Introduction: After preparing for writing my script, i finally got to writing the actual product. After the class wrote the script we went around in a circle and shared our scripts.

The Final Script: (It would usually be in the font courier new)

1. INT. SHIP. NIGHT

Rain pours down on the ship and the ship rocks, leaving everyone in dire panic

MAN

Captain! Captain! We have an emergency.

CAPTAIN

Leave me alone. I’m not in the mood (slurred voice)

MAN

But sir, it’s pretty serious… The whole ship is going to sink if you don’t do something

CAPTAIN

Get out! NOW!!

MAN

No. You need you need to hear this, I know what they are.

CAPTAIN

They?

MAN

(Whispers) Demon mermaids

Candle blows out leaving them in complete darkness

2. EXT.UNDER THE SEA. MORNING

BRIDGETTE is surrounded by water. The water is crystal clear.

                     VOICEOVER OF BRIDGETTE

I’m dead. I just know I’m dead. I’m underwater, but I can breathe… But, how? (Looks down at tail).

JONATHAN

Hello! I’m Jonathan. You look distraught… maybe I can help?

BRIDGETTE

Well… where am I? What am I?

JONATHAN

Oh! Haha. You must be new to the underwater world. You are a mermaid! Follow me I’ll show you around. What did you say your name was?

BRIDGETTE

(Hesitant tone) My name is Bridgette.

JONATHAN

(Says enthusiastically) Well Bridgette, Welcome to the underwater world!

3. UNDER THE SEA. EARLY AFTERNOON

BRIDGETTE AND JONATHAN swim into Jonathans cave to meet his sister.

JONATHAN

Here, it’s just right in here. (Motions towards the cave)

 BRIDGETTE

(Nods and swims hastily inside)

 JONATHAN

(Clears his throat)

JONATHAN

Natalie!!!

NATALIE

(Jumps off the couch)Oh I’m sorry! Hi I’m Natalie

BRIDGETTE

Oh hi, I’m Bridgette

JONATHAN

Bridgette is new and I have just been showing her around

NATALIE

Where are you from?

BRIDGETTE

I was on a ship and our ship sunk

NATALIE

What was the cause of the sinking ship?

JONATHAN

Natalie! (Shakes his head) Stop

NATALIE

Jee, sorry.

BRIDGETTE

But Natalie, to answer your question… the cause was identified. They were demons. Mermaid demons (lights turn off)

Just like that they were left in total darkness

4. UNDER THE SEA. MORNING

From then on, they became best friends. NATALIE AND JONATHAN shared their culture with BRIDGETTE and she shared what she remembered of hers. They were lying in a frayed hammock.

NATALIE

Hey Jonathan, do you remember that cave we discovered last year?

JONATHAN

Oh yeah! We should show Bridgette

BRIDGETTE

Okay, sure!

NATALIE

Come on lets go

5. IN A CAVE. NIGHT

A few miles away, there was a purple cave.

BRIDGETTE

I don’t know about this guys…

BRIDGETTE

I’m gonna head back to the hammock

JONATHAN

(Snatches her hand) You are not going anywhere

NATALIE

(Faces Bridgette)(Pretty blonde hair turns black, her deep tan turns white, her beautiful green eyes turn black)

JONATHAN

(Covers Bridgette’s mouth)

BRIDGETTE

(passes out and swiftly falls to the ground)

6. CAVE. MIDDLE OF NIGHT

BRIDGETTE is tied up in a chair. They were swimming in circles in a chair. Their black beady eyes steady on her.

BRIDGETTE

Please. Please let me go.

JONATHAN

Bridgette, we are going to kill you

NATALIE

(smirks)

BRIDGETTE

I thought we were frien-

NATALIE

(stabs her in the heart)

Introduction:

Now, we have moved on from our short stories and we are working on writing scripts. I have written part of a script in a group for a few of my other classes, but now I have to write my own script. Before I started writing a script I

Introduction:

After all of the packets we completed, we finally got to write our stories. With our finished product, everyone in my class formed a circle and we each went around the circle and shared our stories and gave feedback. I really enjoyed giving feedback on other people’s stories because I felt like it gave me the opportunity to help others improve their stories and I liked how me thinking about what I could say for feedback made me think more about their stories. Some feedback that I got on my short story was that i could make the ending a little more clear and include a scene where the main character see’s a dad with a little girl to set the sadness mood of the story a bit more. So, I really appreciated all the feedback I got and I made sure i applied it to my short story. My new and improved short story will be below :).

