what I've been doing #3-reflection paper draft

This is the first paragraph of the reflection paper.  I wrote 3 pages, but after this first paragraph, it got kind of aggressive in a way I am not comfortable sharing.  I will attempt a complete re-write as soon as I can

Reflection

            Creating and working on this project has been a very powerful learning experience for me.  I have been taught and shown all kinds of different outside the box ways of thinking throughout this program.  From installations, comics, performance pieces and sculptures, to all other kinds of experimental poetry, this program has left no stone unturned.  However, really digging into this project, I’m still finding myself overwhelmed by all of the things I still want my writing to convey.  While I feel like a very well rounded academic as a direct result of this program, I feel that my actual writing still has a long ways to go. 

what i've been doing #2 -process paper draft

Ryan Davis

3/18/14

CRTW 490

Process Paper

            Creating a story outline for this project has by far become the most challenging project I have ever attempted as a writer.  With this project, I really, more than anything else, wanted to push my boundaries by taking my understanding of modern adventure stories and applying my style to a more retro aesthetic.  This way, I could take the best of both worlds, from the classic feel of an old adventure narrative, and update it with modern pacing, characterizations, and themes, while not pushing so far as to lose the classic feel that I want to capture.  To complete this task, I needed to research two things:  ways to perfect my understanding of modern adventure stories, and I needed to investigate the original sources of the retro aesthetic that I wanted to explore.

            For the most part, I have focused the majority of the first half of the semester on perfecting my understanding of modern adventure stories.   Much of my expertise in this area is derived from the works of comic book writers from the Marvel and DC franchises.  This has been extremely helpful, as not only are both relevant in the modern day, but DC especially has roots in older, more “classic” style adventures.  For every cynical, witty modern hero, I have been able to dig up examples of old, noir style characters that bring a very different set of ideas to the table.  Working through all these is what helped me to understand the two different tones I am trying to blend, and helped me find strong direction.

            As I began to work on researching ideas for the premise of my modern approach, I found a great deal of inspiration came from the hyper stylized genre of anime.  Starting with the twenty six episodes, I was able to watch something very similar to the goal I had in mind.  This show, while set in a cyberpunk distant future, takes the themes, tone, and humor of cyberpunk, and applies them to the retro aesthetics of a much older genre, the western.  While the characters all feel very much like fully realized, three dimensional people, they also manage to all fit into archetypical roles traditionally found in westerns.  Main character Spike is a laid back, calm and collected hero, who is mostly motivated by the desire to save his own skin and enjoy life as much as he can.  His dry sense of humor feels very contemporary and his apathy towards other people seems like a possible reflection on the cynicism brought on by a postmodern world.  However, he also fits into the role of the gunslinger with a dark and troubled past, who just can’t ever manage to put everything behind him.  He and other characters in the show often have very intense discussions about the danger his past puts him in, using minimalist dialogue very much in line with old west style.  No matter how many ties to his past spike cuts, there is still one he refuses to completely let go of, and over the course of the show, he is slowly pulled back into the life he tried to leave.  It’s a classic story, and it feels very weighty, yet the cyberpunk setting manages to not clash with it at all.  This use of archetypes has fascinated me, and it helped me realize that using an archetype is a strong way to capture the feel of an older story, but still allowing enough room for modern perspectives to be applied without clashing. 

            As for a more modern perspective, I found a great deal of inspiration actually came from an anime called Fairy Tail.  The show is, on a surface level, about the exploits of a wizard guild, but simply by watching it, the show becomes obviously about a group of ruffians and warriors who have banded together as a sort of family, and their dedication to each other is tested many times over the course of the show as they venture off on missions together.  This set up proved to be quite addictive, and I soon found that this premise was certainly strong enough to be molded into my own.  This was how I came up with the idea for the main cast to be a pirate crew.  There is a kind of camaraderie that feels very classic and retro, and the way they are sent off on missions fit like a puzzle piece when I remembered my interest in the conflict of freedom vs. control, while also allowing for a quicker, more modern pace than the original classics were able to muster.  On a more contemporary level, Fairy Tail also helped inspire me to put a strong emphasis on varied yet vitally important female lead characters, which I feel is a very valid way to update a more classic kind of pirate story.  Rather than cutthroats sailing to rescue maidens, my story can be about cyborgs whose physical abilities make their genders irrelevant, as they rescue each other from the dangers of a dark universe.  There are still the archetypes of swashbuckling action adventure present aesthetically, but with a modern approach to creating it.  I don’t want to overpower the swashbuckling so that it feels at odds with the tone of the story, but I do want it to feel like something relevant to today’s world, not something that already exists.  My feminist lens can help enhance the original archetypical stories, so that those old feeling scan still be enjoyed without feeling out of date.

