palindromelibrary-blog

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A final mastery journal, to finalize a master’s course. 

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I am a writer! After a long year of final papers, rewrites, and much editing, I grow very close to the end of my masters. Thanks to all the people, including past faculty and friends, who have made this adventure possible.

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Here is the second edit for my short scene for Advanced Visual Storytelling.

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Adjusting to Adaptation

For the class of Multimedia Adaptation, I chose to adapt a short story I wrote during my junior year of college. It was a short story called “Lamplight,” starring a gritting, old ghost hunter named Job who goes off to avenge the spirit of his wife he failed to pass on years ago. He is accompanied by a friendly ghost of a teenage girl named Avery.

The adaptation made both Job and Avery about five years older, respectively, to lean into Job’s grumpy, outdated personality, as well as Avery’s stubbornness. The original happened to take Job and Avery to London to track down the ghost, but for the sake of time and a potential filming location list, the setting was changed to the alleyways of Chicago. A monstrous train was changed to a simple Chicago railing to dial down the special effects, and Job’s lamppost weapon was changed to a lantern due to time constraints and simplicity.

However, the story’s main focus of an old, retired hunter becoming unlikely friends with a young ghostly girl to finally come to accept his own guilt and mistakes was kept through the action and dialogue of the script.

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Here is my reflection for the Portfolio I class from Full Sail University.

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Web Series and Writing the Pilot

Through my graduate career at Full Sail University, there have been a variety of environments and assignments that have facilitated the chance to explore new mediums of writing, as well as grow as an academic and creative writer. In my course, Episodic and Serial Writing, taught by Mark McKain, I was given the opportunity to write a “webisode” (a short, five-to-seven-minute episode to be uploaded onto the internet) and draft the pilot for the series.

The series I chose to write was about an anxious college student named Markus. His goal is to keep up with his new relationship with his childhood friend, Samantha, who just so happens to also be the head of student activities, therefore thrusting Markus into a variety of situations where he would be surrounded by social events, while trying to be a good boyfriend. Markus was to be followed by his roommate, Chad, who often tries to help Markus, but always ends up making things a bit worse or, at the very least, more complicated. 

The pilot was a lot of fun to write and provided a lot of helpful sources and experience with script formatting. The business areas of creative writing are expansive but learning the script format is a help to nearly every single one. Doing such a concentrated episode also gives help to learning more foundations to the story structure, and how to progress your story through dialogue, action, and themes. 

Script writing is very different from the kinds of writing I have done before, as it limits the dialogue and action lines immensely. You have a very limited space and resource to get your story across, and you have to be efficient with what your characters say and what you want them to do. There truly is no room for anything extra or unneeded. This kind of condensed and intensive style of writing was very interesting to learn, and writing for a shorter series (say, on a Television Network or Web Series) could be something that I look further into for  future careers. 

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Three pictures to visually trigger possible writing opportunities in my local community. 

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Pinterest Boards for Protagonist and Antagonist

Link: https://www.pinterest.com/nateplanalp/

Here are two boards set up on Pinterest that will help show you what my protagonist and antagonist are like for my Character Development and Creation class. 

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Full Sail University: The Art of Visual Storytelling

(photo credit: Shay Pitman)

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The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

For much of a future that is open ended and unfamiliar, the best way to prepare is to work all the harder with what we have been given now.

References:  Brown, H. J., (2000). P.S. I Love You. Thomas Nelson Publishers.

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[second half of Mastery Timeline]

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Mastery Journal and Timeline. [first ten slides]