Final Project

Final Project
Britni Vrbensky
Eng. 252

    My idea for the final project is to do something a little bit different than just writing in general. I am going to be documenting the process of writing a song. I am going to be taking information from two different people and just observing what types of processes they go through while writing the music and the lyrics for their songs.
    I am also considering giving them each a subject to write about and then combining the two into one sort of like the mash-up video that we watched in class, but with more of a focus on the process of doing that.
    I am leaning towards the second of the two ideas, but I think that both processes will be very enjoyable to go through and I am looking forward to hours of listening/observing these two artists/authors at work.

Pop-Up Reasoning

Pop-Up Reasoning
Britni Vrbensky
11-2-09


    I decided to take a very creative (and possibly too crazy) route with this assignment and I am not really sure if I followed the guidelines to a "T" but I hope that the outcome makes you laugh a bit or possibly scratch your head in wonder, " what was she thinking." Either way I think that my goal will have been reached. I will now begin trying to explain how the process my brain took for this really does make sense. I think.
    I first must say that my source for this assignment was the last blog that Zach wrote on adapting books to film and the comments that were made on his blog afterwords. I picked Zach's as my launch pad because his blogs are always filled with laughter and entertainment along with an academic argument which I enjoy and look forward to reading on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He has honestly come to make the rest of my days enjoyable with his witty remarks. I knew from class on Thursday that there were quite a few people that commented on this post as well and I have combined those as well as Zach's blog into what I would like to call a pop-up conversation.
    I was unsure as to how this assignment was wanted to be done so I thought to myself why not take a crazy, out of the ordinary approach to it and hopefully redeem yourself in the explanation as to why you did it. So now with the pop-up part of the project done I now have to come up with a reasoning for why I chose to do it this way.
    I did my pop-ups as the comments that were made on Zach's blog inserted into the blog itself and in a way made it look like a conversation was being made (possibly this could even be compared to, say a script for a play or a movie). I got the feeling that this was supposed to be more of out own voice as the pop-up's, but when compared to the Pop-up Music Video's you see that more than one person was the contributor for those as well. I simply placed the quotes where they seemed to flow with the original blog. 
    I think that my goal was to be a little bit more on the humorous/creative side than the academic/serious side of things. I wanted to use something that people would be able to relate to and understand and I thought that a fellow blog-post would do well with that.
    I would be interested to see this as a video with the people just popping up and interupting in a way, as the character of Zach goes on with his reading as if nothing has happened out of the ordinary. I think that this idea of a video also had a lot to do with how I wanted things to go for my assignment.
    I wanted to take something and turn it into a composition that could be both read and acted out. This is also what was being discussed, in a way, throughout the comments and blog and was my reasoning behind picking this specific post as well. The topic at hand was dealing with writing books and the adaption process to film. As I went through the comments that others including myself made on Zach's blog I attempted to understand what peices and sentences and ideas that people were referring to and placing them in, what I thought were the appropriate spots. 
    This was an assignment that I came into not really knowing what I wanted specifically to happen. I think that I did what was asked of us, but threw a lot of my self into it as well. I enjoy making others laugh and I think that Zach has a way of doing this in his writing. I wanted to bring in the comments that were made about his post in such a way that would add to the humor that can be seen through out it. I wanted everyone that was included on that page to have a more equal ground covered instead of the main focus to be on what Zach was saying and then our responses to that. I think that by placing the commentes through out you get the idea taht we all were contributers in where the train of thought and conversation was going.
    Although it was really Zach in control we are able to see that with the pop-up comments he could have been influenced in other ways. I am not really sure if I did this assignment right and I am not sure if my explanation makes any sense but I had a lot of fun writing and creating this piece of artwork. Thank you Zach for being a good writer and also to everyone else who commented I hope that you guys don't mind that I used you like this.



Here is the Assignment as well:

Zach
Whitney
Rachel
Jenna
Andrew
Miswarc
Britni

    Have you ever told someone about a great movie you saw that weekend and
they looked back at you and said "The book was better"?

    Yes, that has happened to me. I always appreciate people trying to coax
me into reading great works of fiction, but I don't appreciate them
being hostile about their opinions, so I know where you're coming from.

    It has happened to me too, the wow I hate that movie but now the book...thats another story.

    This has
happened to me a few times and every time that it has I came out of the
discussion feeling a little less prideful in my reading lexicon then
when I'd came in to the discussion. "Oh, it was a book?" I'd say, only
furthering their likely suspicion that I'm some sort of unintelligent
drone in a mass of "sheeple" (that's a sheep-people hybrid, I retain
all rights to the use and distribution of my new word).

