Class Monday 2-20-22

In class on Monday, the main topic of conversation was dialog and how crucial it is for developing your story.  As professor Jenkins mentioned, it moves the story along and provides the reader with information.

When it comes to dialog though you have to be careful because it’s easy to make mistakes and in class we discussed some of the major ones. One issue is having too much dialog. While some people remember monologues, everybody remembers one- liners.  For example, “I’ll be back”. I don’t even have to say what movie or actor said that because I’m sure you knew, the second your read it.

Another issue is sounding too real and using too much jargon. With using slang and trying to sound real you can run the risk of sounding fake. You need to just focus on grammar short cuts and conveying complete interactions.

Another thing to add to the list of no-no’s is using a name too often. It’s not natural and it doesn’t sound right.  You also have to avoid telling the reader what they already know. Don’t repeat yourself.

You also need to give your characters distinctive voices or else you run the risk of having them all sound the same. Consider their education, culture, accent, regionalism, age, physicality and the list goes on and on. All of these things can help determine how you want to portray your characters voices.

And finally, a important and major thing to consider when writing dialog is making sure to convey the emotion of your characters. Make sure that the dialog reflects what they are feeling.  It helps the reader relate.

Class on monday we learned that the brain is the most powerful source of conflict and I find this comment to be completely true. It goes with the idea that the best antagonist is yourself.  Which reminds me of one of my favorite shows,  United States of Tara (showtime)

Tara combates to control her body while struggling with DID, dissociative identity  disorder. It is pretty crazy and awesome at the same time, at least in my opinion. Plus its based out of Overland Park, Ks.

We than discussed that we need to be careful not use the "God Machine" which Jenkins described as totally proponderous, which I agree with. 

That in particular reminds me of my nerdy RPG days when a group of friends and I would all write a story with our own characters on a message board, all of us contributing. Every once in a while someone would try to do what we called "Godmodding" or "power playing" and they would give their players outrageous powers or abilities or made it so their characters never died, which was unrealistic and boring. They usually got banned. 

But moving on, Jenkins went of to use the term deus ex machina, which means for "An unexpected power or event saving a hopeless situation, esp. as a plot device in a play or novel."(google.com) which Jenkins called unrealistic and we cannot have an external force assist a character. Which I obviously agree with.

We also discussed in class the three act structure, which looks like a baseball diamond. this system will help us the the structure of our stories and see how our story will develop. 

Wednesday class 2-1-12

Class today was more on character development. We went into further discussion of the Maslow Hierarchy and how when we are below existing, we are more focused on ourselves. That being said, we can still strive to help others and by doing so we are also more focused on others and our mind and spirit. We hope to aspire and are more giving.

The opposite of that is being more in tune with our animalistic side and we are lazy and self-seeking.  Jenkins said it is The Body v. The Soul. The soul being more in tune with our spiritual side and the Body the animalistic side.

We then went on to discuss characters v. characterization. Characterization is something we want to avoid when developing and writing about characters. It’s just the exterior shell of a character, characterization, and it’s a cliché we want to avoid.

Characters though are revealed under pressure. We then went on to discuss a very sad scenario where two characters are put under pressure when trying to decide which special needs kids to save from a burning school bus, on a bridge.  And after making assumptions before and seeing how some of them are untrue because of it just being a characterization, we really see who the characters are when put under pressure. Very interesting.

Monday Class, 1-30-12

Monday we talked more about characters. The question we are to always ask when writing a story is, who? Who are you writing about? Who cares?

We also learned that there are two essential things needed to make your characters interesting; active characters (who try and take control in every situation) and passive characters (passively go through life).           

When I consider which one of these characters I would be, I’m pretty sure I’d be a passive one, sadly. I like to avoid confrontation and be a silent observer in most situations.

As readers, we like out of the ordinary and passive doesn’t fit that description often. And when writing a story, we must make sure that the protagonist is an active character.

As an active character, they needs motivation. What makes them do or react in certain ways? Many ignore finding the motivation for a character, yet as Professor Jenkins mentioned, it is key to having a good story.

To figure out what our characters do what we do, Jenkins introduced the Maslow Hierarchy of needs. Here is a graph I found that depicts what we should consider for our characters and their development:

It’s very interesting and it’s hard to figure out where I am personally along the chart. I know am past exist and I know that I’ve found love and belonging, yet I’m not sure if I’ve found security yet. That’s what I’m going to college for, to at least find a way to have financial security, hopefully. Very interesting.