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~ 80's baby with a 60's brain.

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Monthly Archives: August 2013

Character Crisis! This Writer’s Problem : #CreativeWriting

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by d1esel6 in Creative Writing

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Creating Characters, Creative Writing, Flash Fiction, Writer Issues, Writer Problems, Writers Block

Some crazy stuff goes on in my head.

Not in a scary way, so don’t worry about me orchestrating some mass homicide in my basement.

When I say crazy, I’m talking about the two fictional characters that occupy so much space in my imagination, so much space I’m sure it’s not healthy. There’s Arcadius who you may know already, and there’s a famous actress/singer Nicki who I created in Highschool almost 20 years ago. Arcadius is fairly new as I dreamed him up around 2008, but given the amount of time Nicki has been in my head, she is now so developed and evolved that I had a bit of a breakdown last night when I thought about changing her history.

When I was 16 I didn’t have much insight about what a woman in her position in her late 20’s would feel and do. And for the purposes of her acting and singing, I was a bit unrealistic about what her artistic and creative input would be in her career. I started thinking about everything I created, the timelines, song titles, album releases, video concepts, tour ideas, the movies she’s done and when she won her Oscar. It really really… really made me uneasy thinking about going back and changing all of that. And I thought… WHY? Why am I so attached to these fake people?

So that’s the crazy stuff goes on in my head, and for hours I was thinking about how to let these characters in my head die. I tried, somewhat, before to step more into reality and get out of my head, but it didn’t quite work out. In High school when I would dream up scenarios for Nicki on my way to classes, and in class, and on my way home, and pretty much anytime I had a free moment. Once I got into my 20’s I thought it was silly of me to spend so much time thinking about this person, and I deluded myself into thinking it would be a good idea to transfer her into novel form. I wasn’t really letting go of her, but making an excuse to keep her lodged in my brain. I wrote and wrote and wrote, but nothing was ever really interesting to me, it’s the same situation with Arcadius. Why was I having such difficulty making these characters interesting in a literary form, when they were so well developed in my head?

Last night, I realized two things. The reason I often trail off in my head about these characters, and a reason they aren’t any good for creative purposes is because I have too much control over them. Of course if my daily life sucks on a certain day, if something I set out to do didn’t happen exactly like I wanted, well it’s a no-brainer that I’d start thinking about these fantastic characters that seem to get everything they want, because I control their world. If I want Arcadius to win Album of the Year at the Grammys, well what’s really stopping him from winning.? He’s not real. Same with Nicki and her Emmy wins and her recent #1 album, ofcourse she can have all of that because in my mind I control all of that.

And, well, I may go back to those characters at some point, but I was thinking that maybe it’s not the best thing to have so much control over your fictional characters when you writing. Instead of having their entire life so detailed in my brain, I should maybe just start from scratch and build a character as I’m writing it. I know for “Friday Night Rain”, a short story project I randomly started late last year, I started with just the basics of a character and the more I wrote and more I thought about it I came up with interesting possibilities, and I rather like that story and what could become of it and maybe it’s because of the fact that I hadn’t had years to develop the character.

Also a drawback of having so much control over my characters is that I hate to put them in positions where they aren’t “winning”. Plenty of times I’ve gone on to writing forums or asked in writing classes how to develop plot in the story, and it’s all about conflict, but I’m so protective of my “perfect” characters Nicki and Arcadius that I can’t fathom putting them in any serious harm or depression or peril. Basically to sum this up, I think these two characters hold a place in my head simply because I can give them everything that I don’t have in reality, but if you want to write in a realistic setting I have to know that for most people things don’t go the way they want. Control is bad people, at least for me, at this junction of my writing. So say R.I.P. to Nicki and Arcadius for a while, it’s going to be hard for me to let go but I think it’s necessary to become a better writer.

