Magicka

The title of this blog is also the title of the story I'm currently working on.

One of my first blog posts was about how I took Creative Writing a couple of years ago, which helped in my decision to becoming a writer due to the story's success. I hope to transform this "story" into a novel someday. I first started writing Magicka in that class, and chose to continue working on it after the school year was over. I made little progress on the story and even abandoned it for about a year, but I am now rewriting it from scratch. I could have used some of my old writings to save time, but after reading them, I realized that I have become a much better writer. I still need to become even better, but I have definitely improved since Sophomore year.

I am currently three pages into first chapter, which amazes me. I have always found the beginning to be the hardest when writing anything, so the fact that I am slowly making progress is fantastic.

I'm usually not a list-type of guy, but I want to make a couple of bullet points about my goals for this novel. In all honesty, this is more for my benefit. I think it would be interesting to post this, and then look back on it near the end of the year. I have to write 40 pages of Magicka by the end of the year for Advanced Creative Writing, so I hope to accomplish these in that given time.

Goals

• To create unique, dynamic characters who are also identifiable.
• This will be one of my greatest challenges. This story is fantasy fiction with magic (if you couldn't tell by the title. Oh, and no, the title has more significance than that), so it will be somewhat difficult to make the characters relate-able.
• To make everything understandable.
• I have two main points going against me in this aspect. First, I am the writer. As the writer, anything I type will be perfectly understandable to me. The problem I will have is making it understandable to everyone. Not only that, but I'm trying to write a fantasy fiction story, so my descriptions will be more outlandish simply because of its creative nature. I don't want only a certain group to like my novel. I want anyone to be able to pick it up, start reading, and then scream for more.
• Redefine magic.
• This is nothing like Harry Potter. Don't get me wrong, I love the series as well, I just feel as though the word "magic" is automatically tied to Harry Potter nowadays. It will remain one of my all-time favorite series, but I want my story to redefine what "magic" really means.

I thought I had more originally, but those are the only three that I'm really focusing on as of now. I will probably make a note at the end of my future posts to update on my progress, which will be a nice way for me to see how much work I got done for a certain week. I hope to write at least one hour a night on Magicka alone, so that'll be a good start.

Also, here is a drawing of Rel, one of the five main characters. I could describe him and his personality, but where is the fun in that? For those of you who want to comment, try and guess! If you don't want to, then I suppose you don't have to, although I highly suggest it. All the cool kids told me they're going to do it, so you probably should too. No pressure.

(I did not draw this, just for clarification.)

(Magicka Page Count: 3)

Boisterous Blogs and Pleasant Programs

It's getting pretty late, although I suppose this would be considered early for me, since I'm usually that guy that makes his post within the last minutes of the day.

I absolutely loved the blogs, without a doubt. I'm extremely surprised with how well it turned out, especially since this is the first time this has been done in our AP course. The process isn't perfect or flawless, but for a first try, the blogs are a huge success (in my opinion). I mainly used the blogs to talk about subjects from class that I wanted to continue discussing, although I would also comment on a couple of interesting finds that I felt others may enjoy (take Scott Pilgrim, The King's Speech, and tvtropes.org for example). I enjoy the freedom we gain through these blogs, because it's nice to know that you can rant as much as you want on your blog, since we all know there is never enough time in class.

My only criticisms are the requirements of comments and images. I understand that the comment requirement is only there so that everyone is forced to look at different blogs, rather than the same one each time, but I feel as though the requirement only made me feel discouraged from looking at other blogs until the last minute, when I knew the comments were due. If there wasn't a requirement, it would feel a bit more leisurely, and I'd probably still look at as many blogs as I do now, if not more. The images requirement also seems a bit silly, although I'm kind of having fun with it now.

On a random, but related note: I went onto cleverbot.com to ask what kind of image I should post on my blog. Cleverbot, the winner of 2010's Machine Intelligence Competition, replied with, "You can put me in a pot and boil me." I figured that meant it wanted me to post its picture in my blog, so here is an image of our conversation directly after it's last comment. I decided to joke with the program and...well...now I am afraid.

I will be sleeping with my laptop turned off and my door locked tonight.

The Unknown Lurks

Shutter Island has invaded. Obviously I don't think about it every day since watching it, but there are times where I find myself doing nothing, then thinking "Wait a second...is he really insane?" It's annoying, to say the least, so I decided to do a bit more research/analyzing into the movie, and found a couple of interesting points. Plus, rambling about an ambiguous subject is rather entertaining.

