Behold all unsexy commoners! For yee’ is sexy and sexy is me!
All hail sonia, your sexyness! (it looks nicer spelt this way, says your sexYness.)
-imaginary people kowtowing-
sidenote: oookay, maybe this whole ’sexy’ saga has gotten into my head quite a bit.
Instead of starting straight with my reflections of the lesson itself, i shall go ahead with the usual “date all the way back to….” series:
The Pre-Rigmarole
Storytelling.
Just the name itself gave me the heebie-jeebies.
My friends mocked at the module, thinking i’d be taught how to read out aloud and articulate stories to children or the elderly at the community libraries (one of those “storytelling time” programmes for kids or golden agers).
It didn’t take long before i started to ooze of contempt for the module.
Walking in to the classroom that day, i expected little of the lesson or worse still, nothing.
The Rigmarole
I was slightly late that ‘fateful’ (to add some melodrama, if you will) friday and walking down the chilly (another addition to the melodrama ‘family’! yeeehah!) corridor, mr C (no prizes for guessing who!) and i were discussing chirpily whether or not the lecturer would be cute ahem, VERY serious matters when we finally got to the entrance of the classroom. By the time we got into the classroom, almost everyone was in their seats filling up a white card, which by the way is a interesting and great idea as a lesson ’side track’ just so that we learn new things about one another (lecturers all think we already know one another but no..); hence, a good way to start things off. We also played the ‘name ‘ game hence the name i got myself – sexy sonia!
I soon came to realise that Mr Ryan isn’t boring like other lecturers. Why so? I found that he had a super innovative way of introducing himself. In my opinion, he used a 2-pronged approach: we learn about him and the way he does it helps in storytelling (in a way..). During the lesson, I understood something I never once realised: stories are actually being conveyed through many mediums. A few examples would be films, books, video games, comics, music and news. In addition to that, I learnt that when having ‘writers’ block’, we should just start writing something (even if its in no relation one way or another to the topic itself) just so it gets us started. Very useful advice I’d think. (:
Oh and we did an exercise with an extremely weird ‘opener’ – here’s my very own version:
Dominic puts on his hula girl outfit and enters the temple. Thinking his costume will serve as a good distraction, he elbows his way through the large crowd and starts to hula dance. Without the need of much effort, he succeeds in drawing the crowd’s attention away from the million-dollar tablet. Meanwhile, his partner-in-crime, Alvin, weaves his way across the people who now are very much amused by Dominic’s antics. Upon reaching the altar, he spots the much-acclaimed tablet of Chi-Won. In his attempt to discreetly steal the tablet, Yan, the caretaker of the temple yelps out in alarm.
To sum things up: In short, Mr Ryan gave a totally different approach to storytelling. Storytelling is more like scriptwriting but isn’t so much so because there are many other avenues of telling stories and not just via films. Storytelling – I love!
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter.”
-Confucius-
Notes: Lecture One [201006]
October 26, 2006
Proper Writing Format
Assignments in this class will use:
-
♥ Present tense – to create an immediate feel
(as though the same events are going on at the moment) – like sitting in a movie theatre watching it
♥ 3rd person (he/she/it/person’s name)
[editorials/scripts/news casters in 3rd person present tense]
♥ Active voice
The 3rd person / present tense
♥ Screenplays use this format
♥ It presents a more immediate and urgent feel to the material.
E.G: “Mark picks up the gun and holds it in his hand. It begins to tremble, as if alive.”
Passive vs. Active voice
Passive Voice
♥ Uses weak verbs
♥ Tells rather than shows what’s going on
♥ Distances the reader from the story
E.G: “The sky was blue with a lot of white clouds” (tells rather than shows)
[subject of the sentence is at the end]
E.G: “Mark was angry at Jane for tricking him into helping her.”
Active Voice
♥ Uses strong action verbs
♥ Shows the action
♥ Uses an immediate sentence structure
♥ Conveys the story in a lively manner
♥ Gives subject something to do/start sentence with subject
♥ Creates a visual image of what character needs to do
Tips for Writing
♥ If you have a work in progress, never stop for the night if you’re stuck.
♥ Always solve the problem and keep going until you are in safer water. A good night’s sleep is important. Sleeping on problems is a myth.
♥ If you can’t get started on a project, start writing anyway. To do this you have to have some words to type.
♥ It doesn’t matter what you write. You’ll soon begin to think and move in your own rhythm/pace.
♥ Note down questions you were asking yourself as you wrote it
– Whose story am I telling?
– What is the point of this story?
– How can I engage the attention of the audience?
– Role of writing the story?
Assignment
♥ Reflection
♥ Write 12 opening statements, ones that should let people feel creative in their writing.
– James paces around the empty hallway…
– Karen opens the envelope. Her hand shakes…
