Thread Tools

Starshine
(っ◕‿◕)&...
318.65
Starshine is offline
 
#1
Old 04-11-2007, 01:53 AM

Note: This story is currently undergoing massive renovations, even the characters' names are being changed. I've had doubts about the setting for sometime, and is slowly working to get everything in order.

My OC characters, Veronika and Nikolai, and their bad tempered rich uncle Viktor

Part one - Overture

Veronica was indecisive, it was several more hours before she had to return to her dorm. She had been spending hours the music room, perfecting her piano skills. However lately she has been spending so much time there she decided it couldn’t possibly be good for her health to stay any longer.

There was the chess club, although she herself had never been particularly good at chess. For someone who’s been spoilt like Veronica, not being good at something just means that something isn’t worth doing.

Then there was the greenhouse, it was a place that both attracted and repelled her. While she loved the roses and the myriad of other colourful flowers, she despised the warm and humid climate. What a pity the fragile roses needed such a delicate environment, she thought sadly, only if someone talented at botany could cultivate a rose that could survive in the harshest of winters.

With the other options out, Veronica found herself in the gardens, it was currently empty apart from a pretty blonde girl sitting on the swing.


To be continued...

Starshine
(っ◕‿◕)&...
318.65
Starshine is offline
 
#2
Old 04-11-2007, 01:54 AM

The power of mind has always been said to be the most important function a human has. It is a power that everyone has, and can be developed with a little training. During and experiment conducted by Xaria and Starshine, it was found that by channelling a person’s spiritual power to a dimensional plane called Mirage, where mysterious creatures called Remoras can be summoned. The more powerful a person’s spiritual energy becomes, the more Remoras that person can summon. An individual who has mastered the art of mind control can even create Remoras! Now that Xaria and Starshine has decided to take this experiment to a new level, and allow other to have access to these eccentric creatures, so we would like your help! Would you participate?

Furias have animal characteristics, these Remoras are affectionate, loyal, and dedicated to their owners. They can be summoned with minimum training and because of their easy going nature, they are the race we recommend you to start off with. Whilst they lack magical abilities or special skills, their personalities more than makes up for it

Elvanas are eccentric, and introverted creatures, they are also very rare in Gaia as they are complex creatures and dealing with one requires a lot of experience. While they will act cold and aloof to humans, with time and care they will develop to love their masters, which is well worth it. They do not have any magical abilities, but they posses a wide range of special skills, from combat to alchemy to treasure hunting.

Nymphs are a very rare race, each represents an element, and according to elements they belong to, they can gain certain magical abilities and learn special skills. The personality of Nymphs tend to match those of their owners, they demand a lot of attention and care. Nymphs can only be called out by those who are very experienced in mind control.

The angelic race which rules the majority of the Remoras. They have powerful magical abilities, and are often willing to take a master to help them with important tasks. Angoras will try to keep order and balance among others. While they mostly remain in Mirage, they will journey to Gaia to fix any problems citizens of Remoras may have experienced/caused. They can only be called out by mind control masters, but if you are lucky, they may come to Gaia on their own free will.

Demonas are the demonic race. They are havoc causing creatures, and are intelligent and conniving. They will bully and mock weaker Remoras. The only reason they will obey a master is if there’s something in it for them, they can be very rude even to their masters. Equipped with various magical abilities, we advice only the very experienced master adopt one, and even then with caution.

Starshine
(っ◕‿◕)&...
318.65
Starshine is offline
 
#3
Old 04-11-2007, 01:55 AM

My major work, titled Water’s Edge, is about a Chinese family experiencing the Cultural Revolution and struggling to overcome internal & external problems, and how they dealt with the problems and moved on.

Water’s Edge is a short story which is a combination of imaginative, investigative, and interpretive, with a word length of approximately 6000-8000 words. It involves real events in that time told through my interpretation of the information I have gathered, with added character background information and more details. The story focuses more on the actions of the characters rather than their thoughts. It will be told from the third person’s point of view. One particular author and style of writing I will be investigating is Jung Chang, who wrote the book “Wild Swans”.

One reason I have chosen this particular story and context is that I have always been fascinated by the strength of ordinary people during harsh times, especially since I have heard terrifying stories of citizens being forced to do hard labour under 40 degrees heat, or the fact that right-wing prisoners had to write a weekly essay on how much they hated themselves, or the time chairman Mao decided to melt all the steel of pots and pans to recycle into production so that China’s steel production for that year surpassed that of America. Not to mention the common held believe that if the communities used all their resources (eg. Fertilisers) on one field of corn, they would have grown gigantic corn enough to feed thousands of families (Actually, the corns and grains were normal sized, the leaves of the plants did grow out of proportion). It was an amazing period of time, one of which I have found more ironic than anything else. Therefore I would like to break the stereotypical Chinese story written for the Western society by blending a dose of ironic humour into it.

The purpose of the story is to show the experiences families went through in the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960s, and their responses to difficulties in life, without going deeply into politics and representing events in an unbiased point of view. It is also to give a different perspective to the popular version used by the western media.

Starshine
(っ◕‿◕)&...
318.65
Starshine is offline
 
#4
Old 04-11-2007, 01:57 AM

The target audience would most likely be Western readers who have experienced the 1960s and would like to see what was happening to others in that period in a different context. The audience also may be those who are interested in historic events and the development of Chinese culture. The audience will affect the style and language of the story as I will try to cut back on specific Chinese terms and instead use words clearly understood by English readers. Also I will try and “bend” certain events to enable the readers to feel more related to the story.

