All Eyes On Me

Accomplishment chart, 3/31 – 4/6

breakinglight11 — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 12:51:31 GMT

Accomplishment chart, 3/31 – 4/6

Writing
- scribbling for Mrs. Hawking part 5
- 1 blog entry for Mrshawking.com
- plotting for Mrs. Hawking part 4
- drafting for prose project
- drafted press release for Watch City Steampunk Festival 2017
- edited 2 draft articles for Game Wrap Magazine volume 2
- drafting for WFRR exegesis
- broke 15,000 words on prose project
- 3 LiveJournal entries

Theater
- loaded in large set pieces into performance space for Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF 2017
- set up a window display advertising performances of Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF 2017
- had 3 rehearsals for Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF 2017
- went to Agnes of God by John Pielmeier staged reading with Bare Bones

Larp/Gaming
- cast Silver Lines at Festival of the Larps 2017

Teaching
- graded 6 #1 creative assignments for Intro to Creative Writing class
- made lectures with notes for week 3 of online Intro to Creative Writing class
- finalized week 3 class module for online Intro to Creative Writing class
- planned lessons for 4/3 and 4/5 for Writing and the Literary Arts class
- agreed to teach a second English Composition class at Lesley for fall 2017
- graded 3 revisions for essay #2 of Writing and the Literary Arts class
- graded 7 #2 creative assignments for Intro to Creative Writing class
- graded 4 papers for essay #3 of Writing and the Literary Arts class

Art
- drew portrait of Zoe Kravitz
- helped set up display window at Waltham Library for Watch City Steampunk Festival

Activism
- contacted my reps 3 days

Physical
- carried set pieces for 3 hours
- 1 one-mile run
- 1 fighter abs routines
- 1 two-mile runs
- walked 10,000+ steps 3 days
- walked 15,000+ steps 1 day

Media
- watched Big Little Lies miniseries
- read act two of Fences play by August Wilson
- listened to episode 102 of Tom and Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinionfest

Cooking
- made baked halibut stuffed with crabmeat and steamed cauliflower

Roger Rabbit analysis drafting -- "Roger's surprisingly sophisticated and meaningful motivation"

breakinglight11 — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 22:27:04 GMT

More drafting for my planned deep-dive exegesis on one of my all-time favorite films, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This is rough, disorganized, and unedited, and I will polish it up once I have a fuller draft, but here's some of the work I did on one of my favorite parts of the analysis-- the surprisingly sophisticated workings of Roger Rabbit as a character. Previous scribbing on how the noir genre factors in can be found here.

Now I want to talk about Roger Rabbit, who is in my opinion the most remarkable character in the film. Roger is my favorite, and honestly has been since I saw the movie as a tiny child. But now, as a critic with a slightly more mature perspective, I’m fascinated by him because there is much more complexity to his character than his surface affect suggests, and by how much dramatic weight his narrative actually carries.

Despite being the title character, Roger is not straightforwardly a protagonist in the strict sense. Much as I love and am fascinated by the workings of the character, I will admit that his arc, such as it is, is… minimal. The fact that he is fundamentally the same throughout the entirety of the story, with minimal personal growth from the experience, automatically subordinates his narrative to Eddie’s, who is in fact the true protagonist of all. But his story function is not simply to act as a foil and motivator to Eddie Valiant. Though secondary, Roger has the very important protagonistic quality of wanting something and taking actions to get it. And in fact, his Want and his Actions toward that Want drive the entire film— A Want, by the way, that is shockingly mature and sophisticated. You see, EVERY EVENT IN THIS FILM stems from and is driven by Roger’s constant assertion that his marriage is real. And this is important, not to mention necessary, because none of the people around him seem to believe it.

Our very first awareness of Roger is his act in the Baby Herman short that opens the film. It is done in classic cartoon style, characterized by invented exaggerated reality and broad ridiculous humor. It is quite funny— Roger Ebert said he seldom laughed harder at anything that he did the first time he saw this cartoon —but it’s also narratively important. By seeing Roger “at work,” we see him as most people in this world see him— as the silly cartoon character, not just ridiculous, but the fall guy, the butt of the joke. The guy who is, despite his best intentions and efforts, continually whacked around by the circumstances of life, not somebody who has any real perspective or outlook to take seriously.

