Tuesday, October 17, 2023

2 - Character Building - Week 2

 Go to a public place or local spot. Observe other people’s behavior, especially odd or intriguing acts. Create a character and put them in this place. Give them two traits: a behavior you observed and a negative trait about yourself. Now, write 300-600 words describing the character in the context of the place without writing anything directly about the character. In fact, write as if the character is not even present at the place during the time you’re writing it. Try to allow the reader to discover both of the character’s traits indirectly. This assignment is about implication, about leading the reader to see the character without directly describing him/her. For example, you might describe a handbag left behind, the contents of which show your character's preferences and avoidances, longings and dislikes.

***Respond to following question and include your response in your assignment submission. Additionally, take into consideration your peers' response to the following question while completing peer reviews of their work.

What is one aspect of your writing that you would like feedback on?

She was surrounded by guys, next to her was Rose. Her older sister. It is very interesting how all the guys are intended to have a good impression. One tries to make her laugh; another offers food and drinks. The result is always the same, all those who go near by are rejected. The night was a cold and windy, enough to need a jacket but comfortable to be near by the grilling. All the friends were reunited because it was Doug birthday. The workplace, childhood friends, high school, and college and finally but not least the girlfriend of Doug and her sister. That being honest they were all center of attention. The night was early, and all the friends were eager to see each other. There was a grill master and a big table full of things to eat, a few coolers down the table. Most people were standing, except for her, obviously.

In the chair she was sitting, she covers it with a coat. A stuffed and white color coat and very expensive coat. I think we all have known a girl like this. I do not feel to describe her, because we all have dreamed with her or when you saw her at the mall. Your eyes betray you and start looking at her without a hesitation. It is one of those girls that at middle school you got the balls to go and invite her to ice cream and she did not even look you back. The good trait, well, you imagine her, right?

Rose explains to Susan, where she met her boyfriend. Explain that Susan rolls her eyes up is just not enough. Rose was habitual to these types of attitudes.

What is the good trait of Susan? How do you imagine her?

What is the bad trait of Susan?

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

2 - Character building - Week 1

Title: a few shrimps 


Forrest Gump is a military from Alabama, well know for his high skill at running and the fact he is not so bright.

Next to him is his best friend Benjamin "Bubba" Buford Blue, a ma that has autism but dreams to have a shrimp ship. Bubba has autism but is high functional and a great friend. Both of them are enlisted in the army fighting the Vietnam war.


The fearsome and tall Lieutenant Stiller arrives with the soldier Bubba and soldier Gump.

-GUMP AND BUFFORD, BOTH IDIOTS. I do not want to see you ever again but our staffed is low and the needs are high. We need to fight for this great country and the people in it. I asked your lieutenant for a special favor. See the Christmas is arriving, and I want my platoon to have a great dinner. Yours and my platoon will have a great seafood dinner for Christmas but this damn Vietnamese. I need good men in the kitchen, and I know that Soldier Bufford comes from a dynasty of shrimp staff.

The cadet Forrest replies.

-Bubba knows all recipes of shrimps, soup shrimp, fry shrimp

The lieutenant knew need to stop Forrest.

-Forrest, don’t start the list.

The Lieutenant Stiller was a little bit older than this two. His birthday was on December 25 and was going to be 31 years old. He wants a great dinner, as a poor kid in the streets of Dallas. He never got a nice and fancy dinner until was a full grown up and was already in the army. His birthday was terrible but at least try to give himself something better.

-I have acquire 200 pounds of shrimps for our boys and myself. I need you to prepare several dishes and serve them on the afternoon of December 25. We can not live this terrible place, but other soldiers will prepare a proper place for all of us to eat.  

The lieutenant was a strong, strict man but also a passionate and sentimental. He has loose man friends and peers. He just wanted a good birthday time.


Dedicated to all those soldiers that just want to have a good dinner at Home.

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

21 Point Checklist

This is part of my coursera cours, is not info of my own, but I need a place to have it. 


1 Start with easy fixes. Spell and grammar

2. Omit needless words

3. Cut where you are doing the readers thinking

4. Cut stage direction

5. Insure consistent character motivation

6. Has an action happened in the first paragraph?

7. Is my story coherent?

8. Are there complete scenes?

9. Do I start each scene with something active?

10. Am I writing in active voice?

11. Is setting working?

12. Are my characters acting believably?

13. Are the transitions clear?

14. Does my story fit together? (ABDCE)

15. Did I explain the risks for each character?

16. Did I explain the consquences of these risks?

17. Does every sentence deepen character of advance plot?

18. Is the second draft 10% shorter than the first?

19. Am I ready to discard pages that are not working?

20. Is what you meant in your head clear on the page?


Monday, October 2, 2023

1 - Plot - Week 3 - What is a scene?

 Instructions from coursera:

As with the first assignment, you will create another scene where someone wants a concrete physical object more than anything else in the world. This time, instead of focusing on rising action entirely, consider the full story structure.

