Not so Fantastic 4 (10/14/15)

(WARNING SPOILERS)

I would like to take a moment from our regular scheduled talks about creative ambitions to take the time to have a brief story analysis of the movie above. Fantastic 4, that came out in earlier this year by Twentieth Century Fox.

As I have worked on my writing craft, one of the things in the three classes I am taking for creative writing the semester have touched on the same subject at one point or another. That is seeing holes in story structure, plot etc. By learning how to spot these flaws in story structure, I not only learn to see it in my own work, but also in the work of other story structures such as in books and movies.

A friend and I went to the dollar theater on Tuesday because it was a two dollar ticket night at the cheap seats. both of us went to a movie, got a medium popcorn and a large drink to share for under $13 dollars. Considering the price of tickets in regular theaters, that's not bad for two people. Because it is the cheap theaters however, movie choices are limited. We had both heard that 'Fantastic 4' was a horrible movie, but we figured we were only paying two dollars to go see it so why not? We were already going with Low expectations. However, we were surprised that the movie managed to surpass even our prior low expectations by being even worse than we could ever imagined.

'Fantastic 4' is nearly two hours of bland, unimaginative, poorly structured story if you can even call it that. The first 3/4 of the movie are slow paced 'origin' story of how the characters know each other and how they got their powers with literal cut scenes of seven years later and one year later. After they get their powers they completely glaze over the main four learning to use and adjust to their powers. Then the last quarter of the movie is a quick jerk turn of events as we are dropped into the second 'plot' of Doctor Doom coming back from a different dimension with the desire to destroy the planet and the know-hows to do so with little effort.

The story is fragmented so drastically in this fashion that everything about the characters is glossed over with no real character development or purpose, they are just there. Doctor Doom, one of my favorite villains from the Marvel universe, is passed over completely and has no character development at all. The character is a bitter loner, pinning after the girl he loves, Susan Storm, jealous of the new boy genius, Reid Richards, and "dies" in the other dimension. A year later, he comes back with a new set of scientists sent over to the dimension, having survived a year on an alien world, altered like the others with the purpose to destroy the planet to save his dimension which has now become his home. But they explain nothing of why he went to this sudden extreme. (And where the hell did he get his cloak from?)

This movie was poorly written, and I believe simply made so that the company could hold onto the copy right for a little bit longer. My advice, give the copy-right back to Disney/Marvel and they'll actually do a good job.

The More That You Read (10/8/15)

 

An English teacher once told my class that in order to be a good writer, you also have to be a good reader. You cannot be one without being the other. Not only does it allow you as a writer to see what works in a novel, etc, but reading opens your mind to now experiences, points of views and knowledge. If it wasn't for my family encouraging me to read when I was growing up I wouldn't have found my passion for stories and writing. Therefore eventually leading to my pursuit into creative writing in college. 

I love to read, and one of my goals is to write stories that people love to read. Not only because of sales. But genuinely stories that people want to read and want to share with other people. My family used to shove books at me to read growing up, my dad told us bedtime stories that he would make up every night with words that we gave him like our own version of bedtime mad-libs.  

I have been writing little stories since I was a little kid. I have folders, note-books, binders and drawers full of loose and bound papers full of unfinished dabbles. Looking through them now, the writing is so terrible, spelling, grammar, content, it hurts my head just reading through them. But I do not have the heart to throw any of them away. I have copies of every English paper I wrote in High-school, every snippit of short story with the idea that one day I could look through them and use something. One day something might spark something in my mind and who knows what might become of it?

Although movies are vision-ally stunning, how many times have we heard over and over again, when referencing the book compared to the movie, "The book was better."?

So, if you want to write, Read.

Say Cheese! (9/28/15)

 I wouldn't say I'm an amazing photographer, but I sure do love trying and taking fun pictures. These are only a few of the pictures that I took on my Study Abroad trip to Britain through MCC (If you haven't considered Study Abroad I really suggest you do it was so worth it and a great experience).

I don't think I could do photography professionally, I don't think I have a good enough camera for it. But its a fun little creative hobby of mine. For photography you have to know all about good lighting, shutter and flash etc. I'm too lazy to learn all that stuff. Its more fun to just take pictures however I want. But then I see photos by professionals and I can't help wanting to do things like that.

Besides, Photography is a lot easier than painting or drawing.  

Ambitiously Creative 2.0 (9/22/15)

Up above you will see a small screen shot of my Pinterest account (aka craft hoarders.com) and only about half of my boards. This ones have been shown because they are strictly crafts in some way or fashion. There is:

• Writing
• Crafts I would LOVE to do: (this blog is full of miscellaneous crafts like crochet etc)
•  YUM!: (baking dessert ideas)
• Enjoy Christmas: (Christmas crafts and decorating ideas)
• Fall and Halloween: (fall edition of Christmas)
• Steampunk
• Jewelry ideas: (i make a lot of my own jewelry, expensive hobby don't get into it)
• one day I'll learn to cook: (regular recipes that are not desserts that I would like to try.

