Creative Writing, Fall 2018

VIDEO TITLE (working title): THEME/CONCEPT: GENRE: Fiction/Nonfiction SYNOPSIS/FREE-WRITE: 500 words or less VIDEO STYLE (what does it look like? What other examples are similar?): TARGET AUDIENCE (who are you making the video for): LENGTH OF VIDEO: 5-7 minutes. OBJECTIVES: SETTING(S):

I love George Saunders. Here is an excerpt from All Things Considered where he talks about writing "Victory Lap " and other stories.

Untitled by Nic and Victoria Podcast Devyn & Masha 2018 Mercedes Danielle The Interrogation JeanCarlo and Joshn Podcast Komel & Jake The Rookie Mistake by Jeff Duro and Christian Menjivar Podcast: Wedding Dialogue  Tom & Mike Podcast Nolan & Shreya

First, ask yourself what you can reasonably accomplish in four to five minutes. You can capture maybe one long scene or two or three scenes. If you had to choose three to five minutes from your own life or experiences to illustrate a moment of significance, what would you pick? Can you think of any moments in your life where change occurred, but didn’t end in violence or chaos? Tell the story of a moment of change. That change should come from the interaction among the characters and not from an external forces (car crash, avalanche, asteroid). The change can be small. Your listener wants to discover that in the telling of the story, something is slightly different at the end. Keep it simple.  Do not try to cover too much ground. You don’t have time. Know what your characters want. Make it concrete. Start as close to the end as possible. Do not try to trick the listener but surprising us with a new piece of information at the end. Stick with the characters first, an...

Here is how you upload your podcast to SoundCloud.  

This dialogue is from season 1, episode 3 of Homecoming. If you skip to 13:07, you'll get an example of Heidi and Walter speaking about their imaginary road trip. This conversation does a few things at once:  1. It illustrates their attraction to one another.  2. It skims around this attraction; neither one of them are ready to admit it (notice how they are talking about staying in a hotel together, but they skip right over that part).  3. It allows us to see why Heidi might later try to keep Walter in the program.  4. It illuminates both characters; Walter as having a lively imagination, and Heidi as never really being close to anyone.  5. It gives us hope that they may some day be together.  6. It creates conflict. As a therapist, Heidi should not be attracted to her clients, as her job is to help them and the boundaries should be clear. However, previous conversations have shown us that they get along well, and that Walter is a very decent...

Use the list below to begin developing one of your characters from the podcast assignment. Be as detailed as possible. Name(first and last)  Age Appearance Occupation Income Class Occupation of parents Family members Education Place of residence Place of birth (if different) Religion Ethnic Background Hobbies Pet(s) Talents Dislikes Eccentric Habits Phobias Favorite foods Manner of dress Favorite color Sound of voice Aspirations Favorite place Number of friends Drinking habits Smoking habits Drug habits Preferences - music                        Entertainment How does this character react under stress? What does this character do to celebrate? How does s/he express anger?        “              ...

The Homecoming podcast tells the story without voice over narration, internal monologues, or first person perspective. Here are some examples of short fictional podcasts that use other methods to tell the story. 1. Limetown , episode 1. This podcast uses radio announcements, emergency phone calls, on-site news reports,  and voice over narration to tell the story. 2. The Truth : a story about an election, using campaign speeches and news stories. 3. "Miracle on the L Train"from The Truth : short piece with internal monologue. Takes place on the train. Uses subway announcement and chatter of others in the train and sound effects. 4. "Sleep Some More" from The Truth : story about a roommate who won't shut up. Sounds come from the unending chatter of the roommate and the internal monologue of the narrator.

We'll revisit this later when we start talking about dialogue in movies, but these clips might also be useful for your podcast script.  

Here are the partners for your podcast project, due Oct. 23: Group 1: Nic & Victoria Group 2: Megan & Danielle Group 3: Christian & Jeff Group 4:  Komel & Jake Group 5: Tracey & Thania Group 6:  Josh & JeanCarlo Group 7: Tom & Mike Group 8: Shreya & Nolan Group 9:  Devyn & Masha  Podcast assignment: Working with your partner, you will create between three and five minutes of audio content of dialogue between two characters. Next week, you will have time to meet with your partner to work on the concept and script, and we will have a script workshop on Tuesday, Oct. 16. Requirements: 1. Dialogue should be between two people who are in conflict. 2. Characters can never directly say what th ey are arguing about. 3. Podcast must be set in a particular place, and audio cues must be given to allow the listener to understand where they are. 4. Must have music in the beginning or end of the piece. 5. Both ch...