Action and Description for Dialogue in Blog #9:
1) This scene takes place on the roof of a motel on the interstate somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It's June and warm out.
2) It's nighttime
3) Elizabeth and Johnny are together on the roof looking at the stars. Elizabeth is lying down and turned away from Johnny who is sitting and looking at her. The only prop is the motel rooftop.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Blog #10
Dialogue - Moving the Story Forward:
CARL
So, what you're saying is, this girl, ghost er, Li-El...
JOHNNY (Cat)
Elizabeth, yes go on.
CARL
Right, she um, has a month to remember her death and uh, accept it? So that she can move on? I don't understand, move on to what? And why do you need me to drive all the way to Virginia so that she can do this?
JOHNNY (Cat)
To what I don't know, but you better hope that when you bite it you go straight there so you don't have to put up with this ghost afterlife bullshit. And I need you to go out to Virginia because that's where she died. I'm hoping it will help her remember better.
CARL
Um, I'm still not following. Wh-You, how come...I mean why can't you two go there yourself? Why can't you just, you know, leave me be and go about your own business?
JOHNNY (Cat)
Leave you be? Oh you'd like that wouldn't you Carl?
CARL
Yes, actually. Actually I would yes.
JOHNNY(Cat)
Well, tell you what Carl, If you take us to Virginia and Elizabeth moves on, I'll never bother you again for the rest of eternity. I'll even tell the other ghosts not to bother you.
CARL
(after a long pause)
A-alright.
JOHNNY (Cat)
Alright? Fantastic!
Blog #9
Dialogue - Defining Relationships:
JOHNNY
Beth, you alright?
ELIZABETH
Yeah
JOHNNY
C'mon, give me some credit. I've known you for 100 plus years, you're not alright.
ELIZABETH
Then you really didn't need to ask did you?!
JOHNNY
(there's a short pause)
You never used to snap at me like that you know, when we were alive...
ELIZABETH
Don't...
JOHNNY
Oh no, you "don't"! I'm going to help you remember. Everything! You're miserable here, you've got to move on! I can't stand seeing you like this!
ELIZABETH
(she looks at him confused by his last comment then frowns and shakes her head)
And, you yell at me for snapping! God! You're such a hypocrite, why can't you just tell me everything?
JOHNNY
We tried that, it didn't take, you wouldn't remember I think it's a coping mechanism with you. When something bad happens you just block it out of your mind, completely. For something to stick you've gotta remember it on your own. (there's another pause) Please, just try to remember, for me.
ELIZABETH
(she makes a face about to shout at him again but just stares off into space for awhile and sighs)
I remember...remembering...does that make sense? I mean I know I've always had a spotty memory but when I was with you...
JOHNNY
(nodding frantically)
You were better, yea. That's a start.
Blog #8
3 Important Things to Remember When Writing Dialogue:
1) Practice saying your dialogue to yourself over and over again. Edit your dialogue according to how you hear people speak out in public. Listen and observe a lot of speech to get a good idea of how it should sound and look on paper.
2) Your characters should not all sound like you when they are speaking. They should all have identifiable mannerisms during their dialogue. You should be able to know a lot about them just from the way they speak.
3) Good dialogue gives us the sense that we are eavesdropping. Good dialogue encompasses both what is said and what is not said.
1) Practice saying your dialogue to yourself over and over again. Edit your dialogue according to how you hear people speak out in public. Listen and observe a lot of speech to get a good idea of how it should sound and look on paper.
2) Your characters should not all sound like you when they are speaking. They should all have identifiable mannerisms during their dialogue. You should be able to know a lot about them just from the way they speak.
3) Good dialogue gives us the sense that we are eavesdropping. Good dialogue encompasses both what is said and what is not said.
Blog #7
Subplot:
More background information begins to be revealed about Johnny and Elizabeth through flashbacks. A good amount of the groups trip from Sacramento to Virginia involves insight on Johnny and Elizabeth's lives before they died. It becomes evident that they were in love, starting from when they were kids and Elizabeth would come over to Virginia with her father from England during the summers where they stayed in a house that Johnny's family staffed. More is also revealed about who they were as people, Elizabeth's character is strikingly different she is happy and kind, not the argumentative stubborn person she is as a ghost. As the flashbacks progress there is still something important not being revealed to the audience as their characters change and their deaths near.