I just thought I would take a moment to show briefly, what other kinds of things I am into besides writing which is what a large portion of this blog has been about so far. But this blog isn't only about writing. It's also about all my creative ambitions not just writing, so here is a brief show of what some of that entails.

Probably later on in this blog I might go into further detail about some of my projects. Right now I don't have the time though... I know, sad face. 

Right now I'm playing catch up after playing loose with my homework schedule. Whoops.

Frankie Says "Relax" (9-14-15)

Ignoring the fact that the original context of the song was about 'shagging' I'm going to use it in the context that the band "Frankie goes to Hollywood" said it was when the song first came out. They said it was about motivation to avoid censorship. 

I just think it was a funny title for this weeks entry as my subject is about stepping back, and taking a breather. Or simply...

Let yourself relax every once in a while. 

I call it letting myself detox or distress. This semester is full of homework to the point where it feels like I am constantly doing nothing but homework. This last week especially has left me frazzled and irritable. I was so brain fried that even the things that I normally do on my time off held no real appeal. It wasn't pleasant.

My advice this week, is when things get like that, to step back and give yourself a breather. Go to lunch or a movie with friends, read a book, watch Netflix, socialize. This action will allow your brain to clear and will lower levels of stress. I've found that when I'm stressed out, my creative drive drops, ideas stop flowing, and when I go back and read anything I've written while stressed, I usually find that it needs some serious revision. 

Taking a break will also help for when hitting a dead end or writers block. Setting aside a project and coming back to it later will allow you to come back to it and see it with fresh eyes. 

The Crazy Wall (9/9/15)

How many of us are familiar with this image from  movies?

This image is from "Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows" and it is the spider web, mind map or crazy wall that Sherlock was using to track Moriarty. Each string is tied to a point, that connects to another point and so on and so on. As you can see from the image above it's quite chaotic and messy. That's what being inside my creative mind is like.

A.K.A. very crazy and chaotic and it's a surprise I ever know here I am going or how one thing really leads to the others. Most of the time, an idea will pop into my head before I can finish another.

As you can guess, this is not very helpful when I am trying to come up with a story. Like the last this ties a bit into scheduling. But this post, is more about organization.

I would be all over the place if my idea and planning for a story looked like the picture above. So for one of my current projects, a novel I have been working. I have been trying a slightly different tactic. Instead of trying to figure out to much all at once and separately, leaving me to figure out how they are all connected, I have been implementing a story board system instead. Something like this:

This is clearly from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" and is the scene were Alice comes across the Hookah smoking Caterpillar. Moving from top to bottom, left to right, we see step by step how the scene is going to progress.

My story board is somewhat similar. Only instead of pictures, I have words on note cards, tact to a bulletin board. Each note card has a key point in the story that needs to happen. And I can move them around and connect them in different patterns to see how they work.

This has been a great help in helping me organize my thoughts and try different combinations. And it saves me a bit of wall space and I don't have to by red string.

Keeping a Smooth Course - (9/1/15)

Do you remember last week when I wrote about how creativity is something I believe to be spontaneous? Well, I need to take a step backward and add one small caveat. That is scheduling.

As much as I believe that creativity with anything you are doing whether it be writing, painting, etc, should be fun and unexpected. I also realize that I live in a real world where such things cannot always be left to whims of fancy. That means things have to be put on hold, and things must be arranged into an easy to follow schedule.

In my personal case, this semester I have a full life with four classes at MCC, three of them being creative writing courses, the last being math. Then I want to still enjoy time with family, friends, and have time to be creative. This means every week I sit down to make a schedule. I look at everything that I have to do that week as far as course work, the homework that is required and when it is due. Then I look at other social events that I want to do and I plan everything out accordingly. My solution, is that I attempt to have homework done every night by eight or nine o'clock, earlier if I have previous engagements in the evening. This gives me time in the evenings to have some free time.

This is good because a lot of the reading for all my creative writing classes have had a similar chapter on finding a time to sit down and write. All of them say, find a time that works best for you. An hour a day or so where you sit down and write, whether it is to free flow, brainstorm, etc. This helps get you in the habit of writing daily until its not scheduled and just habit.

Right now for me scheduling is a necessity and even if you don't need to work out a full schedule for your class work. I recommend figuring out that hour a day time to sit down and write, or paint or what ever it is that you do creatively.