Rick Riordan: he’s said a lot of really inspiring stuff for me

We write, I hope, because we have a story to tell. How easy it is to lose sight of that, but the goal of writing is telling a good story. To be a writer, it’s not enough simply to love the idea of writing, or to dream of being published. You have to forget that. You have to find the story you must tell – the story so important to you personally that you have no choice but to write it. For me, I first got that feeling with Big Red Tequila, a story about a detective who goes home to Texas from San Francisco. It was a story born out of homesickness. I would have written it for myself whether it got published or not. But it felt different from anything else I’d ever done. I knew, deep down, that this story would get published. Then, with the Percy Jackson series, I had that sense again. I was writing a modern myth, an allegory to help my son make sense of who he was. I would have written it whether it was published or not. And it’s that very fact that made it publishable.

Find that story.

• I like to write in my room, but sometimes it helps to be in other places, like a cafe or in the kitchen. normally this helps if I feel stuck. Also sometimes standing helps with that.

• Food is normally a thing I have during a break, normally after a set amount of time or progress

• I try to avoid my phone but, that never really works

• I try silence if my thoughts are running too loud

that's 5

With drawing I guess ive always found that it helps me internalise and process my thoughts a bit more, by keeping my Brain and hands somewhat occupied it leaves room for knowledge to be shoved into the LTM (long term memory). whilst also avoiding my brain getting bogged down in feelings.

I guess its always made me feel a bit numb? which helps my creative and productive process.

walks more simply seperate me from my environment, and force me to stop being stuck in whatever I'm doing. Stops me from gaming, stops me from stressing over an essay. whatever. it just removes it. During year 12 this was really helpful because I was so absorbed and exhausted by school which felt like an all engrossing thing at the time

I guess technically I Play video games also? but I don't really know if I have much to say about that.

Definitions

1. engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.

How to harness these aspects or activities as research? and articulate them in terms of research

uhhhh

I guess harnessing this as research would involve me imagining this stuff and regurgitating it?

I recently wrote a short story that was essentially channeling a walk I took and applying that into fictional character. So I guess that could be interpreted as me harnessing play?

first ranking was

1 Bright, 2 Fresh, 3 Nascent, 4 ghostly, 5 fulsome.

Second ranking was

1 the, 2 what, ascension, 4 elephant, 5 brigand

third ranking was

1 die, 2 entertain, 3 spiralling, 4 main, 5 beautiful

I think there is a balance between the usability of the word and the 'fun factor'. like some words just sound very fun and some are very utility. 'The' for example is a very useful word. its really hard to not use it in most sentence construction, whilst something like 'brigand' isn't particularly useful.

that being said when the last list came around my brain didn't really think it through the same way.

rather I seemed to order words partially by usefulness and partially though fun factor.

Die is both a useful word and a fun one I think. it's very blunt but that kinda rocks. Spiralling is also a word that changed my thought process, whilst yeah its not the most useful it is very fun, phonetic and is also a bit of an Onomatopoeia.

So that one would probably be my new highest if I were to rerank them now.

Beautiful is just kinda a lame word. it isn't very beautiful sounding, its kinda generic as a compliment, and it isn't very specific to describe things. its basically the same as 'good'.

first ranking was

1 Bright, 2 Fresh, 3 Nascent, 4 ghostly, 5 fulsome.

Second ranking was

1 the, 2 what, ascension, 4 elephant, 5 brigand

third ranking was

1 die, 2 entertain, 3 spiralling, 4 main, 5 beautiful

I think there is a balance between the usability of the word and the 'fun factor'. like some words just sound very fun and some are very utility. 'The' for example is a very useful word. its really hard to not use it in most sentence construction, whilst something like 'brigand' isn't particularly useful.

that being said when the last list came around my brain didn't really think it through the same way.

rather I seemed to order words partially by usefulness and partially though fun factor.

Die is both a useful word and a fun one I think. it's very blunt but that kinda rocks. Spiralling is also a word that changed my thought process, whilst yeah its not the most useful it is very fun, phonetic and is also a bit of an Onomatopoeia.

So that one would probably be my new highest if I were to rerank them now.

Beautiful is just kinda a lame word. it isn't very beautiful sounding, its kinda generic as a compliment, and it isn't very specific to describe things. its basically the same as 'good'.

I think my usual method or lack there of ties back into me being disorganised and unmotivated.

but also the approach that I write with varies hugely from piece to piece or medium to medium.

like with Creative Flash fiction I normally start my document with a vague 'start here-> end here' then I write very stream of consciousness. which is always fun.

poetry I just kinda waffle with no plan, standing often helps.

essays I cry and put my desk in my stand mode so I don't feel like im rotting y'know?

longer form creative writing (1000+) I try to break into scenes and key events within those scenes before I start

I find it helps keep me from getting too stuck in with description or whatever else.