    I love your new words and I do feel that same when I discover that I
have never known that a movie I just saw was a book.
    
     I found a picture of a sheeple. http://www.pollymorgan.com/images/black-sheep-poster.jpg
    
    My favorite
respondent is the self-important one that goes on to lord over you how
much greater the book was and how you MUST read it because the film is
"oh-so-drab in comparison." I get it, you read a book, congratulations.
(No one's actually said "oh-so-drab" to me, frankly my circle of
friends probably doesn't know what drab means, in fact, I don't think I
even know what drab means.)

    At the same time though I do know that there are some movies out there
that I have not read the books of that I think are very good.

    This does raise an interesting
question for me though: can film really compare to it's
novel-equivalent in the first place?
    
    Truth be told, that's how everyone is always going to perceive a novel
adapted to film. It's inevitable. If someone read and enjoyed a book,
doesn't matter how good the movie is, they'll always say the book is
better.

    Before reading these articles I
always thought that a film could be better then or at least equivalent
to it's source material.

    In some cases that's true, but while we would like film to stand on its
own, it never will be able to because it's been preceded by something
that set the standard for anything that's affiliated with it after.
 
    I feel that No Country for Old Men represents
the book well, I feel that the television series Dexter is much better
than the books, and I feel that the movie version of Eragon should be
erased from history.

  
 I think that I have to agree that the film version of Eragon can
seriously be forgotten and wiped from the face of the earth.

    After reading the articles I've come to understand
that film can never really equate to the book, and that's because they
simply are two very different mediums, one cannot be equivalent to the
other.
    
    But as I am
becoming more of a avid reader I am making up for my lack there of and
indulging myself in the novels. Of which I always like better.

    Simply put, a film is usually focused more on how things
happen then anything. In a film people tend to get caught up in how the
actor portrayed a character and how the director filmed a scene. Novels
take a different focus, which is usually more about what-type
questions. What did the proganoist think, what did they feel, that sort
of thing.
    
    This is what people think about
during the movie, I too fall guilty to that most of the time while
watching a movie.

    As is indicated in the article about how to adapt a
novel, film is prone to showing emotion and thought through behavior,
dialogue and facial expression, where as novels are given the luxury of
entering a chracter's mind directly. Though film can achieve this to
some degree via a narrator, it's still not quite the same thing. Film
is also limited in scope; most people won't sit down and watch a film
for much longer then two hours, where some (myself included) are more
than happy to pick up a book and read it progressively.

    I think that it all depends on how we go into things (as someone said
in our discussion) we need to view books as books and movies as movies.

    Ultimately,
after reading the articles I was left with the feeling that a film
can't be the novel, which is obvious, and in that sense a film can
never really be above and beyond the novel's source material. That
doesn't mean that a film can't aspire to be something different, or to
be something greater as a film then the novel was as a book (i.e.
Godfather's widely considered the greatest film of all time, the novel
is far from considered the greatest book of all time). With that said I
feel that the film version of a novel should be critiqued as a film and
that the novel should be critiqued as a novel, and that all discussions
of how close the book is to the movie should be nothing more then
discussion as opposed to judgment.
    
    This
is something I completely agree with. People really need to recognize
films and books as separate entities and critique them as such.

    This is easier said than done, but I believe that if we could do this it would make things all better.

My Two Cents.

My Two Cents.

Britni Vrbensky

 

 

    Oh the things that I have wanted to say about some of my favorite books getting turned into movies. One that stands out to me right now and is possibly because it was a recent adventure that I put myself through is My Sister's Keeper. This book was one of my favorites, not only because I thought that it was well written, but because it caused me to laugh, get upset, and when it was all over I wanted to throw the book across my room and sob myself to sleep.

    However when I was sitting in the theater and the end of the movie came around I wanted to personally write a letter to the author and asked why on earth she would let the ending be changes so drastically from the book. I immediately called one of my friends that had read the book as well and had seen the movie the day that she finished it to see what her reaction was. Her feelings were the same as mine and we both decided to not recommend the movie to anyone, but the book we would offer up with high praises.

    For me I can understand that it would be hard to take a novel and turn it into a well liked movie. This is something that has been evident to me purely because I am a very big reader and when I find out that the book has been made into a movie I end up being very dissappointed for the most part in the outcome of it. I can not seem to understand why it is so hard for people to at least try and stick with the main focus of the book.

    I think that these articles have just confirmed for me that most of the time it sucks when someone tries to take a book and turn it into a movie. The art of doing this correctly has not been perfected yet, by anyone really. There is always someone out there that is going to be dissappointed with the movie because it is not what they invisioned with their own imagination.

