Choose One Of These Ideas I Might Develop Into A Short Screenplay

i cant talk right now im doing hot girl shit *crawls down a castle wall in lizard fashion*

flight paths

MEDIA INFLUENCES FOR ‘ON SUNDAYS, SHE PICKED FLOWERS / LITERATURE

The long put of sequel to the film version of this post… But anyways, it’s finally here so we can talk about the books that inspired On Sundays, She Picked Flowers. I’m just gonna give you the names of the books and the inspirations I took from each of them in relation to the plot, the relationships, the setting and the characters!

THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker

Celie and Shug Avery was the first time I’d ever read or seen anything about Black women who love women. It’s no surprise that their relationship inspired the relationship between Jude and Nemoira.

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston

Janey’s independence inspired much of Jude’s character, as well as her relationship with her hair and her lovers.

The body as nature, a pear tree in bloom as a symbol of sexual awakening; Jude’s connection to plant life (trees, in particular) is quite obvious in On Sundays

BELOVED by Toni Morrison

I could do an entire essay on the connection / inspirations between Beloved and On Sundays, She Picked Flowers but that’ll have to wait until the book is published, and more of the references will make sense. For now, Jude is heavily inspired by Sethe and Nemoira by Beloved herself. Many other themes borrowed are the pursuit of freedom through violence, mother-daughter relationships, isolation and self-ownership, and healing through past trauma, how trauma affects the whole body, mind and all.

JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte

Jude herself admits to being formed/inspired by Miss Jane Eyre!

Not to mention, the themes of nature, isolation, strange loves and “haunted” houses

HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z. Danielewski

Speaking of haunted houses … Both houses viewed in On Sundays, She Picked Flowers are characters of their own, and they’re both radically inspired by House of Leaves. The corridor, the staircase… Yes.

ANNIHILATION by Jeff VanderMeer

Nature behaving strangely, isolation (again!), and a little something special with a bear ;)

ALIAS GRACE by Margaret Atwood

A slightly unreliable narrator, a woman that can’t be pinned down with just one word…Yes. All over, yes. Also quilting, but less in a white woman way and in more of a ‘Black American women have always had a very complex and long history with quilting, so much so that our contributions to quilting is its own history.’

SHARP OBJECTS by Gillian Flynn

Two words; Mommy Issues, Self Harm as a way of gaining control over a body that seems uncontrollable. Though I guess, actually, that’s way more than two words. You get what I’m saying though, right?

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson

The setting, the sick house and sick land, the haunted house as a character, the unreliable narrator, the gay vibes all throughout, the bone deep terror that weaves its way through the story until you’re curled up on your bed terrified… I only hope that On Sundays makes you all feel the same.

Keep reading

me when i look @hockey boys.

Pizza toppings are an opinion “women should be forced to endure unwanted pregnancy’s” isn’t. You can’t shovel shit and demand people don’t react to the smell

Opinions differ. Just trying to say opinions are reserved for nonsensical things like pizza in a world that is controversial all the time is a very naive thing to say.

No one is saying what Bee said shouldn't have been called out but there's a way to do certain things.

If you feel like someone saying something ignorant means they should be shamed and never forgiven because they said something you didn't agree with, that's a you problem. (I'm using you generally here)

Thinking that there is some golden, perfect person in the world that has never said anything to offend anyone ever in their life or believed in something bigot is an extremist ideology. Nobody is perfect. Yes we've all been tainted in different ways by our culture. If you're on this earth today of 2020 or were here before, congratulations. you've been tainted.

People who are progressive all around, learn from experience meaning all their lives they bettered themself. Even activist have at some point believed in a bigot thing. They don't go on social media and act as if they're above someone else because they have "the better opinion". The argument is about making the world a better place, not outing an individual that has fallen into the trap of society.

If you think you cannot teach a person who has a politically indifferent stance to you, you're no better than an extremist on the opposing side. People who think differently than us will not just die from disease or something. They will go on to raise generations of people who share their ideology and so will we. All berating will do is cause a civil war. There is a difference between someone saying something slightly problematic and someone acting out on being problematic and interfering with an opposing side.

Bee has the right to her opinion of contraception. Hell, I don't agree with it but she was not attacking anyone with her views. She didn't say abortion clinics should be taken down, she actually said she thinks they should be up and women should have access to better healthcare. So contraception in this scenario is basically a pizza topic opinion because it interferes with no one. It's her own belief and she says women don't have to follow it. She simply made a comment stating how condoms and birth control pills helps with preventing pregnancy, she never said women MUST use contraception and abortion clinics should be closed down. Tobey took it amongst herself to screen shot the comment and reblog it.

Was what Bee said shit? Yes. Was she going through an understandably hard time? Yes. Did she learn from it and apologize? Yes.

Bee is not Donald Trump. Bee is not Ben Shapiro. People can forgive Joe Biden and vote for him as president even though he's acted against people of color starting laws to put poc in jail, but you can't forgive a misguided, woman of color who said something slightly controversial on the internet???

Your character is driven by 3 emotional motives. See? I even made a graphic.

(I’m proud of the graphic, too.)

Mood: The immediate (and temporary) emotions of your character. A feeling of joy after kissing the girl they like; frustration after a busy day working a summer job at the fair; despair after somebody eats the last Oreo.

