he pulled out 2 soggy dollar bills, some crumpled receipts from the art store, an expired, ratty bus pass and a wadded up napkin with a girl's name and number on it that he must have gotten when he was wasted last night.
He inspected the name trying to recall this event from the prior evening out with his buddies and then casually tossed the number in the trash along with the receipts and bus pass.
The exercise we were given was to write the gender, profession, 5 internal details and 5 external details of a person we know or a character we created.
And then we passed that list to our right.
Then we took what we received from the person to our left and created a list of what we would find in that character's garbage can.
Then...we took the garbage list and wrote a story about the character based on the garbage list and not knowing any of the details other than that.
I was given as the garbage list:
sand, receipts from Flax, # on napkin with the name Melissa next to it, empty bottle of hair gel, boarding pass from last visit to see his niece, City college course catalogue, last month's muni pass, empty sunscreen tube, empty film canisters.
So...here's my non-revised story we wrote in 10 minutes:
As the sun began to lower close to the horizon, Justin decided to call it a day. The water gets colder and darker at the end of the day and he would prefer not to be alone in the ocean where Great White sharks were known to linger and mate.
Justin threw his keys on the white, scuffed lopsided table as he entered his apartment a few blocks from Ocean Beach. He laid his surf board against his wall in its typical place. Sand fell off of the board and onto his floor as he shook his curly damp hair and pulled the zipper cord on the back of his wet suit.
Walking over to his answering machine, he left little puddles of footprinted salt water.
Beep. "Hey uncle Justin. I just wanted to say thanks for coming to visit me in San Diego last week. It was so cool how you taught me to surf. Mom says I can ask for my own board for my birthday. Bye." Beep.
Justin rinsed off his worn out body in the shower, attempting to get all the sand and ocean off of him.
He stepped in front of the mirror, reached for the gel and felt its lightness. A few strong squeezes but the only contents in his hand was a tiny bubble of clear gelatinous hair gel. he ran his fingers through his hair.
He stood in front of the mirror for a minute, smiled at his ripped body that helped him catch some righteous waves today and then put on some shorts, a t-shirt and som flip-flops.
The sun was down now and he walked back into his kitchen to decide if he should eat or do his homework.
Upon opening his wallet, he pulled out 2 soggy dollar bills, some crumpled receipts from the art store, an expired, ratty bus pass and a wadded up napkin with a girl's name and number on it that he must have gotten when he was wasted last night.
He inspected the name trying to recall this event from the prior evening out with his buddies and then casually tossed the number in the trash along with the receipts and bus pass.
Setting
So, I am including here an exercise I did in writing class last week, my first week of my new writing class. We worked on developing setting.
All I was given was the Location: K-Mart (a positive experience)
and the Emotion: Fear
Here is a 10 minute exercise I wrote in class. Keep in mind this is the first draft of an exercise and not revised or intended to be anything other than an exercise:
The black sky hovered over Paul as he scurried into the K-Mart down the street from his house. He had walked at a fast pace in the cold night to get away from his house.
The glass doors slid open quickly and startled him. He turned around to see if someone was following him. His eyes darted left and right, in front of him and behind him. He backed into the entryway and a voice said, "Hi. Welcome to K-Mart."
He jumped and screamed, "Ahhhhh!" and backed away from the door greeter who held out a balloon.
Moving into the store, he pulled his collar up around his neck and stared at the happy families that casually strolled by him.
To his left a loud burst startled him. The lump in his throat grew as he slowly turned to his left to the smell of fresh popcorn popping in the cafe.
His body rushed with warmth as he dashed away to the toy aisle. Little children were laughing with each other as they took turns on the rocking horse. The laughter surrounded him like a fun house carnival echoing in his mind.
Sweat dripped down his face as his heart beat rapidly. The calm overhead music frustrated him as he felt lost in the maze of aisles. Turning a corner withouth looking, a customer ran into him.
