Week 3 - Friday Assignments

Writing Workshop -

It was another rainy night as Eddy pulled into the dimly-lit parking lot of his apartment complex. Struggling with carrying all of his bulky video-production equipment, he made it to the building in good time without being too soaked from the outside precipitation. He pushed his wet, brown hair out of his eyes back off to the side again. Eddy sighed as he looked up with big eyes at the menacing flight of stairs he had to climb, and then back down at the equipment bags he needed to carry up them.

After reluctantly doing so and making it to his apartment, he found his roomate and fellow co-worker Arnold sitting lazily on the couch, his legs on the coffee table as he watched television.

"Did you get the shot?" asked Arnold.

"I was late," Eddy curtly responded, "But what difference does it make. I don't see how footage of the airplane taking off makes that lousy story any better."

"You look like a mess. Work must've really took a toll on you today." Arnold stated, describing Eddy's apperance. His tie had become partially undone and his bright reporter attire was faded and wrinkled.

"It's the life we were chosen for, Arnold."

"We really need some better news stories. Ones that don't require us to be at a time and place all the time, always in a rush, and on top of that, something in the least bit interesting for christ sake!"

Eddy proceeded to sit down and watch the 10:00 news of the rival TV company. It was something Arnold usually picked apart and teased, being that their newer outlet was considered more 'amateur' than the reputable, long-time standing station the two belonged to. Eddy was more calm about it and respected their efforts. He was surprised that Arnold was keeping his mouth shut tonight in particular. Their top story was that of a big-time prisoner's escape in Marquette, and that he was on the loose.

"That's the kind of story we need!" Arnold exclaimed.

Surprised, Eddy responded, "What? They just reported it, and what more is to the story than that until the guy gets caught again?"

"No, I mean, we follow every step the guy takes, and chronicle the whole thing up until he gets caught. Noone usually does that, it'd make a great series of news reports!"

"It could be dangerous, and on top of that, it's risky. We can't even guarantee that we'll have enough content for the stories each time."

"We can make up whatever the hell we want and go by what the police is up to! Don't you see, it's not like your story where we have to be someplace, we just report wherever, whenever, after the fact, and there's bound to be something big that'll happen!"

"Well, as long as we confine to some proper news-reporting etiquette, I guess I'll go along with it."

"That's the spirit! I'll get writing."



Story Idea 2 - "Eminence"

My second story idea is yet another result of my movie-watching and reading habits that I've talked about in earlier blog posts. I believe I mentioned earlier I really like plots where multiple things are happening simultaneously - where different individuals and groups who may not know each other or know of their immediate involvement in a situation are intertwined in a series of events relating to a common goal or single item, like two of Guy Ritchie's most popular films "Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels" (the plot mainly focusing around two rifles) and "Snatch" (plot focusing around a diamond).

The idea is (I haven't fleshed it out entirely and am in dire need of further ideas for it) that there is a great technological advancement/invention created somewhere by someone who is essentially an amateur that will change everything as we know it. Possible ideas could be a cure for a disease, a weapon, an artifact - something of great importance and value. Then, information about it begins to leak, and many different parties wish to obtain it for their own personal needs or wants, whether they be for good or for bad. If it were a new and terrifying weapon, for example, criminals would want it for their own diabolic plans, a government would want it for use in their military, robbers would want it to sell it for a load of cash, a world peace group would want it to never surface, etc... And here's the catch - in a very Alfred Hitchcock fashion, this item of huge importance somehow ends up in the hands of who is basically an innocent bystander. All the weight falls on his shoulders. He would be the "average joe" type main character. He has to figure out how to clear himself from the situation and more importantly, what to do with the item. There will be a number of options for him and he has to choose what he think will be best for him personally and what would be best for the world. What he ultimately decides will alter the story's conclusion. It's a good skeletal idea, however, I'm not exactly sure how I'll be writing the events in detail. I may wish to only explain the narrative through the main character and not look into other perspectives from the interest groups. I love the idea concept but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make up for it in solid substance from point A to B. It could definitely work, though.

Week 2 - Story Idea 1 - For Sunday

There's this idea that I've had floating around for some time now, and it's based off of an actual, true story from many years ago in the upper peninsula of Michigan that was reported on the news. You could say that I wish to create a 'dramatization' based off of it. Of course, I am going to be changing the story heavily to give it more of a dynamic, complex structure. I'll explain - if I were to tell the story only from one person's perspective, it's not as interesting if it's just told through their eyes. I want to go further and dulge into multiple perspectives rather than just one.