With Roger so established in our eyes, we see where R.K. Maroon is coming from in talking about Roger as if he’s blind to the truth of his own life. Maroon seems smarter and more on the ball than Roger, so when he gives his assessment that Roger’s wife is obviously a tramp and the rabbit just can’t see it, we’re inclined to accept it. We are induced to dismiss Roger just as the characters do.

But beyond that, it allows a means for the inciting event to occur. The director calls cut at the end of the cartoon because instead of seeing stars after a wallop, Roger produces tweeting birds— cleverly classified under “blowing his lines” the same way saying the wrong word would be for a human actor. It’s evidence of a problem Roger’s been having lately, that his ability to focus on his work is suffering due to distress over a rumor that his wife Jessica is being unfaithful to him. The story kicks off when Maroon calls in Valiant, who is engaged to take pictures of Jessica in the act of cheating to prove to Roger that she’s a tramp and not worth wasting any more time over.

Take a look at that. The issue Maroon feels needs solving is Roger’s disbelief, his refusal to accept that his wife’s having an affair. Maroon’s action is in direct reaction to Roger’s assertion. What is that assertion, that reason that he refuses to believe it? “My marriage is real.”

So the entire story kicks off because of that. But even after that, all of Roger’s actions (or at least all his character-driven ones) stem from this steadfast belief. When he is shown the pictures that Valiant took, he gives some small indication that he can no longer deny that an affair took place, but he violently insists that whatever’s happened, he and Jessica are going to get past it. What enables him to insist on this? His belief that his marriage is real.

The next scene offers up a beautiful, sad little moment where he’s alone, crying over the photos of the two of them in his wallet— on vacation, cuddling up in a booth at a restaurant, and on their wedding day. This is lovely and important character moment. There’s no anger there, only sadness— a hint to the audience that his mindset upon leaving was not vengeful enough to have run out and commit a murder right after. And there’s something beautifully mundane about those photos. While perhaps a bit on the glamorous side— they are Hollywood performers, after all —they are such shockingly normal moments in the life of a couple. These show what’s important to Roger, and how he views his relationship.

And there’s an interesting juxtaposition of the photography in this scene versus the previous one. As we just saw, photographs are evidence, and these are evidence of the reality of their marriage. But we see Roger’s struggle to reconcile the way these supposed records of truth conflict with one another.

The next time is onscreen Roger, it's when he turns up in Eddie's office to ask for his help in clearing his name. And what justification does he offer for his claim that he couldn't possibly have killed Marvin Acme? He has nothing to take revenge for because he doesn't believe Jessica actually cheated. He tells Valiant that he reflected on the whole issue and came to the inescapable conclusion that, those pictures aside, the Jessica he knows could not have done wrong by him— that she’s “an innocent victim of circumstance.” Why doesn't he believe she cheated? Because he knows their marriage is real.

Now notice that Valiant still thinks Roger's nuts to believe in Jessica. Even after he accepts the case, he remains convinced she's a tramp, and that Roger is too ridiculous a person to see the truth. I would argue that perception persists most of the way through the movie. He definitely still believes she stepped out when he confronts R.K. Maroon, as he describes the events as "a story of greed, sex, and murder." What else could "sex" be referring to, other than he still thinks Jessica put out for Marvin Acme? But this, that even Roger’s ally and advocate can’t possibly believe in them, it makes it all the more powerful and that Roger is holding fast: his marriage, God damn it, is real.

More to come later.

Defining literary structure

breakinglight11 — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 14:46:54 GMT

This is excerpted from my upcoming article in Game Wrap Magazine, volume 2-- "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy" about the tension between narrative design and player autonomy. I pulled this part out because it's applies strucutre in all storytelling forms, not just larps.

One of the tools storytellers use to shape narrative is structure. Structure in this case refers to the design of the order, manner, and pacing of events making up the story and the relationships of those events to each other. Narrative is at its fundamental level about change— starting with a thesis, confronting it with its antithesis, and seeing the new synthesis that results. Structure is an important tool for storytellers to choose and arrange events in order to create, control, and facilitate that change.