Into the Wide Unknown:
Elizabeth does not seem as motivated as she should be to remember her death, it's evident she is scared even though she won't admit it. Johnny wants desperately for her to remember her death and move on, but she refuses to leave and go to Virginia because she won't leave Carl, the old man whose house they've been "haunting" for years. One of the things ghosts in this world can do is temporarily possess animals and other people. Johnny possesses Carl's cat and confronts the man, who faints several times, tries to convince himself this isn't happening but finally listens to Johnny. Johnny explains to him that he's one of the ghosts that's been haunting his house for years and that if he wants them to go away he'll have to go to Virginia. Carl asks why and Johnny explains the situation with Elizabeth. He finally agrees to go and when Johnny tells Elizabeth she says they have to go with him because they can't just leave Carl and they all set out on the road together where Johnny continually possesses Carl's cat so that they can communicate with each other.
The "Aha" Moment:
The three arrive in the small-town and go to the town hall to look up Carl's family history. Upon discovering that she is Carl's great grandmother, Elizabeth suddenly remembers that she was once married and pregnant before her death and all the other circumstances surrounding it. But the real Aha moment comes when she realizes how wrong she was for lying to her husband all those years and how it drove him into such a distraught state that he turned into one of the creatures when he died, gaining more power as his 100 year mark after their deaths approached. Elizabeth and Johnny both realize that's where the creature come from, they are the souls of people so tortured they don't turn into normal ghosts but instead mindless creatures compelled to cause chaos in the world and that killing them is doing them mercy as they get to move on properly afterwards. Elizabeth also realizes that what she has to do next even though she has been presented with the opportunity to move on she must destroy the creature that was once her husband so that he can be at peace and they can save the town.
More background information begins to be revealed about Johnny and Elizabeth through flashbacks. A good amount of the groups trip from Sacramento to Virginia involves insight on Johnny and Elizabeth's lives before they died. It becomes evident that they were in love, starting from when they were kids and Elizabeth would come over to Virginia with her father from England during the summers where they stayed in a house that Johnny's family staffed. More is also revealed about who they were as people, Elizabeth's character is strikingly different she is happy and kind, not the argumentative stubborn person she is as a ghost. As the flashbacks progress there is still something important not being revealed to the audience as their characters change and their deaths near.
Into the Wide Unknown:
Elizabeth does not seem as motivated as she should be to remember her death, it's evident she is scared even though she won't admit it. Johnny wants desperately for her to remember her death and move on, but she refuses to leave and go to Virginia because she won't leave Carl, the old man whose house they've been "haunting" for years. One of the things ghosts in this world can do is temporarily possess animals and other people. Johnny possesses Carl's cat and confronts the man, who faints several times, tries to convince himself this isn't happening but finally listens to Johnny. Johnny explains to him that he's one of the ghosts that's been haunting his house for years and that if he wants them to go away he'll have to go to Virginia. Carl asks why and Johnny explains the situation with Elizabeth. He finally agrees to go and when Johnny tells Elizabeth she says they have to go with him because they can't just leave Carl and they all set out on the road together where Johnny continually possesses Carl's cat so that they can communicate with each other.
The "Aha" Moment:
The three arrive in the small-town and go to the town hall to look up Carl's family history. Upon discovering that she is Carl's great grandmother, Elizabeth suddenly remembers that she was once married and pregnant before her death and all the other circumstances surrounding it. But the real Aha moment comes when she realizes how wrong she was for lying to her husband all those years and how it drove him into such a distraught state that he turned into one of the creatures when he died, gaining more power as his 100 year mark after their deaths approached. Elizabeth and Johnny both realize that's where the creature come from, they are the souls of people so tortured they don't turn into normal ghosts but instead mindless creatures compelled to cause chaos in the world and that killing them is doing them mercy as they get to move on properly afterwards. Elizabeth also realizes that what she has to do next even though she has been presented with the opportunity to move on she must destroy the creature that was once her husband so that he can be at peace and they can save the town.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Blog #6 - Outline
Set Up: It's night in the suburbs of Sacremento and a boy is riding home from work on his bike when the chain breaks. He flies off and is about to call for a ride when he notices a man attacking a woman down the road. He tries to save her and almost succeds but the man shoots both of them. The boy dies but becomes a ghost. There are two other ghosts, Jacoby and Clementine, waiting to explain to him what is going on, they explain: When people are murdered or have unfinished business with the living they are given 100 years as a ghost to come to terms with their death, if they cannot by the time the 100 years are up then they have to stay as a ghost forever. Murderers are automatically turned into ghosts with no chance of being able to move on and be at peace. They have shackles around their wrists and are internally tortured for the rest of eternity. All ghosts are immediately assigned a certain weapon with which to kill the creatures invisible to the rest of humanity that cause chaos in the world. As the three travel around the city Jacoby explains to the boy about him and Clementine. She is 19 and he is 22, they both died around the same time in 1910 and were good friends back in a small town in Virginia although Clementine is originally from England. The boy notices that Jacoby has shackles signifying that he killed someone. Clementine and Jacoby both reside in the attic of a 67 year old widower's home. They act rather careless around him and he has noticed strange things happening in his home for years. He suspects it's haunted and has become extremely paranoid and supersticious. As they are walking a piece of paper floats towards them seemingly out of nowhere. Clementine grabs it and explains that it says she has exactly one month to accept her death or she will have to stay a ghost forever. Soon the boy meets a group of other ghosts who he goes off with and Jacoby and Clementine return to the old mans house.
