Monday, January 30, 2017

Experiment #4 - Two chunks of a story I'm working on.

“I think I’ve discovered something,” Victoria declared to her boss Dr. Klein.  Victoria had heard of the “test program” the lab once used about 20 years ago.  Just rumors of it really, nothing ‘official’.  She asked some of her colleagues about it once, and they in turn responded rather oddly by way of looking at one another and then telling her they’d never heard of it. It was obvious to her that they knew something, but chose not to share it with her.  They told her it was an absurd question and she’d do better with focusing on her work and not on some ‘pie in the sky’ program that never existed. The “test program” she had heard about had to do with assisting women with conception that would not have normally been able to conceive.  The lab had developed a new serum that aided these women in ensuring pregnancy.  The serum made the women sick at first with strange rashes and aggressive behavior, but if they moved passed the first trimester and the pregnancy took, their symptoms subsided and they delivered healthy children.  She had also heard that the program was abruptly halted and any note of is existence was scrubbed from the public domain with no explanation.  It was if the existence of the program had vanished into thin air.  At the time, she followed her coworkers advice and dropped it.  But then she had read some articles here and there about some adults that were experiencing episodes of violent behavior, some case were so bad that some people ended up hurting themselves.  Some had even killed themselves in a violent rage.  
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  Victoria stepped into the open door of Gabe’s office.  He was at his desk punching away feverishly on his laptop. The sunrays streamed in from the window behind him, casting a sunlit arora around him. She stepped closer to his desk and spoke, “You know,....don’t you?” There was an unmistakeable pause in the question Victoria asked Gabe. He stopped typing on his laptop, looked up, took a deep breath, looked down and began typing again, ignoring her question.  Victoria tried again, “How long have you known?”  Gabe finally looked up but didn’t meet her eyes.  He looked anywhere but in her eyes and replied, “For awhile I suppose, but I didn’t want to believe it’s true.”
Gabe had began to notice changes in his mood and behavior in college.  Sometimes he would find himself in a foul mood but, initially didn’t give it much thought.  Every college student or person of that age are still moving through the late adolescent stage and into adulthood with more challenges and responsibility. He initially brushed off his moods to stress of college life and/or hormonal changes.  The moods however got progressively worse. His foul temperament turned into full on violent outbursts over trivial slights. He had asked his dad if it was normal that he reacted so explosively to minor situations and at the time, his father has brushed it off as “normal guy stuff, nothing to worry about, you’ll just have to learn to control your temper” his dad replied.  At the time Gabe accepted that answer from the man he admired and loved so much.  After all, his father was his world since he was the only parent he’d ever known.  They were a team and Gabe felt if his dad says everything is ok, then it must be.  
Breaking Gabe’s far off stare at the memory, Victoria walked over to him and cupped his face in her hands, gently forcing him to look at her.  Victoria stared into his eyes searching for a moment, taking in the color of his eyes, searching for the irregular pattern in his irises and noting the anomaly she’s long suspected. “Let me help you, Gabriel” she said.   

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Word-Count Wednesday #1

My goal is to spend at least 30 minutes, or perhaps more, per day writing something creative.  Not counting my homework from American Lit.

What am I working on?
It's a story, set roughly 20 years from now (give or take), about how humans have moved from being conceived 'naturally', to ever increasingly being 'genetically engineered' because it has become harder and harder for women to get pregnant the old fashioned way.   Because of the changes in the environment or the world's food supply being tainted with more and more chemicals which have an unintended consequence on human development or something like that.

 A company (the lab) has taken human conception to another level, but there is a consequence. Something bad occurs to the genetic make up of a person created by these means.  The lab's methods are controversial and the program was supposed to have been shutdown but they didn't shut it down. Rather they exploit, in secret, a couple's dream of becoming parents at any cost.  (Like a component in the shots the women have to take in order for the pregnancy to stick, affects the fetus and alters them in some way).

These humans are different (need to work on how or what exactly it is, somethings not right with them but its bad though).   The main character, Gabriel or Gabe, is one of them.  His mother dies in childbirth giving birth to his younger sister who is stillborn.  Raised by his father, he had no idea that he was a 'GEH' (genetically engineered human) (his father kept it from him) until he started to notice "X" (TBD) and figured it out in college.  GEHs have something in their eyes that give it away, but it doesn't show up until adulthood.  Gabe wears contacts to conceal it.
He makes it his goal to become a scientist and to work at the lab to try and stop this secret practice now starting to affect a whole generation of people.

Victoria is a scientist at the lab and has no clue this practice is still happening.  She's happy miss sunshine and thinks the lab is fabulous, until she begins to figure out something isn't right.  She works with Gabe, and thinks he's a jerky crab ass because he's always grumpy and slamming things about.  She stares at him, she thinks he's cute despite his disposition and begins to notice he's different, but can't quite put her finger on it.  Gabe doesn't like Victoria because she's little miss sunshine, geeky girl, but he will need her help to stop the lab's secret practices.  Gabe struggles with his existence and is trying to figure out a way to be whole when he shouldn't have existed at all.