What I've been doing #1

Frontier Eternal

(Draft)

1.

            Freedom.  As Claire took a brief moment to gaze out at the trillions of stars, she was reminded of her first space flight as she let her mind wander away.  She remembered that it had been scary to her, and the deeper the ship went, the more she had felt swallowed up by a crushing abyss.  Like a kind of agoraphobia, the vast emptiness had made it hard for her to function the first few days. 

            Gazing out at the abyss now, she remembered those feelings, and she felt a sense of self empathy looking back on them.  The void was crushingly infinite, and the sheer size of the emptiness resisted comprehension, even after a decade of experience flying. 

            Her ship at this time, the Young Colt, was already small compared to most interstellar ships, and against the ocean of stars, it barely seemed to even register as a fleck of dust or sand.  From inside its main bridge, she continued to take in the vastness, shifting her mind to a different memory.  Her father had once told her about his experience travelling through Space, and even after several years, she remembered his words.

            “Well Claire, I agree.  It’s pretty scary out there sometimes.  Crossing from one end of the galaxy to the other really made me feel it.  Sometimes, I still can’t wrap my head around how small we are.  I have to say though, that the best thing about that space is, by far, the freedom it gives you.  Escaping from the politics and the conflicts and just stepping back away from it all.  I feel like it gives you a new perspective on your problems, almost like a meditation.  You finally get to solve problems the way you want to, not the way some government wants you.  You know I hate the lawlessness out here, but I think this freedom is finally giving us a chance to right some wrongs that we couldn’t before.  Too many selfish abuses barbaric traditions were protected by red tape back in the Sol Federation.  I hope they get their game back together eventually and start protecting people again, but until that happens, I think the frontier is a decent alternative”

            Coming back to the present, Claire looked across the abyss one more time.  As empty as it was, the silence and the emptiness were definitely intimidating, but in a way, she almost felt they were challenging.  There was room out there.  It was a Space that could become all kinds of different things.  There was potential out here. 

            It was a sad potential, though.  As much as she wished the worlds would change, she knew just from keeping up with news that there was no end to the violence and chaos in sight.  All that empty space out there, all that potential void, yet she doubted any beings in this galaxy could ever take advantage of it to create something positive.  Perhaps Space would remain a vast, empty wasteland for eternity, its silence and serenity being the only survivors.

            She was snapped out of her meditation when an alarm on a nearby display screen sharply beeped at her.  Examining it, she realized that the ships scanners had finally picked up the signals they were looking for.  The peace and serenity would have to wait for later; it was time for a raid.

2.

            Running over to the nearby console, Claire began preparing the ship.  It’s interior was modeled after the cabins of the beautiful sail boats of Earth, with the walls and floor made of a material convincingly similar to dark maple wood.  The electronics were plentiful, and various holographic displays constantly streamed diagnostics information about their ship and its location, but were stylized after ancient golden instruments to compliment the rest of the traditional aesthetics.  If it wasn’t for the clutter of papers, devices, cables, and food leftovers among the tables, one could mistake it for a luxury ship owned by a billionaire.  Claire chuckled out loud at that thought.  The Young Colt was anything but.

            Continuing, she moved the ship from its orbit.  The local star system was incredibly barren, with nothing in the way of natural resources, and multiple asteroid belts rather than planets.  The only sign of human activity was the small space station that had brought the ship all the way out to the system in the first place.

            Coming up on the view screens, Claire took a good look at the Young Colt’s first target:  a Dark Particle Station.  Faster than light travel could only be possible through the use of dark particles to alter and accelerate a ship beyond what physics would normally allow.  As Dark particles required tremendous amounts of electricity to generate, many ships were limited as to how many particles they could produce, and how far they could travel.  A Particle station, however, solved the problem by using a series of massive energy reactors to not only generate dark particles, but saturate several light years’ worth of space with them.  This way, a small ship could travel faster than light by following a path of dark particle stations across the galaxy, never having to generate its own.  The system worked great.

            Unless you hit a station with a strong electromagnetic pulse.  Claire grinned. 

“Nothing personal, guys,” she said out loud to no one, “your station will be up and running again in fifteen minutes or so.”