Write for a few minutes, then give that character a disease where they learn they have only 24 hours to live. This is your first significant rising action.

Write some more, then give that character a choice between that object and an antidote. This is your second significant rising action.

Finish the story with a conclusion. Your final story should not exceed 500 words. If you are considering participating in the capstone and have a larger story in mind, you can consider this an opportunity to write one scene from it, but remember your reader will not have any outside context.


Title: a glass of water for Joe

- Give me the water.

- No.

- Give me the water.

- I won’t do it.

- Give me the fucking water.

- N-O, no.

- I am thirsty I am thirst from weeks. I am thirst of the sky.

I am thirsty of the sun light.

I am thirsty of you.

- Joseph have not you understand it yet. Look where you are. You are on the third floor of a hospital that is dedicated only to fight cancer. I had been with you over 15 years and the last 5 I had been with you next to a hospital bed. You do not have insurance anymore, you got fired, our oldest is rising the youngest. When I am not with you, I am fighting to stay at my job, so I can attend you on decent place.

- I am thirsty. I Just have this terrible feeling of wanting things, wishing for things. I have not given up. I am willing to fight, but there is no reason to do it. Can I have a reason to fight?

Can I have a shitty glass of water?

- The doctor won’t operate on you if you have taken anything. What do you want to die in the following hours or get a proper treatment through the surgery.

- What do you think? That I do not know. That is what I am asking! I cannot even have a glass of water. The surgery has been postposing, they think I will die here, they think I will die on the table. Jesus Christ! The nurse does not want me to speak, she thinks I WILL DIE SPEAKING

- Lower your voice Joseph

- I have always love you darling. I really believe I would be able to provide to you. I am very ashamed of my condition; I want to take my own decisions my own story my own circumstances and at this moment. Today. The only thing I can even dare to do. It is to take a sip on a glass of water.

- Is it the glass or are you being rebellious?

- I don’t want to die with thirst

- I will leave the glass next to your bed and I will go out Joseph. I will be waiting. In two hours, they will come for you.

- Always in my dreams

- I love you, Joe.

1 - Plot - Week 2 - what is structure

Instructions from coursera:


Write a very short story - not more than 200 words - about a trip to the doctor or dentist using the ABDCE structure. Identify the structural elements in your story. My example is provided below:

One night when I was eight years old I opened a bag of Doritos to eat while watching television. (A) Doritos were my favorite snack to eat as a child. Nacho Cheese was my favorite flavor. (B) I loved sitting in the dark hearing the “crunch, crunch, crunch” of the chips. I’d sit there, crunching my chips, but didn’t eat the chips with a napkin (what kid does?) and would forget about the powder that accumulated on my fingertips. As it got later and I got sleepier, I kept rubbing my eyes, my fingertips covered in Doritos Nacho Cheese powder. (D) When it was time for bed, I went to brush my teeth, looked in the mirror, and saw two large bags under my eyes. The Doritos Nacho Cheese powder had pooled into two large sacks underneath my eyeballs. I started screaming and crying. (C) The next day, my grandmother took me to the doctor who put industrial strength eye drops into my eyes to flush out the powder. (E)

Remember, the action in this story isn’t the actual doctor’s office visit. The action is what LEADS you to the doctor’s office.  


TITLE: It really hurt down there

(A)  I went to bed at noon and throw myself in, leading to crush my privates’ parts.

(B)  We were on the pandemic, so I had several months working from home like and very fast I got just to take a nap at the middle of the workday.

(D)The room was very dark, and I was just tired of hearing my boss talk, so when I throw myself at the bed I fall in a weird position and what I think was inner leg crash that little part of me. I scream from the pain, but I knew that will be just a few minutes of hurting and will be it. I was so wrong. The day went by, and the ache came and went.

(C)  Close to midnight I feel like if it was twisted a feeling impossible to describe, but when you know, you know. I call the doctor and his instructions were clear “GO TO ER”. He explains that depending on what is happening and due so many hours it could be surgical.

(E)  I hug my pregnant wife and exactly at 0015 I got in the car for me to go the hospital. Thank fully I was scanned and review by a specialist and it was just an inflammation.


1 - Plot - Week 1- Rising Action

 Instructions from coursera:

Write a scene of 250-350 words featuring a character with one concrete want (a table, a moose, a toothbrush, anything physical is fine!) and one weakness. Use these two features to drive the action of the plot. Set up the story where every other sentence is a rising action. To help you come up with rising actions, use one word from the following list of twelve words in each sentence that has a rising action. In other words: Write your first sentence introducing your character. Make the next sentence a rising action using one of the following twelve words. Write your third sentence, which may introduce the weakness, then write your fourth sentence with a rising action that includes one of the remaining eleven words you haven’t used. And so on.