    I almost want to tell people to stop trying to do it. They aren't doing a good job and if it was a good book read the book. I honestly probably have too extreme of an opinion on this. I have gotten upset about this kind of thing in the past and that has just transfered over into my writing. Oops. I don't think I'm sorry. 

Observation #3

Observation #3
Britni Vrbensky


    For my third observation I chose to do it with a little bit of a different spin on things. I wanted to do it merely based on composition as an art rather than composition in writing. I think that we are able to view all compositions as a whole under a broad umberella. You are able to go in and look closer at certian aspects of it; or different genres of it as a whole, but in the end everything that we are looking at is some form of a composition. With that in mind and my focus being on the artistic aspects of composition my obeservation was based on my viewing of Edward Scissorhands.
    The movie starts out with a small town where every thing is for the most part the same for everyone. The houses are the same, the cars are the same, and with a flat view of the people they at first give us the feeling of being the same. The local Avon lady ends up going up to the one house in all of the town that is not the same at all- the inventors mansion. What she happens upon is a man with scissors for hands; the project of the now dead inventor that died before properly finishing Edward. This seems to be the first representation of composition in the movie and becomes a main focus.
    As Edward moves into the town below he is constantly told by the others that they know a doctor friend that may be able to help him with his condition. At first Edward does not seem to understand this, but as more and more people suggest it he starts to welcome it with the fact that he would like to meet the doctors. But, as the movie continues to unfold we see that Edward ends up embracing his hands not as an obstacle, but as a gift.
    This can be seen as him keeping something that the inventor gave to him. It connects him to his roots and in a way I believe that he enjoys that because it gives him a sense of belonging in a town where he knows that he does not belong at all. Even as some of the neighbors begin to turn against Edward the fact that he does not belong in the town arises more and more, but we see that Edward is still accepted just the way he is by the Boggs and he is still in possession of scissors for hands.
    Many things begin to happen and fewer people are apt to trusting this man that is so different from them all. He is thrown from the lime light and is confronted with horrible glares and frightened glances. What they do not see is that Edward is the one thing that ends up pointing out all of their own flaws. Edward accepts that he is different, but as it is relieved that others are different they shy away from the fact and turn against Edward completely. They do not want to be viewed as crazy or not normal so they attempt to keep their true-selves hidden from the world.
    The second form of composition that I saw in this movie was the fact that Edward is able to use his own "abnormalities" to create something beautiful. He first does this with the shrubs at the Boggs house. As this becomes all of the rage and everyone in town is attempting to get Edward over to do their shrubs as well he ends up cutting one of the neighbors dogs hair and this becomes the new best thing to do. As all of the women in the town are attempting to get their dogs over to Edward and possibly have a go at him one of the more flamboyant neighbors asks Edward if he could cut her hair. The final step in Edward using his hands to create something is the ice sculptures that become more and more important for the entire moive.
    Edward is the cause of the snow falling in the valley at the end of the movie and although he was not accepted into this society because of his differences what he creates is accepted for many years to come. This is one form of composition that I think we can all in some way relate to. We may not all be "normal" or the same and sometimes we allow that to weigh heavily on ourselves and what we are "creating". We let what others think of us determine how we act, what we wear, and even what we say. I think that this movie is an extreme way of showing all of us that we do not need to conform to what others expect out of us, but that we can remain the person that we want to be and that is the core of being truly happy with ourselves and what ever form of composition we end up perusing as a career.

Comics, Comics, Comics

 
Britni Vrbensky

 

 

    When I first started reading these articles I have to say that just like they say comics are thought of as superheros and capes I too have fallen victim to that thought. I would have considered comic books as a genre for sure, but now that I have gone through these articles I can now say that I view them as a type of medium and not a genre at all.

    When reading through the first article that was a guide for writing comics I was entirely turned off to the idea of this type of writing. The article was not put together very well and I believe that they could have taken their own advice in going back through it and fixing their typos. About half way though I had to give up because I was sick of trying to understand what exactly he was trying to say.

    The second article was the one that really got me interested and I wanted to keep reading. This was the one that suggested that comics are a form of medium and not a genre at all. That is something that I have never considered and that got my attention. This article is somewhat like the one that was used last week in how to write a novel. It is very step by step and you can really apply the steps as you move forward in this type of writing. For someone that is pursuing this as a career this article is very helpful with the steps to writing a great comic.

    I am not entirely sure what the third article was supposed to be about. The fact that all female characters pretty much end up dead makes me only think that if I ever desire to write a comic I will be sure as to not make the main character a women- she will only end up in the fridge if I do.