Paul screamed,"What do you want from me!?!"
"Oh!" exclaimed the little white-haired woman in her 80's who was regaining her balance on her walker. "Excuse me, son. I am so sorry."
Paul's breath was heavy as he wrapped his arms around his body and darted away from the lady.
He searched around again left and right to see if anyone suspicious was staring at him. His chest felt as if someone was pinning him down and sitting on him.
"Bing" came over the speakers as a calm voice announced, "Blue light special on Aisle 5. All guns and ammo are now half off."
All I was given was the Location: K-Mart (a positive experience)
and the Emotion: Fear
Here is a 10 minute exercise I wrote in class. Keep in mind this is the first draft of an exercise and not revised or intended to be anything other than an exercise:
The black sky hovered over Paul as he scurried into the K-Mart down the street from his house. He had walked at a fast pace in the cold night to get away from his house.
The glass doors slid open quickly and startled him. He turned around to see if someone was following him. His eyes darted left and right, in front of him and behind him. He backed into the entryway and a voice said, "Hi. Welcome to K-Mart."
He jumped and screamed, "Ahhhhh!" and backed away from the door greeter who held out a balloon.
Moving into the store, he pulled his collar up around his neck and stared at the happy families that casually strolled by him.
To his left a loud burst startled him. The lump in his throat grew as he slowly turned to his left to the smell of fresh popcorn popping in the cafe.
His body rushed with warmth as he dashed away to the toy aisle. Little children were laughing with each other as they took turns on the rocking horse. The laughter surrounded him like a fun house carnival echoing in his mind.
Sweat dripped down his face as his heart beat rapidly. The calm overhead music frustrated him as he felt lost in the maze of aisles. Turning a corner withouth looking, a customer ran into him.
Paul screamed,"What do you want from me!?!"
"Oh!" exclaimed the little white-haired woman in her 80's who was regaining her balance on her walker. "Excuse me, son. I am so sorry."
Paul's breath was heavy as he wrapped his arms around his body and darted away from the lady.
He searched around again left and right to see if anyone suspicious was staring at him. His chest felt as if someone was pinning him down and sitting on him.
"Bing" came over the speakers as a calm voice announced, "Blue light special on Aisle 5. All guns and ammo are now half off."
Monday, February 1, 2010
Time off adds to memory loss
Again I have forgotten to blog.
But that doesn't mean I'm not being productive with my time.
I am sitting here with my buddy Jessica about to work on our project
together.
AND I have a writing class tonight.
I call that productive.
But that doesn't mean I'm not being productive with my time.
I am sitting here with my buddy Jessica about to work on our project
together.
AND I have a writing class tonight.
I call that productive.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Long week..or couple of weeks
I've been slacking a bit the past few days...or really have forgotten to blog.
Been full force on a 3 week commercial prep/shoot and just finished, well almost finished wrapping tonight.
Long days,long nights and here I am almost done...just a few minor finish ups tomorrow.
and then back on track with writing.
Been full force on a 3 week commercial prep/shoot and just finished, well almost finished wrapping tonight.
Long days,long nights and here I am almost done...just a few minor finish ups tomorrow.
and then back on track with writing.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Keeping up
Keeping up writing this blog daily while working is a bit challenging
but I'm here, aren't I!?!
Long hours, many days in a row. I'm not even sure how I remember to show up on this virtual page.
I can hardly remember what I'm supposed to be doing from minute to minute, even when I write it down.
I do know however, I need to be getting more sleep.
That's where I'm off to now.
Keeping this short because I need to rest for my 6am call time. ugh
but I'm here, aren't I!?!
Long hours, many days in a row. I'm not even sure how I remember to show up on this virtual page.
I can hardly remember what I'm supposed to be doing from minute to minute, even when I write it down.
I do know however, I need to be getting more sleep.
That's where I'm off to now.
Keeping this short because I need to rest for my 6am call time. ugh
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