Describe the progress of your project over the four week period.
Over the first couple of weeks I had a lot more time to get work done. I would watch at least four videos of Margaret Atwood, and the entire time I took notes. Then I would try to flush out some ideas, but my creative juices weren’t really flowing. By the third week I just started my job and that made me feel even less creatively driven. I really enjoyed watching Atwood’s and Neil Gaiman’s classes, I couldn’t get enough. Sometimes I would stare at my blank screen and my fingers never moved. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to write about. Before I had even watched any of the Master class videos, I thought I had a faint inkling about what writing entails. But turns out I was very wrong. What is the most significant thing that you learned during your experience of working on this project? I learned that becoming a successful writer is very daunting and scary. You have to allow yourself to be brave, you have to fail in order to know what to do right and to become better. At a young age you don’t have much experience about life and living, so Gaiman suggested that young writers should venture out into the world and meet as many people as you can. Also sometimes the beginning of your book might not actually be the beginning. Both Gaiman and Atwood really enforced writing every single day, do it as much as you can. Although Atwood believes that you can really only start writing when you’re 30 or 40, Gaiman supports young writers. He admits that it will be extremely challenging to get your work published but you can’t allow yourself to feel down or to take things too personally. Better to put yourself out there, and somewhere a publisher is waiting for your story. (Also Gaiman suggested that you can always use a pseudonym). What struggles did you face with your Co-op project? I really struggled on figuring out what kind of story I wanted to write. The more videos I watched the more I realized that my story’s don’t really have a unique voice and strong message. So I had a difficult time thinking of what I wanted my message to be. I did have ideas to do my own version of popular fairy tales and legends, but it didn’t really get the gears turning in my head. After struggling with what I wanted to write I decided to just watch the videos and take notes, and then apply that helpful information to when I feel ready to write a story. What changes did you make to your Co-op project as it evolved? Instead of focusing so much time and energy on forcing ideas to come out, I placed most of my energy in watching the informational videos. I really wanted to soak in as much of the sage advice and wisdom, and there was a lot of information. What are you most proud of for your final Co-op project? I’m proud that I was able to finish all of Atwood’s and Gaiman’s videos. In total I watched 8 hours of videos, and I truly learned a lot. I’m glad I took notes because I will be going over them. Though I wasn’t able to write a short story, I feel like I have a strong foundation for beginning a story. I know have advice on how to overcome writer's block, how to figure out the ending, how to construct a strong beginning, how to publish your work, and advice for not giving up. It’s done. I’ve finally finished watching all of Neil Gaiman’s videos, and I have so much information about writing that I will explode. Along with the information from Atwood’s videos I’ve learned so much about the art of story telling, the difficulties of writing, the sour taste of rejection, and needing that courage to keep preserving even when you don’t want too. Gaiman gave a list of rules that he continues to follow:
Rule 1: You have to write. Rule 2: You have to finish your work. Rule 3: You have to send it out into the world, to have your work published. Rule 4: Don’t keep rewriting the same story. Rule 5: When your story comes back, and it surely will, don’t get down on yourself keep sending your work out. Rule 6: Then start the next thing. Keep writing, begin a new story. You will have bad days where you can’t get any words out, and you will have magical days where you the story is coming to life. In the end it’s all your story, and it’s all in your own voice. The parting advice Gaiman gave was, “Go out and see as much of the world as you can. Experience life, experience living, then come back and write.” In these videos Gaiman discusses writers block and gives some advice about how to overcome being stuck. 1) Take a break from writing, go outside, take a walk, go on a run, swim, work in the garden, etc... (Atwood gave the same exact advice lol) 2) Come back to your work and pretend you’ve never seen it before and reread it. Gaiman said that nobody ever needs to know that you were stuck, no one else will see your first draft except your own eyes. Be willing to recalibrate! Then when it comes to editing, leave your work for 10 days. Then come back to it, print it out, with pen or pencil in hand, read your work from the perspective of a reader and make notes in the margin that won’t work for readers. The difference between your 1st and 2nd draft can be very minuscule but making that transition between your drafts is vastly important. If something doesn’t work for readers, and someone tells you that you need to change something in your work, then change it. But don’t allow criticism to change your entire story, still keep your own voice. Gaiman insists that you need to be brave, you have to keep trying, you have to be brave even if your work isn’t good. Perfection is an ideal, you can’t achieve it, you will have mistakes/errors and that’s okay.
In these videos Gaiman went into extreme detail about genres, readers expectations, and comic writing. Gaiman stated sternly, “When writing fiction you ALWAYS need to know more than the reader.” Also the way you reveal information to your readers can be in your own style, that might not suit the readers taste. You should also learn how to reveal or hide clues from readers through your writing. Sometimes it’s better to go against the readers expectations, knowing that the readers expect something then you reveal it to be something else is perfect! Then turning towards the topic of genre, Gaiman advised beginner writers to stray away from genre fiction. Try and write about things that you don’t know about. Then for almost 30 minutes Gaiman went into heavy detail about how to construct a comic book. Writers shouldn’t be scared to write comics just because they can’t illustrate. You can work with a team of people to create something other worldly, also comics allow you to do certain things you can’t do in prose. Gaiman is a fantastic teacher, and he’s very supportive of fiction writers, he warns you about the hardships but he encourage writers to keep pushing.
