1) The first thing we did was write a story based on the object the lecturer had brought in, a china dog.
You can read this story below.
Far in a land of magic, deep in the oak woods of the fairies, past the giants' marshes and into the ancient ruins of the last wizard's tower there exists in the middle of the ruins - a dog. It's a golden retriever that shines in the sun's rays that creep through the broken roofing. However, unlike most dogs this one doesn't move. All four of its legs are straight and its head is turned towards its left. It looks for no better a word, puzzled. An odd expression for even a china dog to show and yet it does. It faces what was once a long corridor now collapsed with rubble, its once grand blue carpet mattered and grown over with moss as a result of its years of exposure to the elements. The rest of the dog's environment has seen better days as well. The once grand plaza that the dog stands in has cracked in half and collapsed sideways into the ground itself, creating a vast pond of life from the collection of rain water that has fallen through the roof. Old suits of armour that once stood in glory now clutter the floor with their rusted metal. Even the blue banners that displayed the sign of the great wizard have either falling down or hang in faded colours. Everything shows signs of aging in this room, except for the china dog. No cracks, no faded colours, it hasn't even appeared to have toppled over as a result of the crack in the ground. The dog has been here for a very long time and would continue to be if it weren't for the fact that its destiny has been entwined with the daughter of a gypsy who has now appeared from a crack in the room's wall. She wears green overalls and a long purple cloak that flows in the light morning breeze. Her band of travelers decided to rest for the night outside the once great tower and although she was told not to stray too far her curiosity has got the better of her. With a bucket clenched in her hands she is about to approach the natural pond for fresh water when she suddenly sees the china dog perched in a bed of multicolored flowers.
Robin Foale, 24/4/2013
Although I enjoyed writing the above story I recognise as a writer that I accidentally told the reader what the fantasy environments were before the main character (the dog) did. Therefore breaking the connection between the shared knowledge of the reader and character that I prefer to write in stories. Also I recognise that some of my sentences are too long and can perhaps be split into two. This would give a better flow to my stories and create tension for the reader.
From doing the above task I also found out that you could base an entire story or inspiration for one on nearly anything you see. Therefore, I am glad I did this task as I enjoyed it and may well do it again in the future in order to increase my ability to write as well as to practice regularly.
We then followed this discussion to consider how objects are used in stories and have lasting impact e.g. the lightsabers in 'Star Wars' and the brief case in 'Pulp Fiction'.
Finally we spoke briefly about the '12 steps of the heroes journey' in which we used many of the characters from 'Star Wars' before moving onto the next piece of writing e.g. Luke Skywalker starting as a farmer before joining the rebels, defeating the empire and reforming the Jedi order.
2) For the second task we were asked to suggest words before writing a story based of any genre using the words below.
- Jordan Williams.
- Farm.
- Belgium.
- Hit man.
- Alpaca.
- Nurofen.
- Narcolespy.
- Want their kids back.
The second story was written as a comedy and was as follows.
In the not too distant future the role of hit man has become almost obsolete. Every human born is given a chip that holds all their information and registers where everyone is at all times. Therefore new tactics and operatives have had to be employed in the field, ones no one would suspect. Such an operative lies in wait in a quiet little farm in Belgium. The operative's name is Jordan Williams, he's a forty five year old male who suffers from narcolepsy and is addicted to blended nurofen which he takes with lots and lots of lemon. He's an odd choice for a hit man you may say, but in a dying business you can't afford to turn away employees especially since the last time an add was put into a paper the hit man business nearly fell completely apart. Besides, Jordan is a deadly killer, the business's number one, fluent in nearly a dozen languages and martial arts. Jordan lies in a bed of straw, fast asleep from his recent episode of narcolepsy. He suddenly hears a phone in the distance. Wiping away the sleep from his eyes he picks up the phone awkwardly with his gloved hooves.
"Yes?" Jordan says in the sort of bad ass voice a hero would speak in.
"Jordan! We need you to take care of some FBI agents before they discover our base of operations!" a nerdy voice pleads down the line.
"I told you, I'm on holiday. Get someone else."
"But we need you JW! Your kids need you! The FBI have your kids!"
Jordan Williams grits his teeth in anger. Awkwardly putting sun glasses on he stands up and pulls a pistol from his side.
"No one takes my kids and lives! It's JW time!"
...It is then, however that he falls asleep, again! The kids can wait another hour surely for their alpaca dad to wake up?
That's right! He's a alpaca! The hit men's greatest weapon! Deal with it.
Robin Foale, 24/4/2013
Reading out the above a lot of people in the group enjoyed the humour and even said it was "awesome". The lecturer said that they imagined it to be set in an animated world due to the awkwardness an alpaca would have with hooves instead of hands. This is interesting considering I got inspiration for the writing from the 'Lama's with Hats' videos on YouTube. The voices used to characterise the conversation in my story were also greatly praised as it apparently helped establish the animated style of humour.
I have written comedy in the past and therefore felt inclined to write one since I was given such random things to work from. I was told my story was good, but I personally feel that I should for now stick with intriguing and fascinating stories since I'm used to writing those and prefer to get absorbed in the world whilst I'm writing about it. However, had I been given more time I personally feel that I would have been able to make the comedy even funnier and make the delivery flow better than it did. On the plus side, I didn't give away the story too much as I made it gradually build, only giving hints to the hit man's true identity with examples such as the bed of straw and hooves instead of hands.
3) For the final task we were asked to pick between two which were given to us, leaving the other to do in our spare time. Therefore, I choose to do the one in which we had to use as many letters as we could from a list that contained words that began with each letter of the alphabet.
Here's my attempt.
It's November in India and the sun is shining down on its residents. It's like the Sahara for those on the streets; seeking shaded shelter where they can and buying cans of Tango buy the bucketful. A man who isn't native to the country drives down the empty streets. With his air conditioning on max he wipes the sweat off his forehead. Despite the heat he has decided to drive in a car with leather seats as it was the only transportation available to him. His back clings to the seat making him uncomfortable, but he continues to drive. Soon he approaches the Foxtrot Hotel, the destination for his meeting with Coronal Yankee. An odd name for a man from India, but one the colonel takes with pride. As the foreigner pulls up to the hotel he is greeted by an employee who takes his keys in order to park the car. The sweating man agrees to this and gets out, the back of his shirt and trousers peeling off the leather seat. He looks over to the lobby where sure enough a little girl in pig tails runs up to him.
"Papa! Papa!" she cries out cheerfully throwing her arms around the man and hugging him tightly before letting go.
"You smell!" she says with a giggle to which the father puts his hands on his sides with a smile.
"Ha ha! Very funny child" he says with a chuckle before looking around in the empty lobby.
Every fan seems to be switched on.
Robin Foale, 24/4/2013
A lot people liked this story since it was more subtle than most of the other stories during this task as others tried to include all the words one after another instead of spread out as I did. I agree with this since I did decide to not force the words into the story and make it more mysterious and casual, thus avoiding trying to be comedic I just told a story that people would enjoy as they wondered why an otherwise casual looking foreigner was going to see a colonel of the country he is in.
Overall I enjoyed writing this piece as I decided that I wanted the events in the story to be snappy and flow from point to point. A style that I haven't written in before and therefore enjoyed, especially since the story felt as if it was writing itself without me really working out in advance where it was going to go.
Side Notes:
For a side assignment we were all asked to look up an opening to any medium that we enjoyed and explain why. This I plan to do in another post alongside the other task that is required which was to carry on with the story of an extract given to us from an existing piece of writing.
Also next week should focus on environments which I look forward to since this may help me describe places in better detail without using as many words as I sometimes do.
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