My Story – The Process (4/6/2013)

Having written the final story for this module you can read my thought process below. 

The Story:

Once you have read my story you will probably wonder how I came up with a plot that started as the familiar only to shift to the unfamiliar. Well, actually the idea has been in my head for years although the original concept was meant for a video game. However, as I started to write it out after feeling guilty that I had writer’s block during a previous session, I found myself unable to stop the words flowing from my pen, it seemed to write itself. The story combined elements of my own life alongside influences from fiction that I love. Therefore the story is one I would love to see whether be it a book, video game or TV show.   

After writing so much for this story I now feel it would actually be just the first chapter of a book. Therefore I introduced a variety of things I hope to explain further or go back to in later chapters. Unfortunately, this may not be what you were hoping for e.g. you wanted a self-contained story. However, I felt compelled to write and finish the first chapter at least; therefore I hope you don’t mind the fact that it does end on a cliff hanger with many questions left to be answered.  Something that I find very tantalising in stories and a device which makes me want to find out more. 

That said I feel that it could stand alone as a short story in which the reader can interpret the contents however they wish. After all, good stories do not need to provide all the answers.  

The Characters:

Many of the characters in my story are inspired by some of my favourite characters in fiction and even some actors that I love. Thus I had a very clear idea on what the characters looked and sounded like in my head which I hope explain in the following. After all, I understand that you should write from experience.   

Conner Liverstan: 

Conner is partly a reflection of myself as I used to have long hair and worked in a garage washing cars. The character also reflects my younger feelings on life as I often felt as if I wasn’t going anywhere in life and that I wasn’t motivated to do much. Because of this my confidence varied depending on who I was with. After all, at this age it is hard to say what you want to be and what you want to become. This contrasts to the way I am now constantly working and enjoying this which makes me feel fulfilled as well as more confident. Now I can be myself around others more than I could in the past. 

Admittedly, like most people I had a crush on a girl at this time which wasn’t working out for me, therefore I feel I captured those memories and matched them perfectly to my teenage self. 

Appearance wise I always felt that Conner would look like my teenage self (bottom left). Long hair which even though I loved made me a target for “you look like a girl” bullying. Conner is also based appearance wise on the gas station attendant from ‘Persona 4’ (bottom right) who even though is a minor character caught my attention with their long hair and service uniform. Thus I kept the hat and colours when describing the gear Conner wears when working. 

Jeff:

Although not described physically, Conner’s friend Jeff is meant to be the person who keeps Conner going. He’s his friend and although also a trouble maker at times he always tries to raise the spirits of others. He’s very much a clown and far too relaxed which is also meant to be a contrast to Conner who worries about things a lot (something that I still do) and often tries to act more mature (also something I used to do before I became more confident around others).

I always imagined Jeff to sound and act like Junpei Iori (bottom left) from ‘Persona 3’ who was voiced by the talented Vic Mignogna (bottom right). In short, a very chilled character who is slightly goofy at times. 

The Girls - Becky Nightwell and Sammy Mayfield:

The girls are meant to be living interpretations of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ as growing up I found that ‘labels’ were constantly placed on myself and others which succeeded in making the popular feel great and the not so popular feel bad about themselves (something that still sadly happens in today’s society). Therefore, to further establish that you can’t judge a book by its cover I made the girls polar opposites whilst still making them best friends. Also, there must be a reason why the pretty and lively Becky would hang out with an otherwise emotionless Sammy. This would have been something I would have explored further in another version of my story in order to make sure readers don’t just assume Becky is the typical popular girl and Sammy the Goth chick. I want to make them have layers in terms of their personalities as most people forget that people aren’t just cardboard cut-outs, but instead three dimensional.  

I never really had a clear idea of whom Becky Nightwell was based on. She was partially based on an old crush of mine, but looking back on my writing I realise she was also based on Gwen Stacy from the ‘Spider-man’ comics (see below).

Gwen Stacy was always meant to be a beautiful, intelligent and popular girl with personal troubles at home, thus she was always an interesting read as you knew something was happening despite all the attention she got. I didn’t want a blond bimbo or the pretty girl to turn out to be a bad person. I wanted Becky to be a great looking girl so she would be deliberately subjected to these thoughts, thus making readers realise further that just because someone looks perfect on the outside doesn’t mean they feel perfect inside and haven’t got their own troubles. What those troubles are however, I plan to keep a secret until I find more time to finish this story.   

Sammy Mayfield is the parallel to Becky in terms of appearance as she is a mix of Chie Satonaka (below left) also from my favourite video game ‘Persona 4’ and Gertrude Yorkes (below right) from the Marvel comic series ‘Runaways’. Both characters aren’t what you would call typically pretty, but what Sammy would share in common with them is Gertrude’s knack for being cynical and Chie’s dedication to assuring her friends are safe and happy. Therefore, showing that behind Sammy’s cold exterior is a caring individual who is more than willing to make sacrifices to ensure the happiness of her friends.  She isn’t popular but she’s loyal! This is something that far too many people forget in friendships or ignore all together, something which I also have regretted not fully understanding in the past.

 

The Petrol Phantoms:

What I have dubbed the ‘Petrol Phantoms’ were always just things I came up with on the spot and never thought much about what they were based on. All I wanted was something zombie like in terms of characteristics, but also wanted to be slimy and wet in order to contrast them to modern smoother monster designs. In addition my phantoms would be more difficult to fight due to their almost slug like texture which a lot of people, including myself hate.

Thinking back on them I suppose they actually contain elements of one of the first enemies in the game ‘Persona 3’ named a Cowardly Maya (below left) because of their slimy/ooze like design which I included because of the similarity to petrol. Whereas, the girl from ‘The Ring’ (below right) also made for good inspiration as even though I have never seen the horror movie I know that just her presence unnerves people due to her unkempt looks and long wet hair which was the look I was going for with Becky’s transformation. 