I also like to make character profiles sometimes, helps flesh out my characters in my brain, without needing to write huge giant chunks of text (this is a mental thing about feeling overwhelmed)

also I normally run music at the start of a writing session, but it'll normal be turned off at some point. this is solely about motivation or lack there of.

Reading, Speculation, Imagination (duh), paragraphing

4. Was this hard? Was this easy? Why?

hard, I don't think about it when I do write. especially in this case when I need to write in a response to another text. I spent more of my time writing, than I do thinking about what I was gonna write. work it out whilst I go kinda vibes

Under pomodoro conditions apply or transfer that "method" to a piece of writing in some way.

I don't really think I do a lot of specific things quite well any but lets apply cooking for that sake of it

So I guess a similarity between both is the initial step by step process.

a lot of the time ill open a creative writing piece by either thinking of or reading a 'recipe'

ill come up with a plan of what ingredients (story components) I wanna use, then ill start thinking about how I want to incorporate them, eg Fried egg or poached egg? Third person or first person?

once I get past the initial recipe step there is always a degree of improv. The recipe cant account for me having an extra capsicum in the fridge, or my specific desire to write about Canterbury station, or my bizarrely small word limit, etc. so sometimes my plan for a long story about needing coping and feeling loved will devolve into a story about pushing past your own rumination to seek out people or love.

a lot of the time the small improvs I need to make in the moment have larger effects on the wider narrative than I initially think they will. there's a lot of times that I have to end a story mid scene due to word count, and that art of turning a mid point into an ending is something I am quite practiced at.

its the equivalent of substituting ingredients once you realise you forgot to buy something in the recipe.

lets go for Ruminating in bath

so the recipe in this case I grabbed from my 'notes notes notessss' document

I had written this as a recipe:

Short Story About Love and coping.

1)    Leaving the House, winding streets, internal dialogue, ruminating, claustrophobic, reference the arm scars a lot, talk about how cold stuff is. End up at a bench or in a park or something.

2)    Clarity kind of transition from feeling overwhelmed to just feeling a bit cold and empty

3)    Thyra Comes over or something? I like the idea of Steph being handed a warm drink maybe a hand touch underneath where the scars were on her arm?

with extra context notes of this

Idea of being happy change has occurred but it still hurts looking back at what used to be

Maybe have some hints to self-harming stuff?

The idea that having someone who cares for you in life doesn’t automatically fix your problems but can help share the burden.

anyway once I found this recipe, I opened my fridge (checked word count and what I where I was at mentally) and I thought about how I could bend that to fit new requirements, so I wrote a new recipe

1)    Leaving the House, winding streets, internal dialogue, ruminating, claustrophobic, reference arm scars a lot, talk about how cold stuff is. End up at a bench or in a park or something.

2)    Clarity kind of transition from feeling overwhelmed to just feeling a bit cold and empty

3)    Thyra Comes over or something? I like the idea of Steph being handed a warm drink maybe a hand touch underneath where the scars were on her arm?

4)    Breaking the silence

and from there I started working. I didn't really map out the specifics but I had my start and end. I added a scene of Steph (now Vanessa) walking past Christmas enjoyers, for extra world context, I highlighted self harm illusions, and I tweaked what the cold metaphor was tying into. changing it from ending: being cold and numb into starting numb and ending cold and aware.

seems like a minor shift but it helped me better utilise the ingredients for a better result, within the limited word count.

( WROTE A SHORT STORY FROM THIS RECIPE ILL SEE IF I CAN LINK IT)

it has to be a story about something in your ear

I didn't go camping lol

Reflect on what about their writing stands out to you: is it a kind of poetic language? Is it the drama? Is it the character? (includes other mediums like tv, movies etc)

Rick Riordan, very very influential, especially in the last 20 months or so. I really like his Characterisation. I think especially his first person narration. I think I took for granted when I read as a kid just how difficult it is to nail the balance of having a character who is constantly quipping and applying their personality into the events of the book through their narration.

when I was applying to this degree I decided to write my first action/comedy scene (through a Spiderman fan fiction), and without having made the connection at the time, I think some part of my subconscious thought about how he describes action and quipping and used it as guidance.