    The final article was interesting to read and see that graphic novels are being used to tell portions of history. I do not know if I agree with this completely or not. Does this mean that text books will soon turn to this type of medium? What does that mean for the future of reading? I think that this idea is interesting, but I am not sure if I support it completely.

    Although this is not a medium that I wish to pursue for myself I am happy to know a little bit more about it. I think that a few of these articles were very helpful in letting me see what comics and graphic novels are really all about.

National Writing Day Reasoning

My Happy Thoughts
She had her chance,

I am so scared that you will give her another.
You let her have the key,
I am so scared that you won't change the lock.
You took her hand,
I am so scared that you won't want to take me.
You looked in her eyes,

I am so scared that you won't see me.
You let her go,
I am so scared that you won't let me be.



    This poem is from my last semester of high school. I was in a composition and creative writing class and for most of our assignments we had to write poems. I ended up writing a lot about what I was going through in life and that is how this poem came to be.
    When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to submit for the national writing day I started to go through my poetry journal to see if there were any poems that I was still really attached to. This poem was one that I really have a connection to even today. When I wrote this poem for the first time I can clearly remember the guy that I was thinking of and the way that I was truly scared to let him have any part in my life because he had let another girl be the center of everything he did for so long.
    As I looked through this poem I realized that I never thought that it would be possible for me to feel the way I did in life as I did when writing it. Of course now I can look at it and say that it was a silly high school crush that I was letting get to me. I was just an immature high school-er that did not really have a grasp on what life was really going to bring.
    The reason that I chose this poem is because of the history that it holds for me and the meaning that, even at this point, it holds for me. I am able right now to put someone else in the focus of the lines and it still makes perfect sense. I am able to have all of those feelings come up even now three years later, about another guy.
    I wanted to choose something that I had wrote at an earlier stage in my writing career, but that still held relevance to who I am today. This poem seemed to be the perfect fit for that. I was able to have some kind of relation to the way that I was feeling then and the way that I am feeling now. Although I was very young in my writing and I feel that the relationship that I was then writing about is very petty as I look at it in view of the way that I am feeling right now it makes perfect sense.
    This poem was my choice because I am able to relate to it still today even though it was written very early on. As I stated earlier I wanted to choose a piece that has relevance to me today, but that I had written early on. I believe also that I still have a lot of myself present in the work that I did early on that I think that those pieces are more me than what teachers now expect me to write. I was writing to please myself at that point not for others. That is also another reason that I choose this piece. It was written at a much simpler time in my life where I was less concerned about the grade and more concerned with it being a way to express myself.
   My choice in sharing this for national writing day also spans from wanting to submit something that is out of the ordinary for the type of writing that I am more consumed with at this point in my life. I write at this point on a very academic level or for myself, journaling. I have not committed to very much poetry more recently and I believe that has much to do with the way that I am expected to write the classroom. This is why I chose to use this piece as well. I have not had a chance to do this type of writing and I wanted it to be known that I am actually capable of it.
    Going through my old pieces also was something that I had a desire to do and I am hoping that it will give me some desire to start it up again. I hope that at some point soon I will be able to set aside some time and dedicate that time to writing a few lines. This assignment has gotten me to see that there are so many types of writing that I was into early on that I have let slip as my academic career has moved forward.
    

Creative Writing: The Aspects

Creative Writing: The Aspects

Britni Vrbensky

 

    I really enjoyed reading all of the articles this week. They were almost all dealing with the type of writing that I most want to go in to- creative writing/ novels. The only one that I did not really obtain a lot of imformation from was the one dealing with Science Fiction. Although the rest of that article did deal with all of the aspects of writing the focus is what caused me to not get too much out of it.

    I gained some new information from the first article about characterization. This is something that has been a focus in my literary analysis class and I think that this content will overlap very well into that course. I have more of an understanding now about how a round character can be formed and that all flat chacaters is the cause for a very bland book ( Although while reading that a book of all flat characters would be boring I was tempted by the idea to write a novel with all flat characters, but making it interesting by placing a spin on it and making that the focus).

    The second article was the one that dealt with Science Fiction and even though it was not focused on something that I would ever consider writing about I think that the point of him trying to discourage people from writing can be very effective. If you do not have a passion for this type of writing then it is safe to say that you should get out of it. I think that this can be carried over into many other types of writing as well and that is what I gathered from it for myself.

    The third article on discription is one that I could have used in one of my earlier English classes. It was a good refresher the information needed to be brought to my attention again. I have a hard time being vague in my papers and other writings and I think that this article could have even been used last week when considering the audience that we are writing for. If you are writing descriptivley your audience is going to begin to understand what you are refering to.