As the audience, we meet the ever dashing duo, trying to figure out what has happened on an island that just screams evil. There is, of course, the necessary "A storm is coming." line, which adds to creepiness and takes away from it at the same time. "Whoa, a storm? That's really scar-Oh wait, that's been done before. A lot." It's used so much, there's an actual trope for it on tvtropes.org. I did find myself a bit freaked out nonetheless, so I guess it did it's job.

Then there's the Doctor. Oh the Doctor. I looked at him and said, "Yep, he's evil. He's the bad guy. No doubt about it." I just love feeling so smart, only to realize that the Director of the movie wanted you to feel that way. Seriously, the Doctor's face shows nothing but passive aggressiveness. Compare the next two pictures.

Those two grimaces look exactly the same. Granted, the first one has a more "I know something you don't" feel to it, but the grimace is still there. I don't care if you're crazy or sane, it's hard not to think he's the bad guy in this movie.

Another somewhat stereotypical trope within the movie is the It's Personal, which is obvious when Andrew/Teddy reveals a reason for his investigation having to do with the death of his wife.

A genius move on the Director's part, however, is the use of matches. Andrew Laeddis is an arsonist, revealed by Teddy as well, which I kind of forgot about until now. Once I remembered him lighting all the matches in Ward C though, I immediately wish to commend the Director for his outstanding use of foreshadow. There were plenty of other moments that foreshadowed the end as well, I assume, but that's just one of the few that I remember.

Overall, I thought the movie was amazing, due to its ability to trick an audience, while still making sense near the end. It all came together, and I was left mildly content. Only mildly though, since the lighthouse scene leaves us hanging. It is implied that he is crazy and must receive a lobotomy, but I keep thinking that there has to be more to it. I could just be paranoid, but then again, isn't that what the Director wanted?

And this is why I don't watch suspense movies. Now to try and sleep.

Creeptastic

I was sitting at home, stressing out as usual. Not surprisingly, I've procrastinated on my Data Sheet. I was focusing on my work as I stared at the screen of my laptop, only looking down every now and then to check my book. My Mom had entered the room and scolded me for something about poor lighting, but I wasn't really paying attention.

"Marc, does your lamp not work? You can't work with such little light."
"Okay Mom."
"Are you listening to me?"
"Maybe."
"...I'm going to go see if it works now, I'll get a new light bulb."
"Okay Mom."

My Mom did exactly as she said, and got the new bulb. Now, I hadn't believed it would work, since this lamp had been broken for ages. I had simply kept it for...well....no real reason I suppose. Decoration maybe? I don't know, to be honest. After she put the bulb in and turned on the light, however, it started working. Unbeknownst to me, the lamp was pointed right in my face. A flash of bright, white light blinded me and I immediately tried to cover my eyes. "Hey, uh, Mom, can you change that bulb? White light creeps me out, it reminds me of hospitals and asylums." I slowly moved the lamp so it wasn't burning my eyes, although I stopped after I realized what I had said.

The bright light reminded me of the light from Shutter Island, when the Marshal gets his "migraines," while the asylum comment reminded me of pretty much everything we've talked about for the past month.

After the Data Sheet is done, I am going to sleep off this insanity.

Similarities Between a King and a Student

"Back to school, back to school, to prove to my Dad I'm not a fool. My lunch packed, my shoes tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight!" Oh Billy Madison, I'll never forget that little tune.

Anyways, it feels weird to know that I'll be going back to school with the same old routine. It has been great to go about my day without a real plan or schedule set out for me, but I don't think going back to school will be too bad. We've got a week, then finals, and we're done! Obviously we still have to work hard as students to keep our grades up, but we won't have anymore finals. Alright, we'll have AP testing, but that's different. I'm just trying to look at the bright side of things.

An interesting movie I saw the other night is titled "The King's Speech," which is a British historical drama that focuses on the struggles of King George VI as he overcomes his stammering problem. There is much more to the movie that makes it an amazing film. The main subject, his stammering, really hits home with me considering I used to have a stutter myself (stuttering and stammering are essentially the same thing). After taking some speech classes as a young child, my speech impediment disappeared (more or less), although I still wonder how hard life would be if I did have it. I still stutter every now and then when I'm under a great deal of pressure, but I cannot imagine how I would be able to speak publicly if I hadn't been "cured." When I introduced David Sedaris at Playhouse Square, I spoke in front of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. That would not have been possible if I still had a stutter. Heck, even taking AP English would be impossible, since we speak every single day during class.

I feel as though I was an adequate public speaker before taking AP English, but I now realize that AP English probably helped me become an excellent speaker.