Tomorrow is my first day back at work after maternity leave, so it will be interesting to see how I keep up with this and my college course, since I still plan to spend a few hours a night playing with my son :), but I’m starting out with good intentions.
Last week the name generator gave me Nona Saunders. Nona means ‘Ninth’ and is representative of the nine months of pregnancy, and Saunders comes from Alexander which means ‘defending men’, so my comic book heroine ended up being a pregnant woman trying to rescue her baby’s father. A tricky feat considering she doesn’t know where he is and she’s supposed to be pretending to be a boy so she can be apprenticed to a wizard who won’t train girls. Since one of last week’s challenges was to give the MC a buddy I tried the same thing with the name generator and got Sofia Byrd. Sofia means ‘Wisdom’ and Bryd is a family name for someone who hunts or raises birds, interestingly enough, so I made Sofia a more mature character who Nona goes to for help and confides in, and made her a sort of wilderness scout who has a falcon. Since the name generator thing still seems to be working we’re doing it again this week!
Monday 21st March: Description Challenge
Generate a character name using the Seventh Sanctum quick name generator, then we’re going to look up the meaning of the chosen name and use it for inspiration for some of the character. This week we’re going to be working on a motion script so what the description needs will depend on what you’re writing. If it’s a play or a film then costume and character traits are very important, but don’t focus too much on physical aspects that are not relevant to the plot as how they will look will really depend on the actor playing them in the end. So if it’s important that the character is blond because people are going to assume she’s a blond airhead throughout the story go ahead and mention it, but if not there’s probably not much point. On the other hand if you’re planning an animation then go into as much detail as possible on the physical characteristics so the artist will know how to draw them :).
Tuesday 22nd March: Dialogue Challenge
This week let’s give the character a monologue or a voice over.
Wednesday 23rd March: Scene Challenge
In this scene the character is going to make a shocking discovery! Maybe about another character, or an object, or themselves.
Thursday 24th March: Dream Challenge
Dreams again. OK, dreams usually look like a movie anyway so putting it back into script for should be a piece of cake.
Friday 25th March: Stream of Consciousness
Still on a poetry break so it’s free writing again today. The focus word is ‘Play’.
Saturday 26th March: Flash Fiction Challenge
Write a short script involving your character. It can be about anything that works for them.
Sunday 27th March: Pot Luck – series/story plan
If it’s a series, what are the first few episodes? If it’s a movie or play then do a more detailed plan for the one story your working on.
And we’re finished! Next week there will be a couple of exercises to refine the chosen Script Frenzy piece, then on April 1st it’s a break for script writing month!