My Short Story

“Hailey!!… Hon? Could you come down here please?” yelled my mom.  I could hear her from my room upstairs. It felt like her need for my assistance was never ending, with the new baby and all. My dad left when Aven, my baby sister, was born. I jolted up out of my bed covered with my unfinished homework and all my late assignments. “Yes mom?” I asked trying to keep a positive attitude. But, lately it’s been getting harder and harder. As soon as I got downstairs, it was like a wave of sadness just filled the whole room. I missed my dad too, but it was just crushing my mom. Now, I can only see pieces of what she used to be. I peered around the corner to find my mom on the couch, watching trashy TV and she had this sad, ghostly look on her face. “Yes mom?” I repeated again, a little more quiet this time. She didn’t answer, instead, still staring off into space. Honestly, she was starting scare me. I quietly tip-toed back upstairs, hoping she wouldn’t call me back downstairs again. I quickened my pace up the stairs and when I got to Hailey’s room, she was laying on her back, sucking on her toes and smiling at the ceiling. I lifted her carefully out of her tiny crib. I picked out a cute sundress with different colored bugs on it and some worn out, hand-me-down sandals. We both could use some fresh air. I walked down the stairs and into the living room to talk to my mother. “Um, hey mom…” I hesitated, but continued. “Aven and I are going to walk to the park.” I finished, anxiously waiting for a reply. Instead of replying, she simply looked me up and down and nodded. I lingered in the room a bit longer, waiting for something more from her. When that didn’t happen, we shot out the door and started our long journey to the nicer neighborhood park. As we passed Nancy Bucket’s house in the neighborhood a few blocks away, I quickened my pace. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, because I did. She just always wanted to hang out, but I’m always busy with Aven. It sort of made me feel bad for myself, so I avoided her completely. At this point Aven was getting tired, so I scooped her up and carried her rest of the way. As soon as we got to the park she bolted off. She just loved being outside and at the park. She started stumbling over to the baby swing.  She fell about three times before she cooed for me to lift her into it and push her.  I always admired her that way. She was able to bring herself back up after she had fallen. I watched as a dad lifted a little girl into the air and twirled her around.  As I stared into the pink streaked sky, pondering whether to go home, I felt my eyes fill with tears. I missed my dad sometimes too. I wonder what life would be like if I wasn’t in charge of Aven all the time. I shook away this thought and lifted Aven out of the swing. I wasn’t going back to that house, not just yet. Aven and I have barley eaten all day, so we walked a few more blocks to the mini mart. When I walked into the gas station, bright lights, white tile, and the pungent smell of bleach over whelmed me. A woman greeted me and Aven, who was asleep on my shoulder. I strolled over and picked up a coke and cup-o-noodles. I walked up to the counter to pay. “Excuse me? Can you ring this up for me?” I asked a bit impatient. The tall, thin olive skinned man snapped his head up at me and said, “Hailey?”  I looked up at the man and a hot prickly wave rushed over me just at the sight of him. “Dad?” I croaked.

Introduction:

My teacher assigned our class to write a short story. But, before we could just jump straight in and start writing, we needed to prepare. We did multiple packets. The packets we completed to set our story up for success were, Bonus Setting Exercises, Writing Really Good Dialogue, Creating Conflict, and Creating Interesting Characters. You can see the Creating Conflict packet below.

The Creating Conflict packet:

Our class usually writes about whatever prompt is presented on the board to get our brains and creativity flowing. So, our assignment was to write about three vine creative writing prompts into our blogs.

#1: The lonely man watched as the pitch black cloud filled the air. The dirt blowing up into the burning air made it hard to breathe and the blackness from the wildfires up ahead made it hard to see. It’s been like this for years now. The lonely man and his family planned to escape the burning city, but they burned in the red monster. So, he stood there on top of the scorched hill and prayed. He wasn’t a religious man so to speak. He never really felt close to god or even visited the city church. But, still he prayed. The wind howled and suddenly he collapsed to the rough ground and watched as the flames emerged over his head ,and everything went black.

