So piggybacking on the idea of drawing some comics pages for writers to dialogue, and a follow-up notion of writing dialogue first, here is some dialogue.
I'm giving no directions for character designs, setting etc. Purely dialogue enough to draw a page or two, if you like.
A few artists at PnP have picked up on this... you could too if you like the idea.
*****
1_ YOU CAN GO IF YOU WANT ERIC, BUT I'M NOT LETTING YOU GO ALONE. I'M COMING TOO.
2_ WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS BEFORE SHEILA. YOU'RE NOT--
3_ I AM!
4_ LOOK, IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU TOOK THE CHANGE WITH YOU TO SEE GRANNY IN COVERTON. SHE'LL KNOW WHAT TO DO.
5_ GRANNY DOES WANT TO SEE ME AND BESIDES, SHE CAN'T ENDURE CONTACT WITH THE CHANGE.
6_ SHE'LL BE ALRIGHT AND YOU'LL BE SAFE.
7_ THE CHANGE WILL KILL HER AND I'M NOT ALRIGHT WITH THAT.
8_ SHEILA, IF YOU COME WITH ME IT COULD, IT WILL GET VERY BAD.
9_ I COULD MAKE THE DIFFERENCE, ERIC.
10_ SARAH, TALK SOME SENSE TO HER.
11_ NO. SHE'S RIGHT, ERIC. SHE HAS TO COME WITH YOU.
12_ MY GOD, IF THE CHANGE FINISHES TAKING HER WHILE WE'RE INSIDE, WE'RE DEAD.
13_ IF THE CHANGE FINISHES TAKING ME ANYWHERE, WE'RE ALL DEAD. BUT INSIDE, WE HAVE A CHANCE. I'M COMING WITH YOU, ERIC.
CAPTION: AND SO IT WAS SETTLED.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Horror
Horror is not a genre I read or watch movies of much. But I have some thoughts about what horror is that I'll take a moment to share with you. Perhaps they will spark a thought.
Much of my thought on this stems from Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae wherein she points to the Apollonian desire for the integrity or wholeness of the person, in opposition to and fear of the Dionysian dissolution of the person in the face of nature's amoral destruction and fecundity. At bottom, horror is about the loss of identity and its reconstitution as the thing feared. It is the fear of death and transformation into the grist of nature's mill.
Get bit by a werewolf and become one yourself.
Create an artificial man out of the parts of other men.
A moron becomes brilliant through a medical procedure and realizes that it won't last and his mind will soon slip away.
Become the egg carrying womb of a space alien and watch as the baby erupts through your abdomen, sharing some of your genetic material.
Horror can mean the dissolution of the body, the mind, the moral code. It can easily be eroticised in branches of pornography dealing with dominance and submission, or the 'descent' of men into effeminacy. Obviously, this latter approach is unsuitable for your needs, but consider a story in which a person must watch their mind, or more subtly, moral code dissolve.
As with the erotic, or the thriller, or even the murder mystery, much of the power of horror comes from the anticipation; of watching the inevitable dissolution/transformation come, and discovering that no matter how much you twist and turn, you cannot escape or evade it. And beware of heroism in the protagonist. that transforms horror into tragedy. Consider District 9, where the oncoming horror of transformation into an alien prawn is muted by the heroism of the infected man. It ends on an elegiac note featuring a spark of hope that the aliens will return to 'cure' him. In the end, the creators blunted the horror.
But consider a story about some one who mutilates themselves, (physically or psychically) for a cause and in the expectation that they will be redeemed, while we as the reader know that instead, they will be betrayed and abandoned. Consider Slumdog Millionaire where the singing boys were blinded to make the gangster a few more bucks while they were young. That's horror.
Much of my thought on this stems from Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae wherein she points to the Apollonian desire for the integrity or wholeness of the person, in opposition to and fear of the Dionysian dissolution of the person in the face of nature's amoral destruction and fecundity. At bottom, horror is about the loss of identity and its reconstitution as the thing feared. It is the fear of death and transformation into the grist of nature's mill.
Get bit by a werewolf and become one yourself.
Create an artificial man out of the parts of other men.
A moron becomes brilliant through a medical procedure and realizes that it won't last and his mind will soon slip away.
