The 'What are you doing?' thread. (2 Viewers)

[ButterflyFish]

But I was also thinking of stealing the characters from some of the classics and putting them in a room together to see what they would do. Or is the against copywrite laws or laws that say you shouldn't steal other people's characters?

wow are you serious i was thinking of doing the exact same thing... but dont worry i decieded on something else

 

[madelyn]

Lol! I had that same idea too, and a friend of mine is writing something similar as well...I love anything 19th c (especially Jane austen!) and wanted to have fun messing around with some of those characters...heh three people with the same idea, here I was thinking it was semi-original. Atm I am undecided between a couple of ideas (including the above one) but I'll post them when they're fleshed out a little more rather than just rambling thoughts...

 

[vivanda]

I though i'd do a series of short stories, i'm a tidbit paranoid too... damn all this stress so i'll be VERY vague and say they're all just based around the same event/person which is the catalyst for the story.

I've just been to a ext2 course today - scary lol. But when we read the examples it's amazing what gets a band E4! and you literally can't get band E1.
Although they wanted some humour in the stories i was kinda hoping on just sticking with my lil' depressing thing, it's just it wouldn't suit 'humour' yet i don't want it to verge on the teenage angst. just sad depressing... as in loss of a loved one...

 

[The Protaganist]

I've written the first 10 or so pages but here's the basic gist of it.

It's a political thriller with many elements appropriated from Shakespeares 'Macbeth'; such as the weather patterns, light and dark imagery and themes such as insomnia. The central theme in my text is that 'power corrupts'. The vague title so far is, 21.37. and is a direct link to the time that the story finishes. It starts at 4am on the same day and is a little appropraition from television show, 24. This is mainly used to add a little tension.

Firstly it is set in the USA, it seems the appropriate setting given today's events in the world. The main protaganist works for a government branch that investigates crimes of a serious nature but not of such status to involve the NSA. In effect its an agency that bridges the gap between the FBI, NSA and CIA. The main character slowly unfolds a plot to assasinate the Prime Minister of an African nation visiting the U.S for negotiations. This nation exports 33% of the US' oil and at the present time threatened to severe trade with the US uner pressure from inside their government. Whilst funding a US terrorist cell labelled as patriots, the government is the key player behind the assasination. They hope to rid the nation of the leader, plunging it into political turmoil and thus needing the help of the U.N and U.S to stabalise the government which in turn gives the U.S an oppurtunity to fund and install a prime minister that is loyal to their trade terms. This also sends military corparations shares through the roof and boosts their own economy.

Their will be a variety of viewpoints including the media, where I am quoting news scripts from real life highlighting the state of corruption and trouble brewing within Africa. They will also report on the main characters actions but put them across falsely to show him as the enemy - highlighting the control the government has over the publics mindset. The character finds this out and is then hunted down by the government before he can stop it. In the end he is reduced to nothing and the assasanation takes place, in effect casting a fairly negative light over the current situation.

Issues i hope to raise are: Corrutpion
Free thinking
Power corrupts
Materialism of a nation, at what costs?

Wow, so thats what Im doing. Feel free to comment, I need all the help I can get.

 

[ScottyG]

If you are going to include action, don't be cliched in your descriptions of blood and bullets, they'll eat you if you do.

 

[The Protaganist]

Good point, what would you catagorise as cliched? Generally sensationalising the experience with fairly visceral adjectives? Im linking to Macbeth so I plan to personify the blood in someway, as if its truly a part of that person and also use it to symbolise the corruption.

 

[ScottyG]

Well, I couldn't rattle any off for you now, but if you read John Marsden's "Everything I Know About Writing" which I recommend everyone doing Extension do, you should find a lot of information regarding cliches - including why they are discouraged in writing.

Otherwise, you can copy and paste the sentences that concern you cliche-wise, instead of us pointing in the dark at what you shouldn't do.

 

[Monty88]

Such controversy, you might want to be careful what you say and do from now on, you never know when the feds are gonna bust down your door and drag you away for crimes against the west. Who know? Extension 2 terrorism could be the latest target in the governments war on terror.
A little birdy (who is neither little or a bird, but an english teacher) told me that sex and violence actually help with the marks, as long as its purposeful. you might run the risk of turning your story into a B grade action story, which isn't always a bad thing, but in extension B grade is equal to unoriginal, done before, thankyou very much no showcase for you.

As far as my story goes... its called (at the moment) "Did i ever tell you im no hero? A(nother) Heroic myth of epic proportions starring A. Protagonist and conceived, written by, and guest starring Joseph Campbell."
A bit wordy i know, but its constantly being streamlined.
The title is a pretty decent summary, so i wont go into it anymore.

 

[HinikuTheNinja]

sex and violence actually help with the marks

Well that's just awesome, because I've got hints[okay, not hints, some graphic stuff maybe] of sex (including straight, gay, and self-servicing, oh my!) and a nice heap of violence! *does a little dance*

Mine has something to do with reality and an individual's perception of it. I think. Actually, I'm not quite sure exactly what mine is about, just that there are three seemingly separate stories which are about three seemingly separate characters, but they are in actual fact related to each other. It's all one big endless circle about 'What is real?'

...or something like that. I really don't know. :S

 

[kit scara]

**squeaks** JOSEPH CAMBELL!!! **squeaks**

My short story is about a man in a white room. There are no windows or doors. Because he is so deprived of humanity, and well, everything else as well, he becomes perfect but he loses his soul.

 

[Asheroth]

Monty: Hey, somebody with a longer title than mine Mine's called, at the moment and probably forever, 'Revelations: Seven Ways to Kill Yourself (Seven Ways to Live Forever)'.

Finally got all my sections, characters, styles, text modes, and plotlines worked out. So happy

Good to see this thread's finally starting to take off.

 

[kit scara]

You've worked them out? Good. Now I can hunt you down and steal them while you sleep... whoops, did I type that out loud. What it really was a line... for my story.... **shiftly nervous eyes**

 

[iain_12345]

"sex and violence actually help with the marks" - awesome my dark pretense that looks at p.m. love fits nicely in2 that. Shame that sum markers look for comedy - it shudnt b seen as so important but thats the risk associated with extension 2 - a band six is down to the subjectivity of ur marker - I'M GLAD TO SEE WE HAVE SO MANY WILLING TO GAMBLE AND TAKE A CHANCE...there is such a shortage of such ppl, when you ponder on the fact that we have been proven to be more conservative than our parents were at our age.


my ext2 tip - wen ur struggling with writers' block being eccentric helps, like i wrote most of mine in the wee hours of the morning, with some hennessey close by, also going for a walk through balmain, which proved inspiring in some cases.

good luck with you writing

 

[makemyangelfly]

My stories are a look at the corrosion of people and families over time as the result of a man sexually abusing his 4 yr old daughter. It ranges over time from her at the age of 3 to 26. I have five chapters. I finished my major work today and am sitting just above 7000 words. PROUDNESS!

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE! MAY WE ALL BE THIS BRILLIANT FOREVER!