The man with glass arms:

Finally the man with glass arms was the first character to pop into my head before the story was even underway. I wanted to combine a lot of ideas in order to make him a memorable and fun character, thus I gave him glass arms as the name suggests since  they would stand out visually and I personally I haven’t seen anything like that before. Naturally glass arms wouldn’t be suitable if he was meant to be fighting monsters, but the glass arms were all for aesthetic over practicality which I feel you can get away with from time to time. 

His design is based on General Mustang (below left) from the popular anime ‘Full Metal Alchemist’, whereas I always imagined him to speak like Qwark (below middle) from ‘Ratchet and Clank’ (all heroic like) whilst being voiced by classic movie star Bruce Campbell (below right) who is such an lively actor especially in his classic role of Ash Williams in the movies ‘Evil Dead’ 2 and 3. 

Personality wise the man with glass arms like Jeff is meant to be a parallel to the main protagonist and whereas Conner isn’t confident this character is completely over confident, even to the point of being reckless. He finds it hard to take things seriously and therefore isn’t on a level with other people’s feelings and situations. However, even though he is all these things something deep inside him still tells him what is right and wrong. Thus when he recognises that someone could get hurt by being in his way he will instinctively get them to safety, even if that does mean coming across as insensitive and annoying at times e.g. when he tells Conner to shush during stressful situations. 

The man with glass arms is, in a nutshell odd but cool. If you were to take everything that makes a fun, but cheesy action hero and then mix it in a blender and remove the sensible and normal things that keep them together, then you would get this man who works for F.O.S.S.I.L. 

The Setting:

I wanted the setting to be big enough to hold a number of important buildings whilst at the same time being small enough to make Valleyoaks feel like an isolated location as I love that type of setting. Thus being a mixture of in the middle of nowhere whilst still somewhat in tune with the times. 

Why did I want Valleyoaks to be in the middle of nowhere? Well, if anything were to happen to it such as the attacks from the Petrol Phantoms then hardly anyone would pay attention due to the small size and insignificance of the town compared to a big city.

Even though the story first takes place in a gas station, I always imagined Valleyoaks to be a rural ‘out in the boonies’ type town, similar to the setting the player character from ‘Persona 4’ is in when they are forced to move from the city to such a place and they find that they is hardly anything to do (below top left).

Design wise I imagined Valleyoaks to look a lot like Hill Valley (below at the bottom)  from the movie ‘Back to Future’ as I thought of it as an older American town that hasn’t truly caught up with the times, explaining why it isn’t as popular or well known as others. Plus I’m a big fan of American city designs from the 60’s to the 80’s and always wanted to base a story either in one of those decades or that setting. 

Why Petrol:

So why did I make petrol such a big factor? Well originally I mistook petrol to be like tar (black and sticky) and therefore thought having a person covered in a tar like substance and attacking someone would be pretty creative. However, when I eventually realised that petrol is in fact a clear liquid I had to scrap the kind of tar monster idea and hope the wet person look with black hair and eyes would do the trick. This underlines the importance of further research.

I also planned to use petrol originally when I was coming up with the idea for a game as it would make for a good game mechanic. For example, the town still needs fuel and therefore if you burned the Petrol Phantoms, which was the easiest way to beat them you would also destroy the fuel. Thus the more you reduced the amount of fuel available the worse the situation in the town would become e.g. more public transportation being used instead of cars and other fuel limited circumstances. 

Overall:

I am very pleased with my story and over joyed that I was able to write as much as I did and with the amount of detail it included. Even when I re-read it I feel the same excitement again and again as I get so absorbed that I forget what I wrote next. Thus it’s a pleasant surprise and I hope others feel this when they read it.

As I got so absorbed in the writing of this story I hope to continue writing further chapters over my summer holiday so as to answer some of my readers’ questions and feel a sense of satisfaction from completing a whole story.  

Harvard Referencing:

·         Litle, L. (2012) Gwen Stacy [Online image]. Available at: http://geekykool.com/movie-trailer-the-amazing-spider-man-gwen-stacy-featurette/  (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Soejima, S. (Unknown) ’Persona 4’ Gas Station Attendant [Online image]. Available at: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Moel_Gas_Station_Attendant (Accessed: 24/5/2013).

·         Soejima, S.  (Unknown) Junpei Lori [Online image]. Available at: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/persona+3+headcanon (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Soejima, S. (Unknown) Chie Satonaka [Online image]. Available at: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Chie_Satonaka (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (2008) Gas Station Photo [Online image]. Available at: http://eyeofthefish.org/dude-wheres-my-gas-station/ (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (2009) High Valley [Online image]. Available at: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=996805 (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (2011) General Mustang [Online image]. Available at: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/160545-the-dogs-incredible-skin-cabinet/ (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (Unknown) Vic Mignogna [Online image]. Available at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VicMignogna (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (Unknown) Gertrude Yorkes [Online image]. Available at: http://marvel.wikia.com/Gertrude_Yorkes_%28Earth-616%29 (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (Unknown) Cowardly Maya [Online image]. Available at: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Cowardly_Maya (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (Unknown) ’The Ring’ Girl [Online image]. Available at: http://lolbull.com/?p=115924 (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (Unknown) Qwark [Online image]. Available at: http://esponential.com/04/2013/ratchet-and-clank-animated-movie-to-hit-the-cinemas-in-2015/ (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (Unknown) Bruce Campbell [Online image]. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0132257/ (Accessed: 24/5/2013).  

·         Unknown. (Unknown) ’Persona 4’ town screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/gallery/view/26/119481/893.7 (Accessed: 24/5/2013).