The news story was that of a prisoner (no, the prisoner wasn't a mob guy like my previous story, that silly idea was just for the story in my last blog post) who somehow escaped from jail and was on the loose, evading police, and trying to get as far away as he possibly could. He stumbled upon a person's house, broke in, and since we're talking the upper peninsula here, he found a hunting rifle in one of the bedrooms. Sure enough, at the same time, the owner of the house came home, stopped his car in the garage, got out, and was met by the fugitive. You can guess what happens next. Now, all that was reported was the breakout and the murder he committed. I'd like to fictionalize the story a bit and weave multiple plots and characters into the mix which include two news reporters (one who is the main character) struggling with finding a good news story. So, of course, he stumbles across this one. It would chronicle the reporters' attempt at following the prisoner's trail throughout the area, after the breakout, before and after the murder. The main character, who is one of the reporters, is in constant pressure to go to extreme measures to get the story he needs for his job, but his morals and human side come into play that could counteract with his line of work. It would additionally chronicle the prisoner's escape, a police officer's quest, and the family whose house is broken into.

Each person is aiming to achieve their own end goal, and face all the various issues that do not allow them to make a single screw-up. I don't plan to resolve the question of 'what happens' to the prisoner. I think it would be effective to end the story on a sad note. I just watched an amazing Sidney Lumet movie called "The Hill" from 1965 with Sean Connery and it's about World War 2 British prisoners' struggle in a military prison. Throughout the whole movie, you frequently see three sadistic, cruel, prison guards and you're constantly waiting for the moment in which they should get what's coming to them. I don't mean to spoil the movie here and I won't, however, I must say that it does end in a cliffhanger. It's an INCREDIBLY effective ending. I think to end it like that would be better than to have an ending in which the prisoner is caught, or the reporters get the story they are looking for and achieve success, etc. However, the story will focus on the reporters' plight and the plot is centrally involved around finding and catching the runaway prisoner. Each character will have some effect on changing the sequence of events.

I'm really obsessed with movies that have multiple things going on at once in which everything becomes intertwined in some way later on, in one big moment or multiple ones. I'm hoping to try and do something like that with this, and have an interesting, suspenseful, and fun read. I'm new at this, so I hope it doesn't come off as cheesy, unrealistic, or novice. It should definitely make a great story though!

Week 2 - For Thursday

The Skeleton, 53, page 142

"Prison. This is no place for a guy like me!" I remarked.

My name is Richard Marcheza, and I was one of the most influential mob bosses in the entire city of New York. I got busted by some two-bit cop who bagged me on income-tax evasion of all things. Who would've thought. A man like me should have been arrested for all the violence I've dealt, ordered, or caused using my own two hands. I have contacts all over the city working on getting me out of here, including a couple jail guards who smuggled their way in. Of course, I do not know of them yet, or I have yet to speak to any of them, as they will come to me when the time is right. This afternoon, however, the time is right. Every day at 1:00 PM, the same group of thirty-five prisoners are sent out to do work duty somewhere in the vicinity outside of the prison. The guards lined us up outside our rusted cells, same as always, but today, a guard that I had never seen before approached me. He put his hand on my shoulder, awkward for his kind, in order to get my attention. I looked away from him and thought nothing of it, probably just some guard who wanted to throw in a quick insult about my being arrested. Then I felt something small and metallic land in my pocket.

"You'll need this," he muttered under his breath.

I smiled, and the guard went on his way. The prisoners were brought outside and the labor began. I continued my work-duty routine as usual, and observed the scene around me. I took out of my pocket just what I expected - a small key. Looking around and brushing off my dusty prison attire, I held the key, reached down to my shackles, and began to unlock them as quietly as possible. I felt on top of the game until a shadow loomed over me - it was a fellow prisoner, looking directly at me with his eyes full of raging jealousy, anger, and envy.

"GUARDS!" The prisoner yelled.

I panicked. Out of impulse, I reached out to punch the tattletale who stumbled backward, still yelling. Guards began to approach me, but behind them emerged a familiar face - the guard from earlier who was my associate on the inside. He pulled out a gun and aimed it at the two guards heading our way and shot them once each with a tranquilizer. They'll wake up and not remember a thing. By this time, all the prisoners stopped their work and the scene became frantic from there. I heard a shout to run over the mass frenzy, but that was the last of it. I fled the scene and never looked back. Something obviously didn't go to plan, but who cares, I was a free man. My journey on foot would begin, despite being clueless about the events that just took place prior.