#2: I’m thankful for so much in my life. The 10 free things i’m thankful for are..

• My amazing family
• Getting to go to school  (I personally don’t have to pay)
• My school library (to check out any books I want)
• The soldiers who fight for me
• Lake sammamish (to swim in)
• My friends (love you guys!!)
• The freedom of speech
• My individuality
• My memories
• My future

#3: The sick, skinny girl took one more step towards her camp where her friends were and turned around. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the green and blue streaked sky. She has been waiting all her life to see the Northern Lights. When she was five years old and sitting in the hospital bed (her temporary home) she flipped through a new shipment of KIDZ magazines and saw the picture of them. She immediately fell in love with the Northern Lights. Since that day it had been her dream to watch them. She adjusted her breathing tubes and fought back tears of amazment So, there she sat with her bucket list in hand and crossed off #8.

Introduction

My creative writing class was assigned to write short stories, but before jumping straight into it, I created a plot diagram and a story arc (Below). So, stay tuned for the actual short story!

Story Arc pt.1

Story Arc pt.2

Plot Diagram

What was your assignment?

Our class was assigned to write a scene, but we had to have the reader dropped right in the middle of the story. When you drop a reader into the story, that is called “In Media Ras” which means “In the middle of things”. So, that is what I have done with my scene. Keep in mind this didn’t actually happen, but its inspired by something that happened. I hope you like it!

The Man

Vanessa whirled around in her seat to check on Aven, her baby sister. She frantically darted her eyes towards the baby. Aven was sleeping safe and sound in her pink car seat. Thank god. Spinning back around she sunk low in the front seat, letting out a small sigh.  Vanessa looked out the back windows and out both windows in the front seat. He was nowhere to be found. She looked out the window for her mother who was too, nowhere to be found. This worried her… a lot. She had been gone for what seemed to be forever, but she had only been in Safeway for about 10 minutes. Suddenly, this hot, prickly sensation ran through her body.  Vanessa began to squirm in the seat.  She looked at her sister once again and she was fine. What was it then? His stare hit her like a punch in the stomach, she couldn’t breathe. This deafening scream traveled through the car and she realized it could only have been her own. His footsteps coming towards us were inaudible but they were so, so loud. Suddenly, he was right there at Vanessa’s window, peering in.  The sound in her ears was playing thumping noises repeatedly. Her heart felt as if it was in her throat. She unbuckled her seatbelt and lunged to the backseat, positioning herself to shield her sister. A million scenarios raced through her pounding head. A loud tap came from the back of the car. Vanessa jumped 10 feet in the air. All the hairs on her body stood up. She closed her eyes, as if that would make the awful man disappear. She was shaking as she opened her eyes. As soon as she opened her eyes, relief flooded over her. There she was standing there with an annoyed, yet concerned look on her face, not to mention the fact that she had her arms full with bags of groceries. “Vanessa? Is everything okay? What is it? Why do you have that look on your face? You look as if you have seen a ghost!” she said as she got into the car. Instead of replying she just dove into her mother’s arms knowing now that her mom was here she didn’t have to worry anymore.

Can you refresh my memory on what it is you are doing?

We paired up with our schools filming class and a first grade class to film a video. The video is a funny, silly, and lighthearted video because it is about adults in an everyday situation, but they have the voices of the first graders.

How did you do it? 

We Skyped with the first graders, and were in contact with the filming crew. The first graders provided us with some hilarious lines for the story. The filming crew provided us with a list of suggestions and ideas that we incorporated into our script. To create our script we used google docs. This worked best for our group because it allowed all of us to get our work/words out there for our group at the same time! To start off our thinking process, the video productions group were so kind as to write a list of props (as I previously mentioned) that we could incorporate into the story. I think this helped our group because it gave us a starting point to work off of.

Image #1 source: http://www.iceni.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Google-Docs.jpg

Image #2 source: http://www.morasta.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/skype-logo-trutower.0_cinema_1280.0.png

What was it like collaborating with first graders?