Inciting Incident: Jacoby devises a plan to get Clementine on the road to remembering her death. For some reason that only Jacoby seems to know, Clementine doesn't want to leave the man whose attic they live in but he needs to get her to Virginia where she died and in order to do that the man must go to Virginia as well. So Jacoby briefly possesses the man's cat and tells him he has to go to Virginia to solve his ghost problem that the man, who is very superstitious and paranoid, has always suspected he has. After fainting several times from shock the man decides to go.
Rising Action:
1) On one of their stops on the way to Virginia Jacoby and Clementine hear from other ghosts that many are heading to the same small town in Virginia they are going to because there is a strangely powerful creature there wreaking havoc through the town.
2) Through many more conversations between Jacoby and Clementine we find out more about their past and personalities, specifically that Clementine could be selfish at times. Jacoby tries to help Clementine remember details about her death but nothing works.
3) The man consults a psychic while they're on the road. She performs a seance but Jacoby and Clementine know that she's a fake so they decide to freak her out and throw things around in her office and cause trouble which scares the woman but the man isn't worried by anything as he has been living with this sort of thing for a long time. At one point the man asks what he has to do when he's in Virginia and Jacoby possesses the woman's pet lizard and tells him to look up his ancestry. The woman kicks the man out once she's had enough and the three go on their way.
4) As they near the small town in Virginia the weather is getting worse and worse, they hear reports on the radio that that a hurricane is approaching and there have been many murders in the area lately but Jacoby and Clementine know that all of this is being caused by the abnormally powerful monster that they heard from the other ghosts has been seen in the small town.
5) Once in the small town, the man goes to the town hall to look through their records and find information on his ancestry. We discover that Clementine was actually the mans grandmother. In an instant all of her lost memories come rushing back. She remembers how she was forced to marry a man in the small town she was not in love with, how she was really in love with Jacoby and had an ongoing affair with him the whole time she was married. The man she was married to was rich but not very good with people and prone to violence and would sometimes abuse Clementine which caused Jacoby to start carrying around a gun in case he ever needed to protect her. Clementine didn't know he knew about the affair but that was the reason he started drinking and becoming increasingly more abusive to Clementine when he got drunk. The day she died Jacoby found her husband holding her body in his arms outside. He thought her husband had killed her and was disposing of the body so Jacoby shot him in the head. he was later convicted and executed for murder. The reality was Clementine had actually killed herself. She was 8 months pregnant with husband's baby and was depressed because she did not want to have his baby since she knew she could never love it or be a good mother. Doctors were able to save the baby however.
Climax: As Clementine is remembering this the town is getting worse and worse. Her grandson and everyone else are trying to get to better shelter when she realizes that the monster causing all of this must be the ghost of her husband, he just turned into a monster after his death because he was so distraught. As she feels remorse for what happened a bright light suddenly appears near her, she knows it's her chance to move on but she can't do it. Clementine decides she has to stop being selfish and passes up her chance to move on so that she can help destroy the tortured soul of what was once her husband.
Falling Action: In the End they all bring down the beast before he destroys the town and Clementine is left holding the shrunken dying form of her husband and she apologies for everything as he nods signifying that he is sorry too and a light appears for him to move on. Jacoby and Clementine go to find her grandson.
Resolution: When they find him he is running through the street trying to get to his car but another car speeds around the turn and almost hits him but before it can Clementine pushes him out of the way saving him but condemning herself to a lifetime of torture as shackles appear around her wrists because you are not allowed to interfere too much with the living. Jacoby and Clementine spend eternity together.
Inciting Incident: Jacoby devises a plan to get Clementine on the road to remembering her death. For some reason that only Jacoby seems to know, Clementine doesn't want to leave the man whose attic they live in but he needs to get her to Virginia where she died and in order to do that the man must go to Virginia as well. So Jacoby briefly possesses the man's cat and tells him he has to go to Virginia to solve his ghost problem that the man, who is very superstitious and paranoid, has always suspected he has. After fainting several times from shock the man decides to go.
