The F Word's topics - tribe.net

f

2005-10-04T13:32:32Z

sitting outside of myself i see that times are cold to bare
im a the restless one
staring up for answers that poured on to the ground
that the rain beated down without a sound
i am the lost one

staring up for answers that poured on to the ground
that the rain beated down without a sound
i am the lost one
down without a sound
i am the lost one
night is my holy time
where the world around has gone to bed
to me they all might be dead
i like the cutting wind its my kindred
it lashes the world around

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things are fucked

2005-08-16T01:24:59Z

i dont know help people that aroud me anymore .. the gave up on trying to be envoled in each other lives because the basic truth they are not woth dealing with not worth befriending and not worth redemming themselves. i wish i can put thing on track. but the problem is that they hate caring about each other
and having the relationships having a strong effect on each other.
i love my people (my friends)!
i wish they didnt give up on each other.

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Mason's start in SF

2005-05-22T18:48:52Z

It's 6am on Monday morning....Mason wakes with a start. Her eyes open to an empty space on the twin sized mattress. She had grown used to sharing the small mattress with her lover. They used to sleep on their sides, spooning each other to fit on the bed. Now there was room for her to spread out and sleep comfortably, but she found herself still sleeping the same way, scrunched on half the bed. Change isn't instantaneous.

She lay in that position with her eyes open...listening to sounds of the street beneath her. Horns honking, large trucks with produce unloading, carts rolling. She heard a baby next door crying for a few moments. Her small studio was affordable for a reason. The thin walls and street sounds were a surround sound experience of life in SF. Dolby couldn't have done better. Actually she liked it. City noise was a pleasant distraction.

She dragged herself out of bed at 6:30 and readied herself for the day. Cold cereal, a bananna, and out the door in a hooded sweater and brown corduroy pants. She ran down the street....damn! she missed the 38 again. She really didn't want to be late again to her new job. It would be nice to not be fired this time. This job paid well, and offered flexibility for her school schedule...even if well...it was a bit morbid. She worked as an assistant for Crime Scene Cleaners, cleaning up the aftermath of suicides, murders and accidental deaths. Somebody has to do it. 20 bucks an hour to disinfect and remove blood stains from a wall wasn't a problem for her. She didn't really get squeamish.

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Character-Damian

2005-05-19T21:50:24Z

Damian grew up in Texas. His childhood was uneventful but solid. His fondest childhood memories were around Christmas when he and his family join his local chicano community in La Posada. he and the great hoards of people journeyed through the streets of his town to the local church and carrying an idol representation of the virgin mary on the mule with joseph beside to birth the lord child. the power of the sing, laughter of the people and grand feast held in honor of the coming child filled Damian with a sense of belonging that he never felt again.
Damian left to San Francisco on christmas eve. he had revealed to his family that he had contracted HIV. His father's assumptions about HIV was that Maricons (faggots) got it, and that his son would burn in hell. his mother was disgusted. His father told him to leave in a cold, stern tone. Damian's Father told dmain that he brought great shamed upon the family.
As damian was about to leave, his grandmother grabbed him and shoved a black cloth in his hands. she told him "may god save you". in side the black shawl was a gold rosary, address book and a rolled up wad of money. He had enough to leave and start his new life. He booked a one way flight to San Francisco.

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the sailor

2005-05-19T21:48:34Z

doesn't have a name yet. she smuggles things across the bay, sometimes elicit, sometimes otherwise, beautiful things, what you would never expect. she has this water taxi service, by boat, a totally new form of transportation - retro 1890's...called sailing.

and she is really into tying people up as well, and find riches in a speciality field as a pirate dominatrixn (hmmm, that's a good idea. i might try it) - and gets obsessed with getting a wooden sailboat with larger and larger masts and orchestrating crazy sex parties

all of which gets made possible by a large insurance claim...no...a benefactor, this woman who is a pro-racing sailor. and she goes on this women's sailing trip and also to all these remote parts of the world and has a woman in every port.

well, that's what i have so far.

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the white mongolian woman

2005-05-19T19:01:18Z

Okay, I realize I am writing a freaking novel, and my character is not even in bay area yet. She is in the hospital at the moment, still in Mongolia, finding out she is pregnant and meeting her future American husband for the first time. I promise I will post today with a short description of my woman, not her life long story….i will try at least after I get home today. Kisses to all.

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Character- Mason

2005-05-15T00:44:57Z

...is a nomadic rabble rousing individual. She frequently changes her life up. There is something about the creeping dreariness and fear of every day life which becomes unbearable. She'd call herself a traveller..but truthfully she leaves to keeps life,people,potential from developing. Sometimes she is careless with people around her. Part of the problem is that she says anything that comes to mind. It's always an honest and sincere thought..but sometimes without much tact. Whether she hurts people on purpose or not, she never has to stay long enough to face the repurcussions.

Despite her escapist tendencies and beneath an exterior of removal, there is a passionate heart for the few people she genuinely cares for.

She has landed in The City and for the first time feels like she's found herself wanting to call this place home. Maybe she has found her home.

She live in the Richmond district among a strip of asian restaurants/markets and loves it for so many reasons...(details later)..and takes some courses in ethnic studies at the JC.

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Character Development - fish for any helpful info

2005-05-10T06:17:13Z

I stole this from a site online.

So just how important is character development? Let’s look at what a couple of veteran screenwriters say: Syd Field, in Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, states that, “Character is the essential foundation of your screenplay. It is the heart and soul and nervous system of your story. Before you put a word on paper, you must know your character.”