In much of literature, structure falls into a traditional form. The circumstances are established in a setup, after which a triggering change, the inciting event, propels the protagonist into challenging new situations. As the protagonist struggles to achieve their goals in the face of unexpected obstacles, the tension of the situation is increased by the rising action and its addition of complications. Ultimately, the action builds to the highest point of confrontation, the climax, where the hero faces their greatest challenge, and the changes they have undergone are tested to see if they are sufficient to overcome. This point is usually the most intense action of the story. After this, the tension ratchets down as the consequences of the climax are unpacked, at least to some degree, in the falling action. Finally, we are left with the resolution, which tells us the new status quo, to contrast with the way things were in the beginning.

This pattern of structure is so prevalent in storytelling because of how well it presents conflict and response to conflict in order to prompt development, growth, and change. It offers a steady buildup of the level of challenge in a manner that increases tension and our investment in the stakes of the conflict — the more struggle a goal entails, the more important achieving it becomes — while eventually providing satisfaction by offering a resolution.

Beyond this simple ordering of events, it offers the storyteller the tools to figure out how and at what speed the events should occur in relation to each other to achieve the best effect. By using this framework as a guide, the storyteller can determine at what point of the emotional journey they would like their audience to have reached at any given moment. The teller can then decide how to shape each event in relation to the other events to achieve the desired effect. If the tension needs to go up, intense actions can occur all in quick succession. If the intensity is increasing too fast, the plot-driving moments can occur on a smaller scale, or be spaced farther apart. So the curation of the occurrence of events in the story allows for the best release of information, timing of events, and measured building of tension.

But the key part of that is that curation. To utilize structure to best effect, it requires design— intentional choices made in what events occur when, with specific desired effects in mind. For events to have the greatest impact on the course of the story and, the development of the characters, they can’t just happen in any order or in any relation to each other; story events don't build properly upon one another or deliver their full effect when they occur in a completely uncontrolled way. For example, iIf you are unraveling a mystery, part of the appeal is acquiring each clue and encountering each complication in turn, with the opportunity to piece everything together and examine the picture step by step as it develops. If all the clues and secrets come together too immediately, the solution feels anticlimactic. If you are on a quest, the challenge of testing your mettle against obstacle and rising to the occasion to achieve your end is a huge part of the fun. If the ultimate prize is simply handed to you, the experience is short-circuited. Even if a character grows too much too easily, without any personal effort or cost, it feels cheap and unrealistic. Indeed, since goals become more important the harder you have to work for them, and easy achievements feel smaller than difficult ones, any resolution that comes too easily or too soon is going to feel less satisfying.

Roger Rabbit analysis drafting - "Noir and parody of noir"

breakinglight11 — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 17:05:35 GMT

Just doing some early drafting of my essay analyzing Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This is all rough and somewhat cursory-- I may want to reorder some of this later. But I'm working out some of the stuff I want to talk about now, specifically how it relates to the conventions of film noir.

The debt Roger Rabbit owes to the film noir conceit is clear. It has a setup straight out of a classic-- a disgraced private eye haunted by the demons of his past must take on a case for a person who challenges his dim outlook on life and the world. Said private eye, Bob Hoskins's Eddie Valiant, immediately calls to mind his detective predecessors of Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and even Jake Gittes, with his once-honorable career, his traumatic backstory, and his current bitter outlook leading him to become a disgraced alcoholic shadow of his former self.

It may seem all this care to evoke the tropes and traditions of film noir are just in the service of setting up the parody. And it is an excellent parody, given the skillful way it spins up many of the expected elements of noir. Roger is an extreme exaggeration of the holy fool the noir protagonist is often called upon to protect. Jessica is a deconstruction of the classic femme fatale. The primary thing Eddie is unable to believe in his the power of humor and laughter. But it doesn't stop there-- Roger Rabbit pulls off the remarkable feat of not only being a spot-on parody of a certain genre, it's actually a really strong entry in the genre itself.