Rising Action:
1) On one of their stops on the way to Virginia Jacoby and Clementine hear from other ghosts that many are heading to the same small town in Virginia they are going to because there is a strangely powerful creature there wreaking havoc through the town.
2) Through many more conversations between Jacoby and Clementine we find out more about their past and personalities, specifically that Clementine could be selfish at times. Jacoby tries to help Clementine remember details about her death but nothing works.
3) The man consults a psychic while they're on the road. She performs a seance but Jacoby and Clementine know that she's a fake so they decide to freak her out and throw things around in her office and cause trouble which scares the woman but the man isn't worried by anything as he has been living with this sort of thing for a long time. At one point the man asks what he has to do when he's in Virginia and Jacoby possesses the woman's pet lizard and tells him to look up his ancestry. The woman kicks the man out once she's had enough and the three go on their way.
4) As they near the small town in Virginia the weather is getting worse and worse, they hear reports on the radio that that a hurricane is approaching and there have been many murders in the area lately but Jacoby and Clementine know that all of this is being caused by the abnormally powerful monster that they heard from the other ghosts has been seen in the small town.
5) Once in the small town, the man goes to the town hall to look through their records and find information on his ancestry. We discover that Clementine was actually the mans grandmother. In an instant all of her lost memories come rushing back. She remembers how she was forced to marry a man in the small town she was not in love with, how she was really in love with Jacoby and had an ongoing affair with him the whole time she was married. The man she was married to was rich but not very good with people and prone to violence and would sometimes abuse Clementine which caused Jacoby to start carrying around a gun in case he ever needed to protect her. Clementine didn't know he knew about the affair but that was the reason he started drinking and becoming increasingly more abusive to Clementine when he got drunk. The day she died Jacoby found her husband holding her body in his arms outside. He thought her husband had killed her and was disposing of the body so Jacoby shot him in the head. he was later convicted and executed for murder. The reality was Clementine had actually killed herself. She was 8 months pregnant with husband's baby and was depressed because she did not want to have his baby since she knew she could never love it or be a good mother. Doctors were able to save the baby however.
Climax: As Clementine is remembering this the town is getting worse and worse. Her grandson and everyone else are trying to get to better shelter when she realizes that the monster causing all of this must be the ghost of her husband, he just turned into a monster after his death because he was so distraught. As she feels remorse for what happened a bright light suddenly appears near her, she knows it's her chance to move on but she can't do it. Clementine decides she has to stop being selfish and passes up her chance to move on so that she can help destroy the tortured soul of what was once her husband.
Falling Action: In the End they all bring down the beast before he destroys the town and Clementine is left holding the shrunken dying form of her husband and she apologies for everything as he nods signifying that he is sorry too and a light appears for him to move on. Jacoby and Clementine go to find her grandson.
Resolution: When they find him he is running through the street trying to get to his car but another car speeds around the turn and almost hits him but before it can Clementine pushes him out of the way saving him but condemning herself to a lifetime of torture as shackles appear around her wrists because you are not allowed to interfere too much with the living. Jacoby and Clementine spend eternity together.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Blog #5 - Logline
Time is running out for a forgetful ghost who was given a 100 year sentance to come to terms with her death she can't remember in this comedic and violent adventure.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Entry #2
Well, my first goal I suppose would be to work on coming up with more creative titles for blog entries than "Entry #2". (I guess that falls into the "Variety" category) It's definitely something I'd like to get better at through taking this course. In all the years I've taken English courses the one thing that remains to this day the hardest part of writing for me is figuring out where to start. Once I find a good starting point I can ramble on forever. And I've noticed that if and when I do get stuck, it's almost always because my chosen sarting point wasn't very good. So I often find myself going back and rewriting the beginning multiple times. If this course could alleviate some of this constant struggle that would be, for lack of a better word (and there's always a better word in this case) awesome. Maintenance is another thing I'd like to work on in this course. I'm not the neatest person so keeping my blogs and writing assignments organized might be difficult for me. Overall, I just hope I can improve my writing through this course.
Monday, February 13, 2012
HI! And Welcome...
...to this creative writing blog that I have created for the purposes of my English class on creative writing (who would've guessed?). The purpose of this blog is to help me grow as a writer and get more experience with writing in general. I am taking this class because I really enjoy writing, especially when there isn't a whole set of rules laid out for how I should be constructing the piece of writing. When I can write about whatever I want in whatever style I want, that's when I enjoy writing and that's why I'm taking this creative writing course.
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