Friday class- Jan 27th

For class Friday we went over how to find original characters. Being original is important when writing a story, because the more original you are the more captivated your reader will be.

            The recipe for a perfect story is two characters, one conflict, and one resolution. The point of view of the story comes from the protagonist or the antagonist.

            We try to avoid 1^st level creativity and clichés. We don’t want our audiences to tune out and not listen to our message. What drives the story and with the antagonist trying to stop the protagonist is power.

            There are multiple ways to find inspiration for new characters. Professor Jenkins advised using public sources and such, not just your friends and colleges around you because using your friends and colleges as inspiration can lead to clichés, which we are trying to avoid.

Characters

Four of the Typical Characters

Wendy- She is what you imagine when you think of a smart Asian. She excels in academics and is president of the student council and proud member of the marching bad. Yet secretly she yearns to become a super famous rock star.

Alison- She is the captain of the cheerleading team. She is the most popular girl in town, with her parents involved in city government. Yet secretly she is seriously depressed and longs to be part of the super alternative indie group at school.

Ted- He is the kid that nobody remembers. He hangs out with the potheads and Rastafarian. Yet he hates his social status and is desperately in love with Alison, the captain of the cheerleading team.

Jamar- He is the african-american captain of the football team and debate team. He is a wanted by all the ladies, and already has scholarships to all the best schools.  But he has dreams of becoming the best dub-step  DJ in the world!

Class #3- 1/13/2012

So Friday we discussed the basic elements of a story. Every story has a message where the writer is trying to persuade you to change.  The core of a story includes three key items; characters, conflict and resolution. There must be at least two characters, a minimum of one conflict and finally at least one resolution to that one conflict.  With that being said, here is my attempt at a story.

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Once upon a time there was a girl named Mallory and beautiful German-shepherd mix named Izzie. When Izzie was about a year old, Mallory and her fiancée decided that it was time to let Izzie roam their apartment freely while they were away at school or work during the day.  Unfortunately Izzie’s first day of being free to roam the apartment was horrible, at least for Mallory. Mallory had come home, after a long day at school and work, to ripped up papers, a toppled over trashcan, and an unwelcome present waiting in their hall way. Izzie had been so happy to see Mallory when she had first entered the apartment, but the moment Mallory saw the mess, Izzie hid in her kennel for most of the evening, embarrassed of her mistake.  Mallory and her fiancée tried many different things to keep Izzie from making messes before the left the apartment, but every time they came home to another mess or broken item. They had finally come to a point where they were about to give up and leave Izzie in her kennel while they were out, when Mallory had an idea.  One morning, before leaving for school, she hid the trashcan, put way anything izzie could destroy, and took the pup to do her business outside. She then took some dog treats and tossed them to her pup,  “Be my good girl, Izzie, I’ll be back!” Mallory said, before leaving quickly while she was eating her treat.  Surprisingly, after a full day of school and errands she came back to a happy pup and a clean apartment.  While it was probably the preparation before Mallory left for the day that left Izzie happy and less destructive, she likes to think that it is the simple saying “ Be my good girl, Izzie, I’ll be back”

Class #2 - 1/11/12

Today in class we discussed how when writing for the media, always think of the audience first. They are the people we are targeting and trying to persuade to read our message. That being said, we must understand who our audience is. Professor Jenkins gave some interesting statistics of people in America and how often they read or have issues with reading.  58% of high school graduates will not read a book for leisure after graduating. 48 % of college graduates won’t read a book for leisure after graduating. 80% of families have not purchased a book in a 1 year time frame. 70% of adults won’t finish a book to the end. And finally, 60% of people in America have an illiteracy problem.

            When hearing this in class today, I wasn’t really that surprised. I find myself and a few of my friends to be an exception to these statistics, but it’s simply because we have always enjoyed reading. But I know for a fact that my fiancée never reads books unless he is required to and he typically tries to find ways out of doing it. Except if it pertains to science, politics, or Xbox related, he isn’t interested. Not to say that he doesn’t read (he loves online news sources), but he never picks up a book.  What was shocking about these statistics was that the average reading level in America is only at the 5^th grade.

After discussing these statistics, we moved on to the topics of how we cannot assume the audience is homogenous. That being said, we must not dumb down our message but simplify it using the audiences language.  We then went on to discuss how people are lazy and we only care about two functions; reproducing and eating. Thinking this way reminds me of how we technically are all animals, just more evolved then our counterparts. That being said, we still only seek to do what will expend the least amount of energy to do anything. It makes sense.

That all being said, we than continued with the topics of how we are persuade the audience to read our message, how to penetrate the WIFM barrier. Make the message, short, sharp, limited, and appeal to our basic instincts. We have to consider their gender, culture, geographic location, age, experiences, and more.

Class #1- 1/9/2010

Monday was your typical first day of class. Professor Jenkins discussed his expectations, requirements, rules, and more. After he discussed the syllabus he moved on to the subject of what do we think of when we hear the word "story".  When I hear the word "story" I think it is   something interesting, something informative, and something I need to know. We then went on to discuss how when writing for the media we are supposed to be trying to grab the attention of the audience. He used the phrase " What's in if for me?" which is the question people think before they pick up a story to read or listen to it. We do it everyday, I know I do.  Every story has a an underlying message or goal they want to express but whether or not you will read said story depends on how and what is written.