    The fourth article on how to write a novel was possibley my favorite all semester and the funny part was that I hated it at first. I felt like I was being treated like a child and that something so creative was being broken down in to an organized structured piece of work.As i continued reading though, I was able to see that this is something that I have been wanting to do, start writing a novel, but I have lacked the knowledge on where to start which has scared me into not starting at all. I am a very organized structured person and at the same time I do not want to come acrossed that way in my writing. I think that this article showed me that I do not nessecarily have to be structured and organized with what I am writing but that my process needs to be that way for me to be comfortable, so I thouroughly enjoyed this piece even if I was turned off in the very beginning.

    The fifth article was not one that I thought fit with the subject of creative writing. This one seemed to just cover all novel writing in general. Contrary to that it was very useful to see what exactly it is like when working with a publisher.

    This week was very helpful for me in my personal writing and I have taken a lot away from these readings.

English Observation Number 2

English Observation Number 2
How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days
Britni Vrbensky



    Sure it is a chick flick. I agree with that completely. But, this does not change the fact that this is a movie about a columnist and how she goes about her writing. When we are first introduced to Andie we get the sense that she writes about things that she herself has had to deal with. She is the 'how to' girl at the magazine Composure. The target audience of this company would be women in their twenties and thirties. Andie likes writing for the column, but her real passion is shown in a political piece that she prepares but is scolded for trying to use. When one of her friends gets into a little trouble with their editor Andie comes in to save her and ends up agreeing to write a how to column about all of the wrong things to do in a relationship.
    One of the ways that they depict Andie to be is too smart for the position that she has at the magazine. She went to many years of school and would be more interested in writing a political piece, but that gets shot down right away because that is not the type of writing that is geared towards the women that read Composure. I think that a lot of people can relate to this in their writing. We are constantly having to think about what type of audience we are writing for and even if we are not completely committed to the type of writing that we are doing we still have to consider the audience.
    I am going to have to say that this is a very good portrayal of what a real writer would struggle with. This has so much relevance to me and what we just read last week about audience. Even though Andie knows what and who her target audience is she still has a passion for a different kind of writing all together. I think that any of us that might end up getting into a job that we are good at, but that we do not necessarily love will be able to relate to this type of trouble. We now know that it is important to consider your audience and that is something that Andie is doing through out the movie.
    Although Andie wants to submit this piece she knows that it is not going to be a hit with her audience or boss. Instead she continues to write her how to column and in the process of trying to 'lose' a guy she falls for him. We get to see a little bit of his life as an advertiser at another magazine company. He is not portrayed as a writer, but as an advertiser which is a branch of communication that can be considered. I have to say though that the way that Benjamin is portrayed seems to be a very cliche' form of a guy in an advertising position. All he is really concerned about is whether or not he is going to get a deal with this jewlery company and strikes up a bet with his boss. The way that they make him seem rather uninvolved with the rest of his work could be some what of an exaggeration and just an act for the movie. I think that in a real situation this would be someone that was concerned with all aspects of their work.
    Towards the end of the movie things come out into the open for both Andie and Ben. She has to publish her story but instead of leaving it as her normal how to column she adds in more detail and the fact that she has actually fallen for this guy that she attempted to 'lose' with bad dating habits. The piece is given to her editor and she is told that it is one of her best pieces.         Although she is told this Andie has gotten the opportunity to go for a job interview for a newspaper in Washington and of course jumps at that. I think that this is something that is a very good portrayal of a writer and what we would do in our own lines of work. Because Andie wants to write political pieces if she gets a job at a newspaper where she is able to write things that she has a passion for this would be the best.
    I was unsure about using this movie for an observation, but once I got into it again I realized how relevant it really is with what we are dealing with right now in class. Because so much of the focus can be placed on the audience that Andie is writing for I would have to say that this movie properly portrayed how this would be for a real writer.
    

To Whom It May Concern.

To Whom It May Concern.
Britni Vrbensky

 

 

    Who am I writing for? This is the question that came up all though out all of the articles for this assignment. It was drilled into my head over and over that I am writing to a specific audience and that what they think and know matters- a lot. I think that for me I start to lose focus or I begin thinking that I am only writing for my professor and they know what I am trying to say so everything else does not really matter.

    The first article covered a bunch of ideas that I have never considered before. The focus was on writing for a magazine and trying to remember your audience in that genre of writing. There are so many things that you can take in to consideration when writing for a magazine. You can choose to be very specific about what you are looking for when choosing an audience, such as how many people are subscribed or how many sales the magazine is having. One good thing that I took from this article is that you never want to dumb down your writing. What matters is your subject matter and knowing what your audience is interested in.