Been a bit busy this weekend with work, but I carved out some time for some brain storming! I looked at six different fairy tales and thought about how I could twist them and make them different. I think I’ll write small little stories, have little pictures to go along with them, use Canva to make the stories and images look more aesthetically pleasing. For the gingerbread man maybe have him kill kids, bake them and turn them goodies like candy and cake, then sell them to the nearby neighbors. For Pinocchio, instead of being a doll becoming alive, the doll is in fact a real, living boy. Or maybe in the fairytale, princess and the pea, instead of using a pea to test if a princess is real, princesses fight each other to the death. Whoever survives becomes the queen the next morning. Decisions, decisions...
I’m really glad that I chose to watch Neil Gaiman’s videos. He discussed that you can always incorporate places you’ve been too into your stories. Then change them, make the place bigger or smaller, on fire, floating in the sky, etc... Moments of reality create credibility. Also include the painful moments as well, the smell, the lighting, the sounds, etc... When you are creating your worlds Gaiman says to remember why are you creating this world? Why is this world so important? Another point Gaiman mentioned was to allow your characters to discover the rules, what are the rules of the world you are creating? How will your characters discover these rules? Always know more than you can tell.
Gaiman is giving so much advice and wisdom, it’s kinda overwhelming. He goes into such detail and provides examples from his personal life, it really makes me feel motivated to write. In these classes he mainly talked about developing characters and how to make them 3 dimensional. He also discussed the importance of good dialogue, and how characters and dialogue are tightly interwoven. You have to get into the headspace of your characters, imagine yourself as a young boy, an old woman, etc... The character becomes a part of you, you have to allow yourself to open up. Can’t be afraid to delve into yourself to find where the character lies in you. Gaiman’s advice for young writers starting out is to, “1) Trust yourself. Do it! 2) Do your research! (But don’t drown in your research).” Also a little trick Gaiman uses when he has a lot of characters and wants to help out the readers is to use the funny hat trick. Give your main character a distinct characteristic, make them unique so they stand out from the rest of your characters and the readers don’t become confused. Can’t wait to learn more from Gaiman!
Watched another four videos of Gaiman discussing the art of storytelling, especially how to craft a great short story. Gaiman says that short stories are a great way to learn your craft as a writer. Also the difficulty with short stories is that you don’t have enough pages to mold your story. So with fewer pages you have to get straight to the point, you have to imagine the short story as the last chapters of a novel. As Gaiman said, “A good short story is a good magic trick.” Gaiman also discussed how stories are born from ideas, feelings, images, the people around you. Also the plot is usually driven by a characters wants/desires, such as revenge, love, friendship, money, etc. I’m definitely thinking of taking a well known fairytale/myth/legend/folk tale and taking it from a different perspective. Maybe the stepsisters in Cinderella are the wrong party, in Little Red Riding Hood it’s from the wolf’s perspective.
It’s interesting seeing the differences and similarities between Atwood and Gaiman. Weirdly enough they both brought up the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and they both put their own creative twists on the story. Atwood mentions how writers only really start publishing good stories when their 30 or 40. Gaiman also mentions that young writers haven’t found their own voice, or style, but he encourages young writers to keep going. To write as much as you can, get the bad stories out to make way for the good stories, and try to finish as many of your stories as you can. One of the things Gaiman discussed was his idea of a “compost heap.” A compost heap is things you listen too, the people you encounter, and this all is thrown into the compost heap, they will rot and they will blossom into beautiful stories. Gaiman also discussed how many of his fans tell him they feel a deep connection to the characters he created (especially Coraline) and how they felt real emotions. As Gaiman says, “Be honest. Be specific. Make the audience feel something, DON’T tell them HOW to feel.” Just like Atwood I love listening to Gaiman speak, and I especially love when he talks about Coraline because I adore that story.
In her videos Atwood discussed different types of fiction, specifically the one she uses the most: speculative fiction-fiction dealing with possibilities inherent in our society. She then discussed what a utopia and dystopia is, and how they have a yin yang arrangement. Atwood also loves to say, “The waste paper basket is your friend.” She talks a lot about doing research for your book, or taking from personal experiences and applying it to your writing. She also mentioned how she liked to draw little sketches that related to her book, to give her characters even more life. Atwood also recommended the book, “The Gift,” by Lewis Hyde, a book she recommends to all aspiring writers. She discusses the importance of choosing the right agent, how there are multiple ways to publish your work in this day and age. What I especially liked is she talked about dealing with bad reviews, that at a young age you take it even harder. She again recommends the book, “Mortification,” to help writers understand public shame. But above all she wants writers to continue pumping out more books, to make storytelling as rich as ever, to give readers a story to immerse themselves in. I very much liked her class, weirdly I liked listening to her talk, her voice is very calming and soothing. Can’t wait to check out more Master Class videos :)
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