Film noir is a bit tricky to define. Part of that difficulty comes from the fact that it refers to a weird blend of both a narrative genre AND a filmic visual style, and even then the constituent traits of these are not rigidly agreed upon. French critics Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton, whose 1955 book Panorama du film noir américain (A Panorama of American Film Noir) is considered the seminal work on the subject, cluster some descriptors around it, such as "oneiric, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel," but acknowledge this is an oversimplification.

However, an observation of the classics of the genre trend toward the inclusion of a handful of characteristics. The films tend to be shot from a flat, stark perspective, making using of off-kilter compositions and low-key, high-contrast lighting to a chiaroscuro effect. The stories tend to be less about their subject matter-- though there are a number of associated subjects, such as detective stories --and more about the mood of the world, the pervasive cynicism, and themes of guilt, regret, disappointment, tragedy, loss, and sometimes even the flickering flame of humanity to be found within people consumed by those things.

As mentioned, the film slots in unexpected and on their surface ridiculous elements into the typical roles characterizing film noir. But for all those roles are carried out by odd actors, they all perfectly fulfil the story mechanism that role is supposed to. Yes, Roger is an absurd cartoon rabbit person, but he still does exactly what the client character in the film noir detective story is supposed to do. His need for help calls upon the protagonist's better nature to take action even in a world he sees as hopeless and uncaring, and his personal qualities inspire that protagonist to reevaluate his own failings he'd previously allowed to go unexamined. And even though the vibrant animated characters and set pieces bring a visual exuberance to the screen, they serve to underscore the flatness, heavy shadows, and even bleakness of the way the surrounding world is shot.

More to come later.

New post on Mrshawking.com -- "How we built our prop victrola"

breakinglight11 — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 18:03:01 GMT

New blog entry on Mrshawking.com!

"How we built our prop victrola"

You may recall that when we were putting together Base Instruments for the first run at Arisia 2017, the challenge arose for us to somehow get the victrola prop that is a major presence in the story. While there are a number of record players on eBay and similar places that use the pressed vinyl disc, at this point in history the phonograph relied upon wax cylinders. It’s significantly harder to find even replicas of that older form of the technology. So we decided we would make one, and we'll be bringing it to our performances at the 2017 Watch City Steampunk Festival.

Read the rest of the entry on Mrshawking.com!

Vivat Regina and Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts will be performed at 2PM and 6PM respectively at 274 Moody Street in Waltham, MA as part of the Watch City Steampunk Festival 2017.

Accomplishment chart, 3/24 – 3/30

breakinglight11 — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 14:18:31 GMT

I am so busy. I am so very, very busy.

Accomplishment chart, 3/24 – 3/30

Writing
- plotting for Mrs. Hawking part 4
- drafting for prose project
- drafting for WFRR exegesis
- 3 LiveJournal entries

Theater
- attended 1 WCSF '17 organizers' meeting
- made a poster and banner for Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF 2017
- saw Endless Burlesque at Club Oberon
- had 2 rehearsals for Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF 2017
- agreed to direct The Murders in the Rue Morgue for PMRP

Gaming/Larp
- attended 1 Game Wrap editorial meeting

Costuming
- practiced corpse paint makeup

Website
- posted 1 blog entry to Mrshawking.com

Teaching
- graded 20 midterms for Writing and the Literary Arts class
- applied to 3 adjunct teaching positions
- made lectures with notes for week 2 of online Intro to Creative Writing class
- planned lessons for 3/26 and 3/28 for Writing and the Literary Arts class
- finalized week 2 class module for online Intro to Creative Writing class
- graded 9 #1 creative assignments for Intro to Creative Writing class
- wrote 3 mid-semester academic alerts
- agreed to teach Writing and the Literary Arts and English Composition classes at Lesley for fall 2017

Activism
- called my reps 2 days

Physical
- 2 one-mile run
- 2 fighter abs routines
- 2 two-mile runs
- walked 10,000+ steps 4 days
- walked 15,000+ steps 1 day