Another part of his characterisation I particularly like is his tendency to have his protagonist's actively work to fight against the status quo, in a way a lot of fantasy characters don't. If you compared Harry Potter to Percy Jackson for instance, Harry after he defeats the threat to his world becomes a cog within the systems that ultimately became corrupted and failed to protect children like him, whilst Percy risked his own existence to challenge the systems and world he fought to protect. He sought not just to defeat the villains but to also prevent future repetition.

if I had to break this down into 3 main takeaways from his writings I would say

1) Writer voice: his channeling of sarcasm into description keeps storytelling engaging even during slower segments

2) Characterisation and his tendency to write characters in conjunction with one another, (also tendency to write sarcastic ones)

3) world building, I like that Rick generally utilises real world locations as a foundations of his worlds. It tends to lend believability, you can believe the place is real due to Rick describing the places with familiarity, even if you the reader have never been to them.

additionally I think Ive been heavily influenced by the many amazing shows games and comic books I watched during my childhood through mid teen era.

things like:

The Halo series with its mystic religious iconography paired with exaggerated 80ies sci-fi attitude, mixed with its tales about the dangers of blind faith in the system. its willingness to also shift focus between stories from being character to spectacle. Hypocrisy and this idea of 'acting like you are making change when in reality you are simply apart of a system'

Hollow Knight and its fabulously miserable world building.

Avatar: the last Airbender and its fantastic character writing, world building, and magic systems that I could and have talked about for hours.

Castlevania with its cynical yet optimistic messaging about the dangers of (again) blind faith and its warnings about religious bigotry and self righteous violence

Character writing stuff

Hypocrisy and this idea of 'acting like you are making change when in reality you are simply apart of a system'

Being something

I seem to always identify with narratives about faith about the dangers of blind faith in the system and characters questioning their place within systems and (often) making changes: Halo 2, Halo 4, Percy Jackson

Look up your favourite passage/few pages from a piece of writing you really love. (Bring this to class if you can). Solitaire by Alice Oseman (first 2 1/2 pages)

Read it out loud to yourself. Does this evoke a memory? Can you remember what it was like the very first time you read it? I remember being on a plane ride to England, feeling depressed and stressed and exhausted. so yeah I have a pretty good idea of how I was feeling, in fact I have a lot of vivid memories of reading it, in different places, or even later listening to the audio book.

Write 2 paragraphs of text (same form as the model text) in the same style and register of your favourite passage, as if you're channelling it. Is this hard? Is this easy?

I stare at the crease in my sleeve, I feel like if I closed my eyes, I’d give up being awake. The rattle of the ceiling fan resonates into the desk my arm is lying on top of. I listen to the voices of the back row attempt to subtlety talk. I immediately assume they are discussing me, which makes me consider breaking my intense study of my sleeve. I feel a tap on my shoulder and force my face out of my sleeve with considerable effort.

            “are you okay?” Mr Robert’s asks, there’s concern in his eyes, and more tact than he usually gives to people attempting to sleep through English. ‘Yes, I’m just reflecting on how grateful I am to have woken up today I think to myself.

“Sorry Sir, just feeling kind of tired today” I mumble, He looks concerned by this answer but doesn’t elaborate. Apparently it is normal for most adolescences to be to tired during morning classes, or not tired when they try to sleep at night.

Third person, past tense, less internal monologue/ description

Third person, past tense, less internal monologue/ description, and shifting dialogue introduction style

She pressed her face into her sleeve, and absently stared at ever expanding number of creases around her inner elbow. Someone tapped on her shoulder,  she groaned with the effort it takes to rise.

            Mr Robert’s looked concerned “are you okay?” he asked, that same concern leaked into his voice.

            “sorry sir, just feeling kind of tired today” she mumbled, dark circles illuminated by the sterile classroom light. Robert’s looked concerned by this answer, but shook his head to move on.

Per usual I can hear the rattle of cars below my platform, occasionally catching auditory glimpses (?) of peoples music, if they get stuck at the pointless lights below the bridge.

I slide my laptop back onto the chipped wooden bench it’s been sitting on every day this week, if you squint you can see its outline burned into the bench. I guess that’s my contribution to this space. A few people walk past, faces glum and illuminated pale white light, like a portrait lighting against the flickering yellow of the early morning commute.

I look down at the paper scraps, I’m not really sure what possessed me to snip parts off of the journal page rather than a full page. I pick them up, ‘god forbid I add to the litter problem’ I think.


Thick sharpie writing is scratched all over them, mimicking people with much finer motor skills, with years of comic lettering under their belt.

‘Some things are deeper than skin chere’

‘Yes. But not this.’

I walk along the platform, past the entrance ramp. Lean on the old cream fence it's almost strange how little protection there is against falling off in this one corner. The cream fence gate is only chest high, as opposed to the new fences that loom over, casting black spider-webs onto the yellow asphalt.