Situation: The plot and relationship contexts of your character. The apprehension they feel with a friend in the weeks following a nasty fight; the nerves felt in the week leading up to their big championship game; the frustration and boredom of being grounded after crashing the family car into the county creek.

Struggle: The core, deepfelt pain of your character, which often emerges from their background. The fear of failure from overly demanding parents; a deep longing for a family they never knew; a desperate need to be accepted after spending years as an outcast.

How these 3 motives influence your character

The above emotional motives all play an important role in driving your character’s actions, muddying or even overriding their more logical intentions — just as it happens to the rest of us. (We’re all human, after all.)

That being said, while your character’s mood and situation will shift throughout the story, their struggle will remain constant: their true north, emotionally speaking. This struggle will always be at the root of their actions, even as you swap in new situations and moods.

Take Bethany as an example

Let’s say your character’s name is Bethany, and her struggle is this: a deep fear of failure, stemming from her parents’ impossible academic expectations, which conflicts with her own desire to finally experience the life she sees passing her by.

Her actions, while primarily driven by that struggle, are going to vary quite a bit depending on her situation and mood. For example, if it’s the night before a big test, she might blow off a friend’s invitation to a party so she can study.

But if the party is a week before the big test, and she finds a handwritten invitation in her notebook from Emma (the girl on the lacrosse team she has a crush on), Bethany might act differently. Maybe she feels a lightness and warmth in her cheeks as she reads Emma’s note. Maybe she puts those textbooks away, and maybe, just maybe, she sneaks out the window and goes to the party.

But if Bethany finds the note after her parents just chewed her out for being ungrateful and not studying hard enough? Maybe Bethany doesn’t go to the party. Instead, maybe she reads Emma’s note, trembles, then rips it in two, knowing she can’t disappoint her parents like that. Then she spends the rest of the evening studying. Alone.

Mood. Situation. Struggle.

All three kinds of emotional motives are important. Your character’s struggle is the anchor, but their mood and situation are the ever-shifting masks you use to express their struggle in fresh ways. 

And by the end of the story, hopefully your character will overcome their struggle — putting away the textbooks, sneaking out the window, and meeting their crush at a party. Maybe even having their first kiss.

Whatever the character, and whatever their struggle, I’m sure you’ll do great. 

So good luck! And good writing.

— — —

Your stories are worth telling. For tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.

#180: Will It Work?

Writers face this question at every stage of their creative journey. Whether you’ve been writing for two weeks or 20 years, the challenge remains the same. Will the time that I put into this project pay off? Will it do what I need it to do?

When you’re just starting out, most of the uncertainty centres around if you can even finish the story, and if yes, will it be any good? Later on, as a published author, you may wish for your book to hit the bestseller lists. As a best-selling author, you might want to be shortlisted for various awards. And when you’ve won everything there is to win, you will worry about your work being at least as good as what came before. The struggle never really ends.

Writing books is particularly uncertain. When starting a novel, you’re months, perhaps even years away from the finish line — more than enough time to question everything about the project. The more words you write, the stronger the voice in your head becomes. Is this the right thing to work on? Is it going anywhere? The majority of would-be authors quit at this stage.

Other writers struggle before they start. They keep analysing and researching, trying to convince themselves that this is going to work. But no matter how good your idea is and how many notebooks you fill with notes, the uncertainty will never go away. How do you deal with that?

The only way to figure out whether a project will work is to start writing. For smaller projects like short stories and novellas, just power through the first draft. The first draft will tell you more about whether the story has legs than any amount of advance research ever can.

Thinking about writing a novel? There are ways to do this too. Take what you expect to be the most dramatic scene of the book and write that first. Get a feel of the characters, the setting. If you’re a pantser, try writing a short story with the same characters. See how you feel about it. Any red flags?

Thinking about writing something and actually writing the thing are two very different things. If you never start or never finish, the question will remain unanswered forever.

Will it work? Writing it is the only way to find out.

Want More?

My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

SUBSCRIBE

(I won’t spam you or pass your email to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Past Editions

#179: Throwaway Stories, January 2021

#178: Progress Over Perfection, January 2021

#177: Change Is Good, January 2021

#176: Start Before You’re Ready, January 2021

#175: Writing Without Expectations, December 2020

mods are asleep post gorgeous bisexual royalty

"Oh, Geralt, I think it's broken!" Jaskier wailed from where he was sat in the mud.

Scowling, Geralt bent to inspect the ankle in question, the one Jaskier had turned when he slipped on the wet ground. He poked at it and Jaskier moaned.

He rolled his eyes. "It's not broken," he said gruffly. "Just twisted. You'll have to keep your weight off it."

Jaskier's face scrunched up in distress. "Then whatever am I to do?" He waved his arms in the air with great dramatic intent. "For I am all alone in the wilderness, miles from civilization, and now incapable of walking." He wound himself up into a full performance. "The wolves will come for me and I shall surely die here!"

Geralt suppressed a smile. "I'm sure we can figure something out."

He pondered Jaskier with mock contemplation while Jaskier gave him soft, pleading eyes. He threw in a little lip tremble for full effect.

"Fine," he grunted eventually. "If we must." He scooped Jaskier up into his arms in a bridal carry and lifted him into the air.

Jaskier squealed with delight and threw his arms around Geralt's neck. "My hero," he declared, dropping a kiss onto his cheek.

The bard really was an idiot. He tucked him into his chest and fought back a blush.