Friday, December 28, 2012

Creating Character Emotions: Confusion 1 & 2

Confusion
Confusion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Schools out right now, so I finally have time to work on my writing.

Working on Confusion in Creating Character Emotions.

Exercise 1 was simply listing 10 why questions.



1.      Why did she die?
2.      Why do we exist?
3.      Why is the sky blue? 
4.      Why are they famous?
5.      Why am I not famous?
6.      Why is the internet full of haters?
7.      Why do I care? 
8.      Why don’t people care about x? 
9.      Why does he/she not love me? 
10.  Why should I try?

The  second was to write 3 scenes showing fantasy vs reality based off a the three I choose from the list were a young woman who claims to be a mistress of a famous actor, a man confessing that he is a serial killer, and a homeless vet. After you write the scene you have to ask 2 questions that cast doubts upon their reality. 



Confusion 2
1.      The young woman sat in front me. She offered to sell me the story of how she was the mistress of a famous actor. For a minute, I pictured what that might be like living in luxury but living with a secret that must never be told. I pictured the expensive gifts and secret meetings. Why would someone risk it all, to sell their story to a rag like mine? Why did she appear so shabby, if what she was saying were true?
2.      The thin jittery man sat in front of the police officers and revealed how he would sneak into houses and kill the women who lived there. He explained that he did it because they were all harlots who deserved to die. How did such a shaky man pull off such clean kills? Why was he confessing now after years of killing?
3.      I drop some change in front of the homeless vet. Poor man must have had a very difficult life. Serving his country, only to wind up homeless. I look at him and surprised at what I see. Why does he look so young and what is he doing with an expensive watch?




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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Creating Character Emotions: Apathy #3

Simpleton takes the Golden Goose to marketSimpleton takes the Golden Goose to market (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The Paper Bag PrincessThe Paper Bag Princess (Photo credit: Wikipedia)fairy tale picfairy tale pic (Photo credit: Kjirstin)I had lot of fun with the third exercise in Apathy. We had to write a fairy tale in which the main character responds to everything with "I don't care." We could decide if that changed by the end of the tale. In some of the classic tales the princesses are passive characters in the story. This exercise me reminded of the fairy tale "The Princess Who Couldn't Laugh." When writing I threw in a few nods to my favorite fairy tale "The Paper Bag Princess."

Apathy #3

Once upon a time, there was a princess who was the despair of the entire kingdom. When Princess Roland was born, the fairy Elizabeth cursed her. Elizabeth had been offended by the loud raucous noise of the Princess birth celebration. Thus, she cursed Princess Roland to never care about anything.

At first glance, Princess Roland was everything a princess should be. She had long blond hair that her servants combed one hundred times every morning. She wore pretty pink gowns that her servants dressed her in. She had all the finest things and ate the most delicious food. At the end of every day, her hair would be in tangles and her dresses turned to grey rags. Her toys would be broken and all food would turn to ash in her mouth.

The king and queen had offered her hand in marriage and the throne to anyone who could break the curse. All the clowns and mimes came from miles away to perform for the princess. The playwrights wrote brilliant plays to entertain her. Knights and princes came to hold tournaments in her honor. When asked her opinion on all these things, she would always say, “I don’t care.”

Musicians would play all their greatest hits. Toymakers would bring her their most clever toys. Merchants would bring all their finest goods. All of them were met with, “I don’t care.” The kingdom began to suffer and sicken with concern for the princess. The people began to starve due to the expense of the attempts to make the princess care. When informed of this the princess said, “I don’t care.”

After most of the knights had died in the endless tournaments, the kingdom was ripe for the picking. A dragon drawn by the suffering laid waste to the kingdom. He burned the kingdom and ate the people. He looked and looked for the princess but all he found was the pale tattered Roland. When he threatened to kill her if she did not tell him where the princess was, all she said was, “I don’t care.”

The dragon tried to cajole her. The dragon pleaded with her. He puffed himself up and menaced her. “I don’t care.” The dragon hung his head in shame. How could he call himself a dragon if he could not even terrify one young servant girl? He shed gold from his scales and flew away to reevaluate his life. Roland turned and walked away from the giant pile of gold for she didn’t care.


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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Creating Character Emotions: Apathy #2

Manga emotionsManga emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)For the second exercise we had to write about someone who is indifferent due to a personal agenda. I originally wrote this for the first exercise but felt that it fit this one better.

“Can I get your signature? Just your name please. Will you sign this, you don’t even need to read it? Please sign this petition to save the children’s home. No, that’s okay.” We need two hundred signatures to save the children’s home from being torn down. Just two hundred, it seems almost impossible. I had hoped that coming to a college campus that it might be easier to get some signatures.

“Sir, just a second of your time, could you sign this, please just a second to save orphans. No, thanks anyways.” Still the same story, trying to get signatures, but people walk right past s if I am invisible. College students stream by me, carrying their backpacks, trudging their way to wherever they are going. So focused on getting there, they don’t see the world around them.

“Could you please spare a second? An orphanage is going to be destroyed, if we can’t get enough signatures. Please sign this.” Some don’t even bother to respond, they just walk past. I can even see some students changing directions just to avoid me. What will it take to get people to sign? What should I do?

“Orphans are being kicked out into the street. Sign this to stop it. Stop orphans from being kicked out. Sign this,” still no responses. I walk around the quad and head towards the student recreation center. Maybe some students there will spare a second. The center is packed with students playing games, working out, and hanging out.

“Orphans being murdered on the streets, orphans being sold as prostitutes, stop it by signing this.” The students run around me, ignoring me. Even here, even though it seems full of life and activity, the students’ dead eyes show that there is nothing here. They play and talk, but most of all, they pretend not to see or hear me.

“Children using drugs. Children forced into lives of crime. Sign this.” I move through the large building, looking for hope while I act like a carnival barker or some tv salesman. I want them to pay attention, but it as if I don’t exist to them. Do I exist? Do the children exist? Maybe the students I am calling to don’t exist.

“Sign, Sign, Sign this. Help. Please Help. Help me.” I leave the building and feel like I am fading away. Maybe, I never existed. I float towards one of the dining halls. In there, people stuff food into their mouths. They do not care what they eat so they eat. They are too busy cramming to notice me. Too busy eating to hear or see or anything, but the food in front of them.

“Can anyone hear me?” I fade away nothing matters. My fliers fly away; maybe someone else can help them. The papers drift on by; they don’t matter. I don’t matter. The orphans should help themselves. There are no orphans. There is no I.

“Can I get your signature? Just your name please. Will you sign this, you don’t even need to read it? Please sign this petition to save the children’s home.” A voice fills the air, but it makes no impact on me. Words filled with no substance. I drift on by.


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