It was SO fun working with the first graders. They were so cute, genuinely understood what was going on in the script, and projected some really good ideas. Also, they said some really adorable things that made me remember my first grade days :).

Here is my group Skyping with the first graders!

Our script…

To see our script document click here

Car Script

Voices: One girl, one boy

Character descriptions:  Kerry: bossy, sassy, and stupid, not good with maps.

John: demanding, bossy, has a large ego (driving)

Props: Cellphone and map

Kerry (female) – Mrs. Butson

John (male) – Mr. Miller

Situation:

John and Kerry are going on a vacation in a foreign country for a week. When they arrived they are extremely tired from their plane ride and they are trying to find their hotel, to do so they rented a car. Kerry is trying to get a signal from her phone.

Kerry [impatient and tired]: I am really tired, let’s just go to our hotel. [holding her cell phone outside of the window to get reception, but not successful]

John [tired]: All right…all right [Kids make driving sound effect] (In a bossy voice)So, look where we are headed right now

Kerry: “I threw my cellphone already outside [holding cellphone outside the window]”

John: “stop throwing out to find a signal”

Kerry: (Kerry ignores John and John shakes his head)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2. Kerry is trying to find something that will help her find her hotel on her cellphone…she is frustrated

KERRY [annoyed]

I don’t know how to use these stuffs and they don’t have any battery”(throws out the window)

John [angry]

(John is tired) “why would you throw all the stuffs away. Why would you just throw it away instead of just put it in the car?”

Kerry

(Finds map in the car and looks happy)

(Kerry is holding the map upside down, but do not show it in filming until John figures it out)

Okay I found map! Now we’ll go left, [wait 3 seconds] and now it says to go right, [wait 3 seconds] oh and now left. Go, go, go, go straight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kerry and John get worried and start arguing about where to go.

Kerry[sassy]: (Has map)You should go to the right.

John[bossy]: No we should go to the left.

Kerry [thinks she’s right]: Follow my way because I have the map.

John: stops the car [sound effect breaks]

John: [facepalm] You should flip it over.

Kerry: [Smiles] Oh yeah…(flips over map) then go left

~END~

What is it?

My creative writing class is joining with a video production class to film a humorous video. The video will be about adults in a conundrum or a situation, but what makes it funny is the adults have the voices of a first grader (whom of which we are also partnering with).

What’s your part in this?

I was assigned to create 10 ideas that would make a good story plot for the video.  Then, my table group had to share their ideas and we did an “elimination” to narrow our ideas down to three ideas. Finally, our whole class put our ideas on a virtual bulletin board, voted as a class, and sent it to the video productions crew to also vote.

How did you set it up?

I used a set up that was very simple for me and easily aloud me to generate story ideas. The set up was to think of a main character, a second character, a setting, a situation, and a theme. This was easy for me to use because it broke down the story ideas and aloud me to get the ideas on paper that I wanted to.

What were your groups three ideas?

In this image you will notice the format I previously mentioned. This idea was one of the ones my table group presented to the class for the class to vote on.

As you may have been starting to notice, our ideas are very descriptive and not just saying “a man” or “They fought” because its important that, when pitching your idea for a plot, that they can visualize what you visualized when you came up with it.

Explain it…

The game I have created is called Sticky Racket. This game involves a roll of duct tape, two tennis rackets, a wiffle ball, a package of balloons, a stack of cups, and a spool of string. Sticky Racket has to have at least three players and the goal is to catch as many balloons as possible and the one wiffle ball while the string is attached to the ball. This game can be enjoyed inside or outside.

Set it up…

Two players have a racket that has the sticky part of the duct tape on both the outside and the inside of the racket to make the balloon and the wiffle ball stick to the racket. Also, the wiffle ball is tied to a string and the balloons and the ball are launched from a cup by the third player and you have to try and make them stick to your racket.

How can I win?

The balloons count for one point and the wiffle ball counts for five points. You can will win the game if you stick all the balloons and the one ball on your racket ending up with the more points then your fellow players. This game is an individual sport, because the two (or more if you have more rackets) players are competing for the most points.