Media
- watched season 3 of Grace and Frankie
- listened to episodes 100 and 101 of Tom and Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinionfest
- listened to episodes 1 and 2 of Moviebob's podcast
- read sections 18-38 of “C.V.” of On Writing by Stephen King
- read act one of Fences play by August Wilson

Good teaching signs?

breakinglight11 — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 20:00:56 GMT

Oh, wow. I was going to complain about how little I wish to do actual work today, as I would much rather work on my exegesis of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which I've been chipping away at here and there for several months now. But I just got some statistical information about the student evaluations handed in for my three classes last semester. I averaged above a four out of five for all values my students could assess me on, which means they thought I did a good job-- a very good job, even. And I got contacted by the very nice humanities division director, who is not usually the person who reaches out to me about class availability, to ask me if I would take on some classes this fall. I'm not sure, but it felt kind of like there was specific desire to retain me, when usually I express my interest in being hired for classes if there any available. That is validating.

I am not a natural teacher; I wouldn't say I have much talent for it. I probably would not have characterized myself as a very good one. Decent, solid, perhaps, but not good. But I've been trying very hard to do a good job, and it pleases me to see that it's paid off in students who feel I did right by then, and said so to the school when asked about it. And hey, I have at least a couple classes nailed down for the fall already, with the possibility of more, so I don't have to stress out about that.

Guess I can't slack off now. Looks what I've been doing has been working.

Cool story about Jackie Robinson

breakinglight11 — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 19:40:42 GMT

I am reading the play Fences by August Wilson in preparation to teach it in my lit class, and I never realized before how important the integration of baseball is to the backstory of it. I am fascinated by that particular part of history, perhaps weirdly so, since I don't really care about sports in any other capacity. But I've always thought the way it developed was cool, and Jackie Robinson has been a hero of mine since I did a report on him in elementary school. He was an amazing, important man, and the more you learn about him, the cooler you discover he was.

So I'm going to tell you a neat little fact about him. Jackie Robinson is considered by some to be the father of the modern style of base stealing-- of attempting to advance to the next base at a time that is technically legal for the player to run, but is usually in too much danger of being tagged out to move any farther, by taking advantage of the other team's temporary distraction to take off.

The thing about Robinson was that he did it CONSTANTLY. He would press his luck as far as it would go to make any break he possibly could. He got tagged out ALL THE TIME, but he was also quick and clever and gutsy about it so he often got away with it and made it on base. The advantage of this was not the ground gained by base-stealing, but the effect it had on the other team and on the crowd. It drove the opposing pitcher CRAZY, because they were constantly distracted from pitching by the need to keep an eye on him, to always be ready to shift gears to try to tag him out. It would really throw them off their game and give Jackie's batting teammate an edge! Plus the crowd LOVED it. They couldn't wait to see what he was going to do, how he would shake things up with a sudden break that the other team would go crazy trying to cut off. The fans ate it up and it was part of why they came to love him as a player.

Robinson did an enormous amount for the advancement of civil rights, and one part of the way he did it was by being so likeable, so fun to watch on the field. It made people develop love and sympathy for him that started to change hearts and minds. He brought so much to the sport of baseball with dignity, courage, and kindness-- and just an amazing skill that helped grow and develop his craft.

Toolbox theory of storytelling

breakinglight11 — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 21:16:25 GMT

In the last several years of my becoming more of a serious writing, I've developed a particular system to think about it. I've found that whenever approaching a craft, it helps my brain a lot to think of it in terms of a series of concepts with specific definitions associated with certain purposes. I believe that crucial to understanding how something is done well is simply to be able to identify all the inherent parts and what they're doing in whatever piece you're examining. And knowing how to put those concepts into practice effectively enables a person to perform the art well.

For instance, I've always believed the reason why the French approach to cooking became so pervasive is because they did so much to define the concepts in an identifiable way and systematized their functions. This enabled a commonly understood language, which allowed for discussion between practitioners to relate to each other, instructors to communicate ideas to students, and culinarians to analyze what they observed in practice. I find this defining of the various concepts and giving them corresponding names to be really useful in identifying and quantifying the practice of an art, so this is the approach I take in my work with writing-- in analyzing it, in making it, and in teaching it.

