Hey guys, just wanted some of you with experience to look over this written proposal for me. Trying to work out if I've missed anything I should include.
I have chosen a genre fiction short story as my major work for the Extension 2 English course. So far, I have brainstormed and explored a number of conceptual ideas for my short story through writing, and have been reading a variety of stories within the fantasy genre(the genre that my story will be based around) that differ in time period, literary structure, and how fantasy elements are employed into the story. This has been where I have learnt the most about writing fantasy and the continuation of writing my own pieces will develop my own style over time. This is the ultimate goal for me of reading other peoples works, not to take ideas, but to develop your own style by taking note of language, diction and what makes what you’ve just read sing to your emotions. Once you can recognize how and what causes those feelings and emotions and how that effect was made through language techniques etc. you can begin to employ your own understanding of those things into how you write.
When I get a story idea, It usually starts with just a spark, a really cool and impacting scene flashes in my mind, then I ask myself: ‘why might this scene be happening in the story? what would be a good setting? and who could the main character be?’. I’ll then start forming ideas together and thinking up a good plot and ending for the story; if I can think of one. A lot of my ideas don’t really have a very thought out ending, so I tend to just start writing and see where I go.
One concept I came up with was where the story starts out with a prologue where it narrates in third person a soldier of war on the battlefield trying to flee a losing battle. He ends up on a ship that is aimlessly sailing out to see. The ship ends up on shore somewhere but they aren’t sure where. Three companies are arranged and split up, setting out to find out where they are or to find help. They need to meet back at their location within three days, however only two companies return so they set out to find the missing company. One of the party finds an abandoned camp site and a piece of paper that is like a diary entry and the whole story from there follows the bread crumb trail of the notes until they ultimately find the missing company, however there is something there that is a reason for their adversity, for them not returning and there could be any number of reasons. I like the idea of a story where you’re on an adventure following the trail with the company and along the way they encounter adversity and various dangers and interesting things that are imaginative and familiarize the reader with the world; this is what makes it interesting. This is just one concept for a story I’ve come up with that explores fantasy from a sort of adventure/mystery perspective.
I got my inspiration for the sort of epistolary diary entries in both 2 unit and 3 unit English from when I studied Dracula in 3 unit English and later Frankenstein in 2 unit. Frankenstein contains not necessarily an epistolary approach but letters going to and from people throughout the story. The piece of creative writing I wrote that would work as a prologue to the story is inspired by Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of The Rings’ through the enemy that is being faced, the dark evil overlord referred to as the ‘Witch-King’. This is because LoTR’s is very much so what started the light vs dark, good vs evil approach to fantasy. George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ was also an influence on the text because I gained a lot of knowledge and understanding on the use of imagery and general descriptiveness through the graphic and highly psychological means that Martin used to describe things; like in this case, the battle scenes.
Along with reading and writing to develop my own writing skills and understanding, I’ve also joined a writing forum which is specifically for fantasy writers to learn and discuss writing fantasy(mythicscribes.com); some of the members have been writing for decades and have their own published works, others are self-published writers trying to get somewhere.
I’ve been taking advantage of the discussion threads on the forum from amateur writers like myself asking questions relating to their own works with similar issues to me. I also have asked a few questions myself and I have received a lot of feedback from various writers at different levels of experience. There is also a showcase section where you can ask for critique on your works, and that has helped me also, to see what people other than myself and my friends think.
My current weaknesses are in my sentence structure which tends to result in me dragging on sentences a bit if I don’t keep constantly reading over them and correcting them; I hope to make it less frequent. I also struggle with coming up with a plot that I know will keep within the 8,000 word limit and not seem to be cut short. So I need to develop my ability to make ideas that aren’t novel length.
So from here I intend to keep reading as much as I can and trying to stay motivated to keep writing ideas down and writing bits and pieces of creative writing which will develop my skills as well as my journal with the ultimate goal to reach a point where I am happy with the setting and plot for my major work and from there I will begin focusing on developing the final piece.
Reading a wide range of fantasy allows me to extend my knowledge of how past author’s have written pieces of fantasy and how they’ve done it differently to other authors. Some books I intend to read(or finish) are:
o Highly acclaimed novels
o Responsible for fantasy gaining its popularity
o More light-hearted
o Earlier fantasy novels
o Very graphic descriptions
o Unique plot structure – Each chapter beginning with a character’s name; sort of like there’s a story for each main character
o Recent-ish series
o Said to be Tolkien’s biggest competitor in how it is in the same niche as The Lord of The Rings – employs the formula of light vs. dark, company sets out on a big adventure with one of that company being somewhat of a ‘chosen one’
o Going to compare and contrast it to Lord of The Rings
o Older series
o Dark/gothic setting
o Controversial plot – protagonist is a 13 year old prince who becomes a cold-blooded killer
I have chosen a genre fiction short story as my major work for the Extension 2 English course. So far, I have brainstormed and explored a number of conceptual ideas for my short story through writing, and have been reading a variety of stories within the fantasy genre(the genre that my story will be based around) that differ in time period, literary structure, and how fantasy elements are employed into the story. This has been where I have learnt the most about writing fantasy and the continuation of writing my own pieces will develop my own style over time. This is the ultimate goal for me of reading other peoples works, not to take ideas, but to develop your own style by taking note of language, diction and what makes what you’ve just read sing to your emotions. Once you can recognize how and what causes those feelings and emotions and how that effect was made through language techniques etc. you can begin to employ your own understanding of those things into how you write.