    The second article was focused on writing with your target audience as children. This is something that I would possibly like to be doing in my future writing carrier. Although for now I am writing in a academic setting this article is something that I can take with me after I graduate. I think that the article could have been structured a little better. The table and the subjects being split up like they were added to my distraction and did not allow me to focus as much as I would have liked to on the actual content.

    The third article was the one that I think, personally, I got the most out of. I know that it was geared more towards teachers and how they can get the point across to their students that they need to focus on the audience, but it gives students an insight as to how teachers are trying to get us to think. The structure of this article and the way that things were explained made the most sense to me and what I am focusing on in writing right now with school.

    While reading the last article I was able to think about my other classes and the writing that I am required to do in them right now. I tend to lose focus throughout my writing in my other classes and I was not quite sure why. While reading this I began to realize that I have been focusing to much on the content and not on who my audience is and what they will know. I am hoping that these readings will carry over into the rest of my writing and I will be able to improve what I am saying.    

Who is Plagiarism?

Who is Plagiarism?

    While reading these articles I have to say that I was a little confused at the beginning, but as I went on through the other readings things started to get clearer. The first article for me was a bit of a challenge to get though and I did not understand completely what was going on. The second and third article surprised me a lot. They both have me realizing that it is easy for everyone, not just students, to slip up and do exactly what has been drilled into our brains not to do. The fourth reading has opened my eyes a bit to see exactly what plagiarism has been defined as.
    Going back to the second and third readings all I can really say is wow. I am at a loss for words. How on earth are these people getting away with something we can get kicked out of school for? Honestly, that makes me a bit sick. These are supposed to be people that we are able to rely on and we are supposed to trust them. These articles are causing me to second guess everything that I have ever read. And that goes back to the first article where everything that we know today comes from something else, that also comes from something else, that came from something else. What are we supposed to believe?
    The fourth article was something that I was happy to read. It is something that I will be able to use with my own writing and it will be something that I refer back to. I can see how the lines can be blurred around not citing correctly and blatantly copying something that is not yours for your own work. I completely agree that it is smart on the faculties part to create assignments that would cause the student to stray away from plagiarizing and to accutlay investigate the sources and compare them back to each other. This means assignments that allow the student to be more open with their own creativity would be smart. Encouraging students to use their own imagination or thought however can be a bit intimidating. There needs to be that medium ground that the student and teacher are able to meet on.
    I have to say that these articles have been helpful in my own writing and I will take this away from this class and use them in the future and now with other classes. We all need to be cautious of our what we are writing. As I now know it is way to easy for everyone to take someone else's work as their own and I would like to try to not fall victim.

What's Up With That Wristwatch?

What's Up With That Wristwatch?
Observations of Stranger Than Fiction
Britni Vrbensky


As we are thrust into the everyday routine of Herald Crick what catches my attention the most is the fact that his wrist watch seems to be in control of a lot of things in his life. Not only does he rely on the wrist watch for everything, this watch seems to have a mind of its own. The narrator of the movie we soon find out is also the author of the book being written about Herald. As she is describing Herald's routine we get the feeling that this wrist watch can think and do things on its own. It thinks that Herald's neck looks fat when he is tying his tie. It delights in the crisp air and the way that Herald's jacket swishes over its face. This watch rests on the night stand it is not just set there.
    Throughout the movie the author of the book chooses more and more to rely on the wrist watch for most of the action. The watch tries to get Herald's attention again and again throughout the movie but often times fails because Herald only sees his wrist watch as, well, a watch. I believe that the use of the watch is a good representation of how writers are able to make objects and things have a big role in how the plot is advanced. It is one form of writing that, if used correctly, can become a big symbol of what the main point is about. This use of symbolism with the watch could also be something that the author did on purpose to mirror something in her own life.
    The way that the author is depicted in the movie is a little depressing. She is unable to overcome this writer's block that she has come to. She is shown in a very lonely and discouraged. You get the feeling that she has been in this state of mind for a very long time. Her publishers have hired an assistant to hopefully get her passed this point and she seems to become more frustrated with the block than before. I think that this representation of a writer is very believable. She does not seem to want to try any of the assistants methods for getting past this and I can understand how that would be aggravating. I would not enjoy someone coming in and telling me how to be a writer if I was the one with much more knowledge and background on going through this possible with other books, even if it was not as extreme before. So for now I am able to relate to the author in that sense quite well. As she continues to use her own method of writing, even if it is a little cliche', we are able to watch her find the ending of her book. It was not the assistant that really helped her she just needed to keep putting herself out there in Herald's place to come up with the way that she wanted to end him and the book. Without any method at all the ending came to her. But, this sense of not having a method, I believe, is a method in itself. Sure she does not have a fine set of rules that she goes by and that is how she gets great books, but standing on the edge of her desk and imagining a death from the top of a building is also one form of a method. She has it in her mind that when something may help her creative juices flowing she will do it. If however it is something that sticks too close to the rules for her she is going to shy away, as she did with the assistant. Seeing her portrayed this way maybe a good representation for some writers but I would argue against it being about all writers. And I am very positive that this was not what the goal was in depicting her this way.
    I enjoyed how as the ending is playing out and we know that it is the morning that Herald is going to be killed everything that happens is dependent on the watches and clocks of everyone involved. We see the boys alarm clock go off and he starts his day. The bus driver's clock also goes of and she begins getting ready for work. Herald's wrist watch signals the beginning of the end- and he knows it. The author has continually placed such an importance on the time and it is the one thing that leads to Herald getting hit by the bus, he was given the wrong time. This is something that most writers are able to do and I think that the portrayal in this way is very sound and true. It is proving that even the screenwriters for this movie had that knowledge and skill to portray this the way they choose. I think that this relying on the time also relates back to the author herself and what she is dealing with in her own life. She has been attempting to write the ending of a one book for ten years. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it relates to what she is writing so well and can be seen as a parallel to her very own life. I think that a lot of writers do this. We write from our own experiences and our books, or other materials, can be continually compared back to ourselves.