Become the egg carrying womb of a space alien and watch as the baby erupts through your abdomen, sharing some of your genetic material.
Horror can mean the dissolution of the body, the mind, the moral code. It can easily be eroticised in branches of pornography dealing with dominance and submission, or the 'descent' of men into effeminacy. Obviously, this latter approach is unsuitable for your needs, but consider a story in which a person must watch their mind, or more subtly, moral code dissolve.
As with the erotic, or the thriller, or even the murder mystery, much of the power of horror comes from the anticipation; of watching the inevitable dissolution/transformation come, and discovering that no matter how much you twist and turn, you cannot escape or evade it. And beware of heroism in the protagonist. that transforms horror into tragedy. Consider District 9, where the oncoming horror of transformation into an alien prawn is muted by the heroism of the infected man. It ends on an elegiac note featuring a spark of hope that the aliens will return to 'cure' him. In the end, the creators blunted the horror.
But consider a story about some one who mutilates themselves, (physically or psychically) for a cause and in the expectation that they will be redeemed, while we as the reader know that instead, they will be betrayed and abandoned. Consider Slumdog Millionaire where the singing boys were blinded to make the gangster a few more bucks while they were young. That's horror.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Finishing
Didn't get as much today as I had thought... you never do it seems. But a fair amount accomplished regardless, some of it not what i had planned is all.
I did finish a short story I've worked at over the last couple of months and got it uploaded under my pseudonym so don't bother to go looking for it. Its the third story I've done. The first got great feedback. It was a challenge because it involved two people each telling their story from their own perspective. Not everyone liked that approach, but most people found it successful. The second story was a follow-up, as told first person by about four voices, and was less well received. Most felt it seemed rushed, and I'll agree that i may have lost a little control over the voices, but i don't understand how people could be confused over who was speaking when each change was announced in a header. Oh well,
I took a break and came back with a longer story, not told in multiple voice first person, but in third person. This story was longer, and intended to offer more build up and more anticipation before the final climax. We'll see how it is received.
I am finding this a good way to try out some things before getting back to my novel. My novel, BTW will have to be started over from scratch. But I'm learning, I hope so there's that.
One of the things I think I need to change is to incorporate more thorough outlining. For these shorts I can start with a sort of goal in mind and maybe hold it in my head, but with this last story, because I didn't just race through it in a few days, I think it drifted. Not enough to make it incoherent, but enough that it became a different story from the one I started. Not a bad thing, what comes out when I right is probably what I need to be doing, just as what I draw the way I draw it, is simply my way.
I try not to focus on a specific style, but just assume that my style will emerge naturally. This is advice I heard from folk singer Tom Paxton in a radio interview many decades ago, and it has stuck with me. Do the work, and your own voice will emerge.
I did finish a short story I've worked at over the last couple of months and got it uploaded under my pseudonym so don't bother to go looking for it. Its the third story I've done. The first got great feedback. It was a challenge because it involved two people each telling their story from their own perspective. Not everyone liked that approach, but most people found it successful. The second story was a follow-up, as told first person by about four voices, and was less well received. Most felt it seemed rushed, and I'll agree that i may have lost a little control over the voices, but i don't understand how people could be confused over who was speaking when each change was announced in a header. Oh well,
I took a break and came back with a longer story, not told in multiple voice first person, but in third person. This story was longer, and intended to offer more build up and more anticipation before the final climax. We'll see how it is received.
I am finding this a good way to try out some things before getting back to my novel. My novel, BTW will have to be started over from scratch. But I'm learning, I hope so there's that.
One of the things I think I need to change is to incorporate more thorough outlining. For these shorts I can start with a sort of goal in mind and maybe hold it in my head, but with this last story, because I didn't just race through it in a few days, I think it drifted. Not enough to make it incoherent, but enough that it became a different story from the one I started. Not a bad thing, what comes out when I right is probably what I need to be doing, just as what I draw the way I draw it, is simply my way.
I try not to focus on a specific style, but just assume that my style will emerge naturally. This is advice I heard from folk singer Tom Paxton in a radio interview many decades ago, and it has stuck with me. Do the work, and your own voice will emerge.
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