Writing

'The shift from a single track, uniquely verbal medium such as the novel (or the short story), which "has only words to play with", to a multitrack medium such as film, which can play not only with words, but also with theatrical performance, music, sound effects, and moving photographic images, explains the likelihood – and I would suggest even the undesirability — of literal fidelity' (Robert Stam)

How do you think the adaptation's of Dracula by Bram Stoker, most notably Francis Ford Coppola's film, explore the complexities of adaptation ?

A common complaint in literature is the presence of one-dimensional secondary characters. These are characters outside of the standard formula or protagonist and antagonist; or are characters that act as a stimuli for plot progression. Understandably a character that is only going to dominate a single scene or at times a single line of dialogue in your story is not going to be one that you develop in any real depth. However, the lack of any consideration, or flippant description, can be both jarring and demoralising for your reader and will ultimately remove their engagement in the story. The two most common issues are completely generic stereotypes – the balding fat cop or the little asian punk girl – or the use of disjointed extremes – the asian emo-punk girl cop with pink hair but still wearing the standard police uniform – both of which will break the verisimilitude of the reading experience.

One suggestion is to begin to develop framework secondary characters using RPG character sheets. This is similar to making up a skeleton outline of a character, but using a template that keeps all the information in the same areas. The idea is that by using these pre-generated character sheets it will allow characters to be briefly fleshed out in ways that create them as more than a stereotype, but less than a full-blown character. The use of a standard template is already a good organisational strategy that will help you manage your secondary characters. And anyone who has had experience as a DM/GM will know how vital this is for developing NPCs (non-player characters) that populate their worlds. An RPG template will help you categorise the different abilities, skills, characteristics and even notes on physical appearance of each of your secondary characters in a fast and efficient manner.

I think everyone has suffered from anxiety at some point in their lives. Whether it's gut-wrenching anxiety with extreme mind fog or worrying about present/future events. Being a writer, I understand exactly what it's like to have several things pulling me in different directions, in a single day. I want to write, I have creative ideas, I've gotta find leads, family, friends, exercise and all of the other things, I need to do to "adult".

What if I could tame the beast with creativity. The ability to transmute anxiety from one container and articulate it into a creative container. Creativity comes in numerous forms, whether you're cooking your favourite dish, writing blog posts or even arranging flowers in your garden. Practicing a creative cycle weekly has proven to lower stress levels and I think it would be an interesting topic in a day and age, where anxiety is at such a high.

As an avid language-learner myself, I often question why my peers are so disinterested in the art of learning a foreign language. From beginning my secondary school it was complusory to learn either French or Spanish for the first two years. After that we were given an option to continue the course or drop it … many of who dropped.

Despite being British, I believe that the majority of native English speakers are quite lazy and closed to the idea of learning another language seeing as English is the most popular language to learn as a second language. Therefore I open this topic: should it be compulsory for young children (mainly in English-speaking countries) to be continuously taught a different language until their education is complete or should there still be choice in whether they continue or stop?

Both options offer positives and negatives, but which has more that can sustainably affect the development of the future generations' prospects and opportunities?

'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan. A stately pleasure-dome decree…'. It's said that Samuel Taylor Coleridge composed his classic poem whilst under the influence of Laudanum (an alcoholic tincture of Opium). Similarly such great names as Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron had ongoing 'relationships' with the same. What was once considered acceptable behaviour amongst the creative is now legislated against, often for good reason, but many of us today start our daily routine with our drug of choice, i.e. coffee. Narcotics have had a profound influence on the creative mind across the centuries and will, no doubt, continue to do so in the future. Consider why the creative mind sometimes requires or even craves external stimulus and why we are frequently willing to ignore drug usage among the creative when enjoying the fruits of their labour.

As our world is becoming more socially digitized and interactive, it is undeniable that fandoms have become important aspect in keeping franchises alive, but how important has fan influence become? Transmedia is a growing technic narrators’ in franchises have begun to use in which a single story is told across multiple platforms and adaptations. Although transmedia’s rise through social media and influence have been covered in a few topics and articles on the artifice before, how has fan fiction influenced transmedia storytelling?

Examples may include looking into fanon versus canon and instances where a highly popular canon has become fanon (such as Matt’s appearance in the anime Death Note). Another important aspect to look into is the “Boba Fett Phenomenon” where a side character becomes so wildly popular within the fandom that a franchise is forced to give them a backstory and more character development.

Although I struggled to find a source for this, I remember my Digital Media professor once discussed that there was a scandal in the Dr. Who fandom where a popular fanfiction actually guessed the fate of the current season. The fan who had written the story was sworn to secrecy or told to change their story (can’t recall exactly…) as to preserve the integrity of the show. Regardless, I think this is another example where fan fiction was integrated as an unauthorized expansion within a universe (and therefore has become a piece of transmedia storytelling).

A great theorist for transmedia and fan fiction is Dr. Henry Jenkins.

Time Travel is a common plot device in fiction. But when it is introduced often the consequences it allows for or the plot twists become redundant or reversed. Are there examples of fiction that does time travel well, such that the impacts aren't made redundant or that it effectively creates isn't there to offer neat ways to resolve unsolvable plot contrivances. In this regard, is there such a thing as 'good' time travel?

This will certainly be Donald Trump's legacy: He elevated it to a level where it cannot be ignored. But all tweeting is not the same: Some tweets carry more impact than others. Is it only because of who is doing the tweeting or is there more to it? Are there ways of tweeting where the one tweeting can increase their chances of it mattering? Part of issue here is developing a method to study the impact.