Others may disagree, but I think when developing a piece of narrative art, the first thing to do is build the substance of it. This may be the result of my particular biases-- I freely admit this is influenced by my personal conviction that storytelling is a highly-considered design process, and coming from a drama background the necessity of STRUCTURING a story always seems paramount --but I tend to believe you need to know what your story is going to be about and what's going to happen in it before you should be worrying about how you're going to depict it. In other words, I usually suggest with any writing, figure out the substance of WHAT you want to say before you figure out HOW you want to say it.

So to do this, I like to think of the elements of storytelling as a toolbox full of tools that have closely defined functions that can perform particular jobs. In understanding what those tools are, you can understand what you can use them for, and therefore have the best possible control over the resulting effect their utilization has on your story. Knowing what the province of that tool is allows you to ask the right questions that will lead you to the appropriate design choice.

Let's take point of view as an example. Point of view can be divided, of course, into first person, second person, and third person point of view; we're all familiar with those. "I am experiencing story," versus "You are experiencing this story" versus "They are experiencing this story." But how do we describe all the things point of view encompasses? To get really precise, I like to break it down into Perspective, Bias, and Filter, each with a definition that enables you to focus on a small aspects of the storytelling that POV can affect.

Perspective deals with the nature of the narrator's identity, and all attendant features of what information they are physically able to take in. What is possible for them to know? What is possible for them to experience? The guy in the mailroom can't know what happened in the company's executive boardroom. The girl who doesn't speak Spanish can't tell you what the Spanish-speaking people around her are saying. A human being can't know everything that ever happened in the whole world. So these people can't tell us even if they wanted to. But the CEO, a native Spaniard, and an omnisicient narrator could. So the point of observation of that storyteller matters in what information is even possible for the reader to get.

Bias is what I use to describe how the narrator naturally interprets the information they take in. These are not their conscious views on the info, but the stuff that occurs to them automatically because of the assumptions that come from the way their experiences shaped them. A native earthling may compare the strange aliens to birds because that's the closest frame of reference they have. An abuse victim may view any conflict at all as a potential danger. A novice horseman may interpret a horse's violent reaction as a sign of aggression rather than fear. This colors their narration without their realizing it.

Filter, then, is what that narrator consciously chooses to mention or not mention. A person who suffered a trauma in the past may remember every moment but declare they don't want to talk about it. A morally questionable person may leave out details of their actions so that their behavior doesn't seem as repugnant. This shapes their narration because of their choices of what to say and what to leave out.

So, when you think about point of view being made up of what is possible to know, what is slanted about that knowledge, and what of that knowledge is presented or withheld, now you have more refines axes to consider how point of view is used in a given piece, and how you can make use of point of view in your own writing. Again, this level of precision prompts questions-- what information do I need possible? In that case, what sort of narrator is in a position to provide it? That sort of thing.

I put this to the test recently, when I assigned a midterm in my literature class. I asked my students to choose one of three possible premises for a story, and then make a series of design choices as to how that story might play out in utilization of the various narrative tools we'd studied in the class. I found that a lot of them had much better ability to decide on meaningful storytelling choices because they knew what each tool's function was. They could choose strong conflicts because they knew that conflict was supposed to provide a struggle for that character that was specifically challenging to the ways in which that character was currently deficient, and would have to grow and change in order to manage. They could choose effective settings because they knew setting provided context for the events based on time, location, and continuity of the universe. A lot of them who never thought they had the capacity to tell a story were better able to because the tool's definitions let them ask the right questions-- what would be the toughest thing for this character in particular? What did they need to develop in order to manage this challenge? Where were they going to end up once they'd grown that new strength? I took that as vindication that this approach works, not just as a working style and analytical process as it's been for me, but also as an effective way to teach writing and literary analysis to people who don't know how to do it.