A strong character is the quintessential element to any screenplay. A screenplay won’t survive unless you, as the writer of the story, know the main character better than he knows himself. So how do you do this? Last time I suggested making a visual picture of your character by cutting images out of magazines. Cut and paste until you have the person you’ve pictured in your mind staring back at you on paper. A visual picture will help remind you whose story you’re telling. After I have a visual of my character in place, I then begin the process of writing out my character’s biography.
A character’s biography can be as short or as long as you want. The important part is feeling secure enough with your character and his past in order to get him through the most critical point in his life (i.e. – where your screenplay begins).

The first step in writing your character’s biography is developing your character’s name. Some author’s place a high emphasis on character naming because the name symbolizes who they are as a person. I begin the naming process by looking at my character’s picture and then asking myself questions like – “Where was this person born?” and “Who are his parents?” Is my character French, or Italian, or Asian? Was my character born on the East coast, the Midwest, or on the West coast? I definitely do not exhaust the naming process, but I do take these types of factors into consideration. This brainstorming process also works as an aid later when I actually begin writing. Bottom line, if you give your character a strange and exotic name, then you better have a damn good story behind it. I feel a great example of this is Gilbert Grape’s name in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” Gilbert’s name symbolizes his struggle in life. A grape has the potential to be either sour or sweet, a raisin or possibly wine. Throughout the movie, Gilbert struggles with becoming the hardened raisin (by ditching his family) or a sweet wine (by staying, helping, and defending his family).

Once you have your character’s name in place, you can begin writing. I always begin with my character’s day of birth. Where was he born? What time was he born? Was it an easy birth? Was he born later or earlier than expected? As there is no right or wrong way of going through the biography process, I then take the time to analyze my character’s parents. Were the parents expecting a child or was their pregnancy a surprise to them? Are the parents happy to be together? Are they married? Were both of them involved with the pregnancy?

I continue through my character’s childhood looking at factors such as family involvement – were the grandparents and other immediate relatives around them growing up or were the relatives estranged? Was it a happy childhood? What kind of grades did he make? Was he into sports? Does he have any strange traits or habits? Is he violent or passive? Did he go to prom? When was the first time he had sex? Has he ever had sex? Etcetera …
There is no limit to the amount of investigation you can put into writing out your character’s life. Make it as normal or as strange as you like. Remember, all of these varying factors are shaping how your character is going to react to the most critical point or moment in his or her life. This critical point in your character’s life is the key element to your screenplay.

Character is the most important part of any screenplay – don’t forget this. In the past two articles, we’ve taken the steps to get to know what your character looks like, what their name is, and what their history is. Remember, these are steps designed to help you while you’re writing your actual screenplay. It’s critical that you know your character better than anyone else. It’s you, as a writer, who has to take this character through an entire story filled with challenges, dramas, dilemmas and dangers. But the character development process cannot stop here. The next step in the development process is to establish the need of your character(s). Here’s where we finally get to work:
Screenwriter Christopher Keane, in “How to Write a Selling Screenplay”, suggests writing out the following statement to help establish your character’s need – “This is a story about (so and so) who wants (such-and-such) and will do anything to get it!” Keane suggests writing this statement out and taping it to your computer or typewriter. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of this exercise. Why? Because this statement clearly defines who your character is and what it is he needs. Both of these aspects are the essence of your entire screenplay.

Ask yourself “What is the need of my character?” You have to establish the need of your character because it sets a goal for the entire storyline. Your entire screenplay will involve your character’s drive to accomplishing this need. Here is where you incorporate your story idea into the writing process. All of us, before we begin to write, have a story idea locked safely in our heads. We, too, as writers, have needs. Our need is to tell this story from start to finish. Because I have a journalism background, I love challenging myself to tell an entire story in two or three sentences. It’s a process of elimination that allows me to look at only the foundation of my story. Here’s an example:

A woman is given a million dollar bribe to kill her boss’s husband. The woman, who is sleeping with her boss’s husband, takes the bribe because she’s upset that he never left his wife like he promised. Ultimately, the woman gets entangled in a love triangle that leads to her own death.

Now that I have the foundation of my story down on paper, I can then define my character’s need. “This is a story about Corrina McFall who wants to marry the man, John Slain, who she is having an affair with and will do anything to get it!” It would be too simple if the million dollars were Corrina’s need. No, it’s more complex if she actually wants to marry the man she’s agreed to kill. Corrina will do anything to get John to marry her – anything! Corrina is at a very critical point in her life. She’s thirty-two, single, desperate, at a dead end job, and having an affair with her boss’s husband. Agreeing to accept her boss’s bribe is the moment where she goes beyond the point of no return.
Every screenplay must start at this moment in your character’s life. Again, every screenwriting class I’ve taken, and every screenwriting book I’ve read, has said this very same thing. I suggest analyzing your character’s life at this very moment. What is your character’s job at this moment? Do they like their job? Do they like their boss? Are they in love? Married or single? Are they rich or poor? Do they drink too much? Are they on any drugs? Did they just kill someone? Don’t hold back.

All of the answers you come up with during this analyzing process will feed as conflict to your character achieving her need. Conflict is everything to a story. Conflict allows us to incorporate the many different challenges, dramas, dilemmas, and dangers that our characters must face to reach their goal. The more challenging the conflicts, the more interesting your story is. If you’ve ever taken an acting class, you know that every situation must have conflict or else the scene will fail to capture your audience’s attention. This is true for both dramas and comedies.

Take the time to work out your character’s need and try writing down your entire story in two to three sentences. Once you establish these two elements, you can then analyze your character’s life at the point of where your screenplay is about to begin. Think of everything involving your own life to help analyze your character’s life – there are many different things you’ll have to take into consideration.

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