Personal Writing History.

Personal Writing History.
Reading Leads to Writing in My Imagination.
Britni Vrbensky

    My earliest memories of writing are found somewhere between one of the biggest moves of my life and evenings spent on the Super Nintendo with my sisters. It was sixth grade and we were doing Daily Oral Language (DOL) everyday. They were simple assignments that we would go through before the class would start. It consisted of writing down the sentence on the board and fixing the grammatical errors that were in it. This was also the year that I began using a computer at least once a week. We were in the computer lab twice a week and working with a program called Mavis Beacon. I felt very far behind all of the other kids in this class. They had been working with this program since they were in about third grade and this was my first year with it. We had keyboard skins that would cover up the keys and I would struggle so much with where the letters were and would become discouraged with myself.
    As life moved on and I grew older typing became easier. There are times even today when I struggle with where my fingers are supposed to go, but I continue to push right on through. Another form of writing that I soon started to enjoy was journaling. It first started as assignments in my seventh grade English class. We would have a question or series of questions on the board when we got to class and we would have to write up to a page on our thoughts and answers. This was one form of writing that has stuck with me and I enjoy writing for myself quite frequently even now.
    I know that many ways that I wrote as I grew up have slipped past my train of thought while staring at the computer screen. I was of course writing for other classes and doing many projects that invloved me writing. My most fond memories of writing however would always have to come from my English classes. One in perticular that I enjoyed was my creative writing class my senior year of high school. We were able to write poems, short stories, and listened to lyrics in songs and grasp meaning in them. This was the class were I allowed my mind to run free and put my thoughts into words and words on to paper. This was the class in which the writer inside me was awakened and a new passion in life was found.
    I remember my earliest forms of writing to be only about the assignment given and I saw it all as work. I was not early on drawn to writing at all. It was something that grew with me as I matured through school. Early on I did not fully grasp the greatness that I now find in others writings and my own.
    I know that for me writing is largely tied to reading. One other thing that I was introduced to in sixth grade was the program called ARP (Accelerated Reading Program) We had to read books that were put into this program and then take tests on them. We were placed at a certain grade level and were told to read books at that level. At that point in my life reading was like a chore, I did not enjoy doing it, but it was something that had to happen.
    I am not really sure of the specifics as to why my dad and I were discussing books one day, but nonetheless there we sat, me complaining and him unveiling something that was hidden from my view. He shared with me that I had to let the books take me places. I had to open up my imagination and travel all over the world. He told my that I could be in a cave hiding out with monsters or in a school with a girl not much different from me. No matter where I was he said that those books could be an escape to a whole new world. That was the day that I fell in love with reading. For me now writing is something that I want to do with my life. I want to be the provider of that far away land that a child escapes to. I want to be the eyes watching small knights slay giant dragons. I want to be the author of that book that you get grounded from because you are so soaked up in the adventure that you do not hear your mom tell you to do the dishes seven times. Maybe that was just me, but I am hoping that I am wrong and that there are many others out there just like me. Maybe I will be the one to ignite the flame of reading or writing in someone else. That I would have to say would make me very happy.

Look Right Here!

Look Right Here!

No Right Here!

Oh Maybe Here!