When I get a story idea, It usually starts with just a spark, a really cool and impacting scene flashes in my mind, then I ask myself: ‘why might this scene be happening in the story? what would be a good setting? and who could the main character be?’. I’ll then start forming ideas together and thinking up a good plot and ending for the story; if I can think of one. A lot of my ideas don’t really have a very thought out ending, so I tend to just start writing and see where I go.
One concept I came up with was where the story starts out with a prologue where it narrates in third person a soldier of war on the battlefield trying to flee a losing battle. He ends up on a ship that is aimlessly sailing out to see. The ship ends up on shore somewhere but they aren’t sure where. Three companies are arranged and split up, setting out to find out where they are or to find help. They need to meet back at their location within three days, however only two companies return so they set out to find the missing company. One of the party finds an abandoned camp site and a piece of paper that is like a diary entry and the whole story from there follows the bread crumb trail of the notes until they ultimately find the missing company, however there is something there that is a reason for their adversity, for them not returning and there could be any number of reasons. I like the idea of a story where you’re on an adventure following the trail with the company and along the way they encounter adversity and various dangers and interesting things that are imaginative and familiarize the reader with the world; this is what makes it interesting. This is just one concept for a story I’ve come up with that explores fantasy from a sort of adventure/mystery perspective.
I got my inspiration for the sort of epistolary diary entries in both 2 unit and 3 unit English from when I studied Dracula in 3 unit English and later Frankenstein in 2 unit. Frankenstein contains not necessarily an epistolary approach but letters going to and from people throughout the story. The piece of creative writing I wrote that would work as a prologue to the story is inspired by Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of The Rings’ through the enemy that is being faced, the dark evil overlord referred to as the ‘Witch-King’. This is because LoTR’s is very much so what started the light vs dark, good vs evil approach to fantasy. George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ was also an influence on the text because I gained a lot of knowledge and understanding on the use of imagery and general descriptiveness through the graphic and highly psychological means that Martin used to describe things; like in this case, the battle scenes.
Along with reading and writing to develop my own writing skills and understanding, I’ve also joined a writing forum which is specifically for fantasy writers to learn and discuss writing fantasy(mythicscribes.com); some of the members have been writing for decades and have their own published works, others are self-published writers trying to get somewhere.
I’ve been taking advantage of the discussion threads on the forum from amateur writers like myself asking questions relating to their own works with similar issues to me. I also have asked a few questions myself and I have received a lot of feedback from various writers at different levels of experience. There is also a showcase section where you can ask for critique on your works, and that has helped me also, to see what people other than myself and my friends think.
My current weaknesses are in my sentence structure which tends to result in me dragging on sentences a bit if I don’t keep constantly reading over them and correcting them; I hope to make it less frequent. I also struggle with coming up with a plot that I know will keep within the 8,000 word limit and not seem to be cut short. So I need to develop my ability to make ideas that aren’t novel length.
So from here I intend to keep reading as much as I can and trying to stay motivated to keep writing ideas down and writing bits and pieces of creative writing which will develop my skills as well as my journal with the ultimate goal to reach a point where I am happy with the setting and plot for my major work and from there I will begin focusing on developing the final piece.
Reading a wide range of fantasy allows me to extend my knowledge of how past author’s have written pieces of fantasy and how they’ve done it differently to other authors. Some books I intend to read(or finish) are:
- J.R.R Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ as well as ‘The Lord of The Rings’ series
o Highly acclaimed novels
o Responsible for fantasy gaining its popularity
o More light-hearted
o Earlier fantasy novels
- George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice And Fire’ (I’m up to book 4/5)
o Very graphic descriptions
o Unique plot structure – Each chapter beginning with a character’s name; sort of like there’s a story for each main character
o Recent-ish series
- Robert Jordan’s ‘The Great Hunt’
o Said to be Tolkien’s biggest competitor in how it is in the same niche as The Lord of The Rings – employs the formula of light vs. dark, company sets out on a big adventure with one of that company being somewhat of a ‘chosen one’
o Going to compare and contrast it to Lord of The Rings
o Older series
- Mark Lawrence’s ‘Prince of Thorns’-
o Dark/gothic setting
o Controversial plot – protagonist is a 13 year old prince who becomes a cold-blooded killer
- Patrick Rothfuss’s ‘The Name of The Wind’ – Interesting plot and plot structure. Told similar to Frankenstein; begins in present tense and the protagonist sits down with a man and begins telling him his story while the man writes it all down.