The research would mostly contain reading internet sites, books, publications and newspaper articles. I also plan to interview residents in China Town with Chinese backgrounds to get more information and experience regarding the major work.

An important skill that I would need for Water’s Edge is researching and organising. Researching is needed to gather the key information and organising would be useful to piece together the puzzle. Other skills I may need are critically thinking, and elaboration. I can gain these skills by spending time to research, writing short pieces, and analysing information frequently.

Some of the problems I have already discovered are; difficulty in distinguishing between real accounts of events and the exaggerated version, and the sheer amount of different information available. The problems I am likely to encounter in the future are organising the information and not focusing the story on politics. I have gathered a basic idea of the event occurred by going through and eliminating the overly exaggerated information, I have decided to go with the most believable account. I plan to limit my research so as to not include speculations and rumours, to cut back on the mass of information I would have to go through. As for not going too deeply into politics, I attempt to try and keep the story moving with ironic humour, and not stress about political tactics and parties.

Critical factors of success in my case would be to create and maintain the readers’ interest, not going overboard with politics, and creating an endearing atmosphere where the readers are able to relate to the characters and their surrounding environment.

Starshine
(っ◕‿◕)&...
318.65
Starshine is offline
 
#5
Old 04-11-2007, 01:58 AM

The purpose of the story is to show the experiences families went through in the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960s, and their responses to difficulties in life, without going deeply into politics and representing events in an unbiased point of view. It is also to give a different perspective to the popular version used by the western media.

The target audience would most likely be Western readers who have experienced the 1960s and would like to see what was happening to others in that period in a different context. The audience also may be those who are interested in historic events and the development of Chinese culture. The audience will affect the style and language of the story as I will try to cut back on specific Chinese terms and instead use words clearly understood by English readers. Also I will try and “bend” certain events to enable the readers to feel more related to the story.

The research would mostly contain reading internet sites, books, publications and newspaper articles. I also plan to interview residents in China Town with Chinese backgrounds to get more information and experience regarding the major work.

An important skill that I would need for Water’s Edge is researching and organising. Researching is needed to gather the key information and organising would be useful to piece together the puzzle. Other skills I may need are critically thinking, and elaboration. I can gain these skills by spending time to research, writing short pieces, and analysing information frequently.

Some of the problems I have already discovered are; difficulty in distinguishing between real accounts of events and the exaggerated version, and the sheer amount of different information available. The problems I am likely to encounter in the future are organising the information and not focusing the story on politics. I have gathered a basic idea of the event occurred by going through and eliminating the overly exaggerated information, I have decided to go with the most believable account. I plan to limit my research so as to not include speculations and rumours, to cut back on the mass of information I would have to go through. As for not going too deeply into politics, I attempt to try and keep the story moving with ironic humour, and not stress about political tactics and parties.

Critical factors of success in my case would be to create and maintain the readers’ interest, not going overboard with politics, and creating an endearing atmosphere where the readers are able to relate to the characters and their surrounding environment.

Time line for research is throughout the year, however the bulk of research would be done in the Christmas holidays, and in the last week of school, 2003, approximately 4-5 weeks.

Starshine
(っ◕‿◕)&...
318.65
Starshine is offline
 
#6
Old 04-11-2007, 01:59 AM

Water’s Edge is a short story which is a combination of imaginative, investigative, and interpretive, with a word length of approximately 6000-8000 words. It involves real events in that time told through my interpretation of the information I have gathered, with added character background information and more details. The story focuses more on the actions of the characters rather than their thoughts. It will be told from the third person’s point of view. One particular author and style of writing I will be investigating is Jung Chang, who wrote the book “Wild Swans”.

One reason I have chosen this particular story and context is that I have always been fascinated by the strength of ordinary people during harsh times, especially since I have heard terrifying stories of citizens being forced to do hard labour under 40 degrees heat, or the fact that right-wing prisoners had to write a weekly essay on how much they hated themselves, or the time chairman Mao decided to melt all the steel of pots and pans to recycle into production so that China’s steel production for that year surpassed that of America. Not to mention the common held believe that if the communities used all their resources (eg. Fertilisers) on one field of corn, they would have grown gigantic corn enough to feed thousands of families (Actually, the corns and grains were normal sized, the leaves of the plants did grow out of proportion). It was an amazing period of time, one of which I have found more ironic than anything else. Therefore I would like to break the stereotypical Chinese story written for the Western society by blending a dose of ironic humour into it.

The purpose of the story is to show the experiences families went through in the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960s, and their responses to difficulties in life, without going deeply into politics and representing events in an unbiased point of view. It is also to give a different perspective to the popular version used by the western media.

The target audience would most likely be Western readers who have experienced the 1960s and would like to see what was happening to others in that period in a different context. The audience also may be those who are interested in historic events and the development of Chinese culture. The audience will affect the style and language of the story as I will try to cut back on specific Chinese terms and instead use words clearly understood by English readers. Also I will try and “bend” certain events to enable the readers to feel more related to the story.

 


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 2 (0 members and 2 guests)
 
Thread Tools

 
Forum Jump

no new posts