Lady GaGa and Katy Perry, Different Singles/Different Artists : IMO

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by d1esel6 in Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, MUSIC, Single Review

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Tags

Katy Perry, Katy Perry Lady Gaga, Katy Perry Review, Katy Perry Roar, Katy Perry Single Review, Lady GaGa, Lady GaGa Applause, Lady GaGa Katy Perry, Lady GaGa Review, Lady GaGa Single Review

Katy Perry and Lady GaGa's New Single Artwork

Katy Perry and Lady GaGa’s New Single Artwork

The Pop World went crazy this week, when two of Top 40’s favorite chicks released brand new singles. It started out with Miss Katy Perry, the first single from her upcoming album “Prism” (October 22nd) was released. “Roar”, the single, is a mid-tempo song about self-empowerment. It’s light, frothy and sweet like any good Pop confection, and it’s destined to be another big hit for the singer. Than, a week ahead of schedule, Lady GaGa dropped her highly anticipated first single from her upcoming album “ARTPOP” (November 19th) . Apparently the single “Applause” had leaked, and to maximize sales her team decided to release it ahead of schedule, much to the excitement of all her Monsters.

Personally, “Roar” wins this first round of the girls’ Pop Battle. Katy’s is catchy and easy to get into, while GaGa’s is way too much on the ears, but this post is less about what I think, and more about what these two new singles say about each artist. 

The truth is, the reigning stars of the current Pop landscape all offer something drastically different. Rihanna offers something completely different than GaGa, where Katy can’t be compared to a Selena Gomez for the same reasons. The Youth on the Internet loves to make everything a STAN War, pitting artist against artist, but it’s pointless because, as evidenced by “Roar” and “Applause”, everybody offers something unique. Here we have Katy Perry, a girl who loves her pastel coloring and goofy visual gags in her videos and performances, and her music reflects this bubbly personality. “Roar”, while having a strong empowering message, is still very light and poppy and very accessible to the masses. Katy is an artist that loves what she does and knows the power that comes with that type of super stardom, but she also never takes herself too seriously and knows how to have fun with herself.

Whereas you have Lady GaGa and “Applause”. The single does sound like nothing on the radio right now, and that’s where GaGa excels. She’s always found a way to make herself totally unique to every other artist out there, be it through her fashion choices, thought-provoking music videos or even the heavy Industrial influence of the new single. GaGa focuses on being different and living outside the box, more so than her contemporaries. Some might throw the “Try-Hard” label at her, but you have to at least respect an artist that goes left when everybody else is going right. Honestly though, “Applause” isn’t my favorite, it’s very noisy and the lyrics seems a little pretentious, but I know that with an amazing video and VMA performance I’ll learn to love the song. What we have now is a song that I don’t see as being extremely radio friendly, and that’s one problem I see with GaGa at present. Because she has blown up into such a huge international star in such a short amount of time I’m starting to think that GaGa doesn’t think she HAS to be accessible to any Top 40 Radio format or the masses. Because her Monsters are so loyal I think she feels she has the freedom to do whatever she wants and maintain her success. I’m not saying that she’s wrong, but she IS still a relatively New Artist (Katy actually had her first big hit before GaGa) and there’s a danger of her going too far outside the box and alienating potential new fans.

Both women are fine for now, 2013 has been a very weak year for big Superstar releases and fans have been waiting to sink their teeth into new material from their favorites. GaGa has been virtually out of sight for almost a full year due to her hip injury and Katy has also been slightly M.I.A. for at least the past 6 months which she’s been using, presumably, to bang out this new album. And for the most part these two new singles do set up the upcoming albums well, even though I don’t particularly care for “Applause”, it does get me excited for “ARTPOP” because,  if the song is any indication, it shows the singer moving further away from the DancePop sound she started with.

Check out the singles below and let me know what you think. I’m excited for this Fall rush of new music, I just hope the STANbases will not make this into a Pop Music War comparing each and every detail of the girls’ new eras… but in that case I think hope is a little fleeting. I’ll just be enjoying the music.

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