I like this corner, no yellow street lights, no people, just an unobstructed view of the black skies, and trains of course.

I look below the train bridge, watching as a couple walks past holding hands. One is wearing a purple scarf and a long jacket, and the other a brown leather jacket. I assume they're gonna come up the entrance ramp. No other reason to be around here at this time of morning, unless you are headed into town.

I listen again as the Blackburn train pulls into platform 3, as far away as it could be. I don't hear it’s doors open as sits for a few seconds.

I watch it pull out of the station. I’m not sure I've actually ever gotten to see a train leave from this angle before?

“The next service for platform 1 is ~FLINDERS STREET~ Stopping all stations via the ~City Loop~”

I turn around, Looking up the screen again it says 3 minutes now. I wonder where those two have gone.

I start cramming my stuff into my bag, and slide on my headphones back on. Ready to listen to something self-destructive.

Before I can turn on the noise cancelling, I hear footsteps sliding past me and I look up. It is them as I expected.

Hands hooked together, their other hands holding takeaway coffee cups.

The lady on the left unhooks her hand, cradling her coffee cup.

I notice her gloves, full fingered and neon green. Not really matching the brown leather jacket she’s wearing.

The station turns a different shade of orange as the sun peaks over the carpark in the distance.

As the train’s headlights pull into the platform She steps close to her partner, putting a gloved hand on their face.

Their partner is wearing a long jacket over a buttoned shirt with a bright pink scarf. I cant see their faces anymore but the two laugh at something, before the lady with the green gloves puts a hand over his mouth and kisses it lightly.

I look at the 2 bits of paper in my hand, and drop one of them to the ground.

I pick up my little green and brown bag and step onto the train.

I slide the remaining bit of paper into my journal, and look out the window.

I look at the person on the platform still. Noticing.

She’s fiddling with the top button of her shift, a little grin pulling at her face as she stares absently towards one of the open train doors.

I open the journal again.

‘You light up everything you touch, but never me.’

I look down the carriage at the girl with the green gloves, she’s still staring out the doorway. hand gripping something against her chest.

I pull the scrap of paper from my pocket, looking at it.

As the doors to the train close the lady with the green gloves breaks the stare down, wrapping the scarf around her neck with one hand.

‘Somethings are deeper than skin’ I read again

As the train follows around the bend it turns it windows towards the sunrise, Pink lighting filling the carriage/

I run a sharpie line across the page.

‘You light up everything you touch, but never me.’

I looked over the table as the pool balls clacked together loudly, “YEAH!” Collin bellowed as he knocked one of the balls from the table.

Phill looked over to me, a soldier’s look of determination on his face “We gotta get through this”, he hefted his pool cue and took aim, with a jab he sent the balls clattering once again.

Collin passed me his cue, a wry smile on his face. I fumbled to aim the stick, but it kept slipping from my hands. “COME ON MAN” I looked down at my hands, dripping with sweat “Im tryna play but my hands are all sweaty”

Collin laughed loudly, “just say you’re shit” he shouted, rolling his eyes.

4 pieces pf writing, separately titled, comprised of:

• 3 250 word (combined 750) sketches of the same story/narrative (essentially a story board, or brief outline) (all different forms)

• A Developed and extended version of one of these 3 - 750 words

(Graphic novel style would be 1 page for the sketch)

YOU CAN CHANGE THE SPECIFIC STORY BEATS PER MEDIUM (as long as its still an adaptation of the same story)

We are going for that visual of the window freezing to the hand idea (scrapped from red water running down the drain) (3 panel story board is in the frontside drawing journal thingy)

Ok so obvs need to expand out that from being 3 storyboards with no plot

Maybe let’s pitch this X-Men style. (In a school of people with powers of some kind

So the ice probably represents grief/ depression/ blaming self/ longing for something

So maybe we intercut the process of the window freezing over with someone the protagonist blames themself for

Lets go for them losing someone (maybe like: I cant do this if I cant touch you kinda vibe) so its focused around the idea of longing for something you know/ feel like you cant have

If I was doing this as a short story id probably go

Beat 1: watching rain touch window

Beat 2: flashback to early days of relationship

Beat 3: window starting to freeze

Beat 4: other person longing for more

Beat 5: window frozen hand still there

Beat 6: other person sad they cant have more, so they leave.

Beat 7: person is gone, but hand is left unfrozen on the window

SHOULD TRY AND INCORPORATE TEXT WITHIN TEXT BASED ON EXAGESIS

Maybe protag is reading a comic book and that prompts them to think about person?