  • trick

  • memory

  • aboard

  • tiger

  • pretend

  • carrot

  • appliance

  • cage

  • rings

  • crow

  • filthy

  • explode

You must use at least 6 of the 12 words, but you are encouraged to challenge yourself to use as many of the words as possible while still meeting the word count. Title: The dream land


He was a small bird inside a cage of an old lady. He was in love of a white crow. His memory was not good for all the years inside. She arrives all mornings in front of his window, doing tricks around an old oak. The bird try to make the same tricks inside the cage but he could only pretend, there was no space.

 

A morning the crow arrive with a carrot in the pick to offer his friend, he saw it and with no hesitation explode on tears.  The filthy window was no barrier for the crow to see his old friend cry and start chanting a mantra: “The tiger does not fit into the cage, but in the rings of fire shines”. The bird then stops crying and decide to aboard a new adventure, the dream of be with his friend.

 

At the next morning the bird wakes up really early to make the appliance to set himself free.

1 - Plot - Week 4- The Whole Story

Instructions provide by Coursera 
Write a story (up to 1,000 words) following the ABDCE structure that includes at least one full scene. Also, your story should have at least TEN sentences of rising action.

After your story, along with your submission, ask two specific questions of your readers. Think back to the 21-point checklist. Within the time and logistic constraints of Coursera, we can't follow all the best practices of writing and revision, but as you work through your assignments and especially as you write beyond these courses, keep them in mind.

Example questions you can ask your readers could be: “What did you think of my main character’s actions?” Or : “Were there any parts that seemed confusing or hard to follow?”

As you end this course with your reader feedback, process it and see if it makes sense. Consider the feedback as you move through other courses in the Specialization, and your writing in general.


The reporter of the paranormal activity finally had it done. After many years of fake or unreal interviews he had all the proofs that need it. He was about to interview an extra human. - Daisy! Prepare the camera! tonight in the Hotel Ambassador at downtown we are going to interview at Mister Ferninand. - Are you joking, right? How come you get a rich folk like that even receive us? I am mean I am preparing noodles in a bag; we cannot even afford the normal package. - I receive an email from him. He explains that he is an extra human. - Extra human, sorry Ian I am not following you. - Okey, … so this is a new concept, so it is okey. Oh well, it is not new “new”, but it is not popular because it does not sound catchy at all. - Well, there are these guys just like vampires, but they are not vampires. - So, they do not drink blood. - No, they just have like a big lifetime, like over 150, 300 or 450. They always stay at a certain age, maybe 50s or 40s or whatsoever. - And our guy Ferninand is an extra human and is pretty old. She replied with an awkward smile. - I am not sure, but I am going to ask him, so let’s prepare everything for our interview. She though he was an idiot. - You are an idiot. He was an idiot indeed, but an idiot with proactiveness. - Yes, I know. - What are you planning to do? How are you going to prove he is that old? Daisy was very intrigue but was anxious and disappoint of his dumb partner Ian. He has always been like this. Daisy was a part timer at a cafĂ© in the morning, in the afternoon attend a few classes at uni and in the night, but specially on weekends she was helping her dumb friend. She was hard working, smart for life but to seat and start reading or doing math was not a favorite task to do. She was on medicine when start the university but after a few years and her father die, she changed for a major in communications. Her dream is to have a nationwide podcast. In the other hand Ian was a brilliant man, at least in academics. He was a good student during high school, after that he attend the university at graduate on Journalism. He made great jobs reporting corruption on the local government and a fraud of students. He likes the heavy stuff, he gained an internship at a big company and escalated for a couple of years internally, but before his 25-birthday decided to quit and follow his passion the paranormal activity. He creates the company Stranger Inc. A news company that is always talking about strange things happening on the city. He hired Daisy as a part timer, some weeks have tons of work, some weeks they go to a wedding and take photos and record for gaining a few bucks. Ian start explaining to Daisy. -See this guy give me some money in advance and also provided a few pictures of him of when camera start existing. It seems pretty legit. I am going to ask him personal things, how he has managed and more. - Ian, pay me a lot of attention and I am going to asked you the following questions. If everything is real, why he wants this? - Do not know - Ian, are you sure he is not going to kill us? - Naaahhh I do not think so - Ian, are you sure he is not an excentric millionaire that his mind went cucu and just want to use us as distribution list for his bullshit -Well, maybe - Ian final question. Do not you think he has a political or business reason to start this for threating someone else. - I have think that about it, I search the most of him. Does not have any new projects in actions neither recent enemy. He has had some troubles with the major and with a few other rich people regarding some properties, but nothing serious enough. At least nothing that makes him go full Scooby do villain. - what about medical records? - This is where it comes interesting, he has not. I do not but for more that I try obtaining his records I do not have nothing. I pay a hooker to see if she knew something. The net of prostitution at this city has never seen him. - Okey I am going to make a last questions. How much money does he gave you and how he reached to you. - it seems he is fan of my youtube channel and gave me 2500 bucks.

They were both trill and excited about this opportunity and special the part of not eating all weekends instant noodles soup.

Memoirs - Course 4 - Week 4

  As with the last, this is a two-part assignment. Think about a significant conversation that you’ve had in your life with someone (or mult...