    I have to say that this is what my brain is doing when I am working on the web or even just searching for something that I need to know. I can get so distracted by the little Facebook button in the corner and if I come to a break in my train of thought I am tempted to get on real quick to see if anyone has anything interesting to say or if I have any new posts. Most of the time I am able to ignore the pull, but other times I have to push it.
    The author of Writing in the Age of Distraction had so many good points that I would love to carry over into my own writing life. When I am asked what I want to do with my life I tell people that I want to write, which I do. The thing that they are unaware of is that I am thoroughly over whelmed with the thought of trying to write a book. When I think about it I feel as if I have to dedicate so much of my life to just writing and doing nothing else. I love the way that this article opened my eyes to seeing that it can be as easy as writing a page or two a day.
    I know that this article was meant to focus on the distractions that we have to face everyday and for me that distraction was the thought of writing itself. I have a passion for writing a novel someday and this has allowed me to see that getting into the habit of writing everyday, even on the weekends, is something that will improve my writing tremendously. I hope that I am able to fine the time and that I will see that I can be writing in different environments, but that all I need to be doing is writing. I think that any kind of extensive writing will be a sharpening of my skills as I take my relationship with writing to the next step.
    So, although this articles focus was on what we can do to limit our distractions, as writers, in a very hectic world it has also shed some light on problems that I was having with writing myself that I did not know how I needed to deal with. I hope that from this information that I will be able to see ways in which my own writing will be improved.

I'm a writer. You're a writer.

I'm a writer. You're a writer.

    But, do we know how to write? I believe that the whole idea that we are all writers now is very true. I do however wish for myself that this is not all that I do with my time. I do not want to give up the face to face interaction that I have with my friends and family. I know that if I chose to I could sit on the Internet all day and I would be able to write anything I wanted to virtually anyone. What good does that do me? It would be the cause of some horrible self hygiene I am sure.
    I have to agree with the author of We Are All Writers Now, in that we are improving our writing skills with everything we do on the Internet. But I believe that, just like everything else in life, it is a balancing act in knowing how much is too much.  I will not become the self consumed individual that is updating every five minutes, eating junk food, and talking to that one other person in the country that I am now 'dating'. So yes we all may be writers, but at some point we need to set the computer aside and go experience the world for ourselves.

    In regards to the other articles that we read that were dealing with what kind of writing is appropriate for the web and what kind is appropriate for text I would have to agree that this is one hundred percent correct. When I am writing a paper for a class I am going to be writing differently than if I was writing a letter to my boyfriend. I think that writing on the web is just another genre for writing and that we have to learn to adapt the right principles for it just as we would any other form of writing.
    As I am sitting here writing a blog on how to write on the Internet I am consumed by the fact that I may not be doing it the right way. Am I just telling you what I am going to tell you then telling you and telling you what I have just told you? I hope not but at the same time I would understand why I am if I am. This is how we are taught to write, grade school and on. I hope that you are able to bear with my writing skills and the lack there of. Hopefully, as class progresses I will get my Internet legs- or fingers for that matter- and what I have to say will end up coming out in one hundred and forty characters or less.

To Blog or Not to Blog?

That is the question. There are so many people out there with their own opinions on blogging. Some say do it and are all for it and others think that it is a complete waste of time. A few of the articles that we read for today got me very excited and I wanted to start my blog right away. If it's something that will improve my writing I am all for it. I mean what writer wouldn't want to improve their writing? Sure I might not come up on a Google search, but at least my brain is being worked and stretched. I think that every one of us needs that every once in a while, and us writers need that even more than those that are pursuing other areas of work. I am more of a creative writer so informative writing is some what of a reach for me, especially since I haven't been practicing it for at the most a year.

Before this point i my life I have only ever heard the term blogging in passing and I have never had the desire to "tweet". Although this has been my feelings so far, reading the articles last night put that desire in me, much to my surprise. On my Twitter account I am going to be leaning more to creative poetic writing where on here I am going to be discussing and writing my feelings on articles and such.

I can understand why some people think that blogging and other like things are a complete waste of time. I also don't care what someone is eating at that very moment or where they are going. I don't think that a blog or twitter should be used like that. Facebook on the other hand is something that I only really see as a way to stay connected with family and close friends. I am not one to post something in my updates that is going to get my friends and family to think really hard about or have to discuss for long hours at a time. This blog however and my twitter account are going to be used for just that. I want to make people question things that they once thought were true. I want to be the cause of a heated argument. I know weird aspiration huh? But, I want to make people talk or laugh or ask me exactly what I meant by something. I want to write.

First Post

Today was the first day of school. This post is an assignment. Wooh.