I chose this exercise among the others to post because I've had a certain story idea that's been floating around in my head for some time. It's just an outline, really, I have the sequence of ideas worked out, but not the scenes in detail. This is essentially one of those scenes, however, to make this more workable for the assignment, I came up with the whole "mob boss" thing. Also, in case you didn't notice, I chose "The Skeleton" exercise on Page 142 because I thought the linear story requirements it had, such as a lead protagonist attempting to achieve something through the use of an object, an obstacle arises, and it is overcome by an outside force. It just seemed to perfectly corrolate with something I have in mind for a story which involves the escape of a prisoner, albeit maybe not some prestigious person like was concocted in this story, but nonetheless a prison break. I'm not exactly sure how most prison breaks happen, you only hear about them in the news without the details as to how. Additionally, the only things I can think of offhand are movies like Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman, which was basically where the whole "work duty" thing in my story came from. Anyhow, to recap, I picked this particular assignment because I knew it best went along with what I have in mind for the short story that we're gearing up for at the end of the semester, and I think it's giving me the best pratice, results, and introduction to that. Definitely was a good eye opener and a useful exercise.

Week 1 - Writing Exercises

PAGE 40 -
One person that I vividly remember from my childhood that I was not very fond of was the father of my best friend. He always appeared to look ill-tempered, usually had the same frowning facial expression, and had a tendency to spoil the fun my friend and I usually had outdoors and indoors. He always talked in a loud, monotone, and grunt-like manner which gave me the impression that he wasn't a very emotional person. His hair seemed to always be styled the exact same way (combed back) and I never once saw him without the same mustache. Now that I think about it, I don't think I ever noticed if he got a haircut or shaved any particularly different way.

Anyhow, the less I crossed paths with him when trying to have fun with my friend, the better things usually were. When I'd be over at my friends, he'd either be at work, or a lot of times, the dad would hang out in the garage with a buddy of his that was a little younger than he. My friend's dad was really big on motorcycles and often would be drinking and smoking in the garage while we would play outside. If he ever talked to us about what we were doing, or if we had to get his permission for something, he often times was very strict. I never really said anything to my friend about him, or asked him why he acted the way he did, but I accepted it. I always had the feeling that his Dad cared little about his children and paid little attention to them, as they didn't do a whole lot together. Today, I happen to be correct, because he has since unfortunately divorced with his wife for reasons such as the one I explained prior. If I see him now, I'll of course wave to him, but it saddens me to think of how my friend has been negatively effected by how his father acted and more importantly, the divorce of his parents. The father now lives in an apartment elsewhere and when he does spend time with my friend and his son, they participate in numerous activities together that now carries a stronger bind of importance than once was.

PAGE 69-
My friend's dad had a "biker" personality, although not your stereotypical motorcycle enthusiast. In his fridge you would most likely find (this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise) cans of beer, and maybe leftover food like last night's box of pizza, organized in a hasty and sloppy manner. In his trunk you would find car parts, motorcycle parts, maybe some tools, and mechanical items necessary for his occupation. In his closet you would find work outfits for a mechanic, jeans, etc. He now lives alone but is sometimes visited by his two sons.

Now, for the second person, I'll talk about my friend's mom, who is much different than his father. Her occupation is a nurse and she is what one might call a "health nut". In her fridge you would find all sorts of healthy foods. I particularly remember when going to my friends house how often she had skim milk, fruits and vegetables, and especially salads. She liked to read and had a wide assortment of magazines, such as People magazine. In her closet she would probably have things like scrubs for her work. Often, she goes for walks. She is very soft spoken, but nice and thoughtful. However, she's not the person you would want to cross paths and make enemies with, because she had very strong beliefs.

A third person would be my friend's older brother, who I think has had even more an effect on my friend than his dad. He would often shun his brother and bully him, yet they both carried the same interests in things like video games, TV shows, and physical activities. He was always a bit of a slob, unlike his parents, and usually would be scolded for this reason. His closet would probably be messy and full of clothes, even old ones that no longer fit him.

AFTERTHOUGHT -
After writing about each character in both exercises, I've come to realize how much of an effect one has on their family members. They say attitudes effect others, and I think that the attitudes I've seen come from each of my friend's siblings and parents have indirectly or directly effected the person he is now, ten years later. Now that I've seen my friend's dad both before and after his divorce, I've come to understand that he's realized his faults and is doing his best to be a better father to his sons despite the split. Hopefully someday all the family members won't share negative feelings towards each other and reunite and learn to respect each other for who they are.

Test post.

Hello!