How do I feel about the process?
Each day or class is getting better.  I've never taken any sort of creative writing class before this one, only two screenwriting classes that focused mainly on the structure of what constitutes a screenplay.  I love how this class is set up with our "Houses" and each 'experiment' to try something new.  Just in preparing this week's experiment, and writing this post, I'm finding that as I type and think the story out, ideas are flowing to me.  Good or bad, who knows, but I'm going with it.

In an earlier English class with my favorite English professor (besides Wade :-) Kara Lybarger-Monson, one tip I learned from that class was never finish writing anything before you know where you will go next.  I think that philosophy came from Hemingway, I think, but it's worked for me in writing essays, ect.

What am I reading now?

Kate Chopin "The Awakening" for my American Lit class

Stephen King "On Writing"

My son and I are also taking turns reading from The Magic Tree House series.

Experiment #3 - Map of the World

A story idea that is in its infancy stage:

Setting: 10-20 years in the future, Seattle, WA (I may change the city location)

Main Characters: Victoria (naturally born) and Gabe (Gabriel) (GEH [Genetically engineered]) Human)

Victoria: The eyes.  There is something different about their eyes.  I've noticed it, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is exactly.

I'm a scientist and I work in a lab (formal name to be named later) and we conduct research (TBD).  My coworker Gabe, a fellow scientist, is such a crab ass, but handsome.  He's always slamming things around the lab, shouting at people, rude as shit.  I wish he would get transferred to another department. I don't know what wrong with him.  Why is he so intense?

Gabe: I hate working here!  Hate it with every ounce of my being, but it is the only way I can figure out how and what they (the lab) do, and why.  I wear contacts to conceal my eyes.  So far, no one suspects.  Maybe except for Victoria.  Little Miss Perfect, I can't stand her, but she's pretty, in a nerdy/geeky kind of way!  She stares at me with a quizzical look on her face.  Drives me nuts!  I just want her to leave me alone so I can figure this shit out and stop it!

**Gabe's mother died in childbirth along with his newborn sister.  Gabe was raised by his father and always suspected that he was 'different' from other kids.  He figured it out in his early years of college and then decided he had to be the one to stop it (I'm purposely being vague about the 'it' because I haven't fully developed the 'it'.)  It will have something to do with the advances of GEH and because of these 'advances' a flaw begins to happen with humans created with the help of science.  These humans are different than 'naturally conceived' humans.  A mutation starts and a big consequence occurs from the science taking it too far.  Gabe struggles with his own sense of being and existence and is haunted by the loss of his mother and newborn sister he never knew.  He wants to put an end to this practice.

More to come..... ;-)


Monday, January 23, 2017

Experiment #2 - Song

Poison Soul
Oh, poison soul
How did you get like this?
From what I know, you should be a joy.
You should be the one who loved us the most.
We are from you, yet you cast us aside like some burden.
Oh, poison soul
How did you get like this?
We were nothing to you, like some disregarded toy.
You should have loved us.
I prevailed in spite of you.
I broke free from your grasp.
And now you find yourself alone, still unaware of the carnage you left.
Oh, poison soul, what will your maker say?
The maker you claimed to love so much, yet never showed us such love.
What will He think oh poison soul?
You should have loved us.  



All These Days
All these days I’ve wondered
And wished things were different
I dream of what might have been
The love that should have been

What caused you to be so dark?
To be a fiend instead of a friend.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Opening Post

My Creative Writing professor assigned us to create a blog for our class.  I've never done this before so here goes.

I'm taking this particular class for two reasons.  1. I'm very interested in the art of creative writing, storytelling, story structure and the craft of writing. 2. It satisfies an English class requirement for my degree.  Although I've never truly ever written anything other than perhaps a journal entry here or there or essays for a class, my hope is to change that, beginning with this class.  I've often wanted to make the time to write.  Anything really.  To keep a personal journal, outline and begin story ideas or complete the screenplay for one of my favorite books.  I'm hoping this class will spark all of the aforementioned.

I guess I should add a little more about me.  I began working full time at the age of 18 and college was not an option for me at that time.  I worked for 20 years steadily and when I did switch positions, it was always to a higher rank or status.  I gained loads of experience and even traveled a bit with one of my jobs.

In 2007, I read a historical fiction book that I fell in love with that took place in Ireland.  That same year my husband and I traveled to Ireland and explored some of the places mentioned in the book.

I was laid off during the economic downturn of 2008 so the opportunity presented itself for me to attend college, so I began working towards my AA at Moorpark College in the summer of 2008.  Shortly after my Fall semester of 2008 began, my husband and I received the happy news that I was pregnant with our first and only child.  Our baby was due June of 2009 so I was able to finish my Fall and Spring semesters before delivering our son.  I enjoyed and relished in being able to stay home with him for the first 3 years of his life.  I also kept my 'adult interests' peaked by studying Italian and attending a class on how to write a screenplay.  The book that I had read in 2007 sparked my interested on "how do you convert a book to a screenplay".  That book sparked my interested in the craft of writing and storytelling, both from a book perspective as well as from a visual film perspective.  I also was reading loads of books to get the 'rhythm' of how stories were told.

In the Fall of 2012 I returned back to Moorpark College to resume my studies and by taking one or two classes a semester, I am here, in my final semester fixing to graduate in May 2017.

I'm very excited about this class and am looking forward to the journey that lies ahead.