Watching x-men 97 and gambit - rogue death (like in train station story)?

Think about something you have made by hand.

It might be something you can wear, or eat, or put your books on. It might be the fruits of a skill or a talent, or a pursuit or an interest. It might be a garment, or something you made at school.

FIND IT.

BRING TO CLASS OR, IF THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE PHOTOGRAPH IT.

cake, I made it using a mix of following a recipe, and then improv when the recipe didn't work. and I kinda do the same with stories, I make an outline and try to follow that, until it doesn't work and I have to improv.



The rain pelted down onto our umbrellas, clearly we didn’t have get the memo about black umbrellas at a funeral.

I heard a voice over may shoulder talk softly over my shoulder (as softly as you can in the rain) “Im sorry for your loss Rachel, but lets be realistic he had it coming”

I glared backward, locking eyes with Michael. “What the fuck” I spat eloquently, “you couldn’t even wait till the wake?”

Michael looked puzzled “but he did though? You can’t make a hobby like his without something bad happening”

I looked forward again, watching as the priest shook his fist around, spilling dirt everywhere “the earth from the deceased’s homeland” he blathered

The broken sphere of glass,

A glass step in the middle of a Toronto gallery.

It rains down, thick and sharp,

Like hail but without melting.

Whenever I think back to your existence within my space I can picture it.

It’s easy to forget the bubble, since most people have one, and most don’t really think about them.

Imagine this; you step onto one of those shards of glass, it stabs its way into your foot.

It hurts, obviously.

You get that shard removed.

It hurts, obviously.

When does that pain disperse?

Eventually, right?

Sometimes it’ll hurt still, right?

Is healing indicated by the lack of pain? Or by your ability to cope with it?

Obviously… uh

Maybe its not obvious

Narrative

narrate (v.)

"tell or recite in detail, relate the particulars or incidents of," 1748, a back-formation from

narration or else from Latin narratus, past participle of narrare "to tell, relate, recount," from PIE root

*gno- "to know."

(Red riding hood) faced with (wolf) responds by (avoiding the wolf) and finally deals with (wolf) by (calling the huntsman to slay it)

[Describe protagonist], who is currently [describe normality], experiences [describe disturbance] responds by [describe plan in response to disturbance] but everything changes when [describe surprise that turns into the obstacle which drives the rest of the film] which causes [describe increasing complications] which are resolved ultimately by [describe climax] and the story ends [describe resolution].

RAISING THE STAKES & OTHER METAPHORS

Risk

Chance

Jeopardy

Degree of Difficulty (Ad)venture

Quest

Journey

1. Joining kindergarten

2. Meeting Perry

3. Joining scotch

4. Being sent to the back of the room in year 3

5. Getting assistance teachers in year 3

6. Meeting Hamish, Tyler and others in year 4

7. Meeting will Buckley year 5

8. Stopping being friends with everyone in year 7

9. Getting suspended year 9

10. Ending all those friendships

11. Leaving scotch

12. Joining lawnbowls

13. Meeting Ri

14. Meeting Mr B and being inspired to try harder

15. Covid

16. Covid year 2

17. Art and doing good in class for the first time (English)

18. Lawnbowls captain

19. Making it into psych (and hating it)

20. Back of Creative writing, and meeting daisy

1. Joining kindergarten (2)

2. Meeting Perry (4)

3. Joining scotch (5)

4. Being sent to the back of the room in year 3 (8)

5. Getting assistance teachers in year 3 (6)

6. Meeting Hamish, Tyler and others in year 4 (2)

7. Meeting will Buckley year 5 (2)

8. Stopping being friends with everyone in year 7 (6)

9. Getting suspended year 9 (9)

10. Ending all those friendships (7)

11. Leaving scotch (7)

12. Joining lawnbowls (3)

13. Meeting Ri (4)

14. Meeting Mr B and being inspired to try harder (2)

15. Covid (8)

16. Covid year 2(8)

17. Art and doing good in class for the first time (English) (2)

18. Lawnbowls captain (3)

19. Making it into psych (and hating it) (8)

20. Back of Creative writing, and meeting daisy (7)

PICK ONE OF THESE ACTIVITIES

Experiment 1

FICTIONALISE IT on a different kind of character

1. Leaving scotch (7)

2. Ending friendships (6)

Experiment 2

Apply to the “interior of a character”

Third person limited POV? Doesn’t make sense

Experiment 3

Rewrite one of these events from 3 diff pod

Experiment 1

FICTIONALISE IT on a different kind of character

1. Leaving scotch (7)

2. Ending friendships (6)