Accomplishment chart, 3/17 – 3/23

breakinglight11 — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 14:30:12 GMT

Accomplishment chart, 3/17 – 3/23

Writing
- plotting for Mrs. Hawking part 4
- edited scene 2.5a for Vivat Regina, version 5
- drafting for prose project
- submitted Hood pilot to Bluecat Screenwriting Competition 2017
- 4 LiveJournal entries

Theater
- attended 1 WCSF '17 organizers' meeting
- had 4 rehearsals for blocking Nathaniel, Mrs. Braun, and Mr. Chernovsky in Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF 2017

Gaming/Larp
- signed up for Somewhere in the Wild West, Primal Spirits, and The Day We Came Home at Festival of the Larps 2017
- had Silver Lines fill at Festival of the Larps 2017
- sent out casting questionnaire for Silver Lines at Festival of the Larps 2017

Website
- made gallery of images for act II of Base Instruments at Arisia 2017 on Mrshawking.com

Teaching
- made lectures with notes for week 1 of online Intro to Creative Writing class
- finalized week 1 class module for online Intro to Creative Writing class
- graded 10 essays for Writing and the Literary Arts class
- designed midterm exam for Writing and the Literary Arts class
- graded 6 midterms for Writing and the Literary Arts class

Activism
- called my reps 3 days

Physical
- 2 two-mile runs
- 2 one-mile run
- 3 fighter abs routines
- walked 10,000+ steps 4 days

Media
- read sections 1-17 of C.V. in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
- watched Facing Exclusion: Pioneering Activists Harry Hom Dow and Tien Fu Wu play on livestream
- listened to episode 98 of Tom and Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinionfest

Pack that on to the schedule

breakinglight11 — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 18:30:47 GMT

I have reluctantly taken on a few more hours of tutoring this semester. I can really use the extra cash, for several reasons, not least of which because it's looking like I'll need to have some expensive dental surgery in the near future. Despite being told as recently as a couple years ago that they were fine, apparently my wisdom teeth are going to have to come out after all. I'm really unhappy about that, first because I do not relish the time spent out of commission due to how long it takes me to shake anesthetic. I might even need somebody to babysit me as I come out of it, as my history suggests it hits me very hard. The last time I had it when I was nineteen and had to be put under for a minor eye surgery, I was ridiculous and combative when I first woke up, then slept for like twelve solid hours, and then for the next day I was foggy, stupid, and not of totally sound judgment. Ugh. So at least for the beginning it's probably not the safest thing for me to be alone, but I hate to waste somebody's time with that.

And then there's the cost. It's looking to be extremely expensive, and my stupid insurance doesn't take much of a dent out of it. Overall, even before the extra hours I'm supposed to be making more this semester than last, but because of the schedule I'm getting paid on I haven't seen it yet, so this is a way of dealing with things more immediately. I'm not delighted to make my already full schedule even fuller, but I'm grateful that my work is flexible enough that I can do this at a time I need to. A lot of that is down to Bill, my awesome boss, so I'm particularly grateful for him.

Brain fog

breakinglight11 — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 15:20:16 GMT

Having a very hard time coming up with a coherent entry, yesterday and today. I tell myself to update my blog with SOMETHING even if I don't have anything brilliant to say, but this week I'm struggling to come up with ANYTHING at all.

It's been busy. Basically I dove back into everything the minute I got home from helping Bernie move into his new apartment in Virginia, which entailed preparing the first week's module of the online class I'm teaching, and Hawking rehearsals beginning again. Both things are going well, but it's been basically running from one responsibility to the next from getting up in the morning to going to bed at night, and I find that exhausting. I've also not been taking the best care of myself, eating too much junk and not getting enough sleep.

I have been writing, though. Because I've been out all day and unable to get home until late, I've been finding places to hide myself between schedule blocks, usually on the Lesley campus, and get a few moments of writing in here and there. So I suppose I haven't been completely consumed by work, but I've had to set very, very low productivity goals just to keep myself generating a little bit every day.

I can rest this weekend, fortunately. And I'm gonna.

TONIGHT: signups open for Festival of the Larps 2017!

breakinglight11 — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 20:20:27 GMT

Tonight at 7pm you can sign up for games at this year's Festival of the Larps at Brandeis University!

This is the totally free weekend-long larp convention in Waltham! It runs from the evening of Friday, April 28th, to the afternoon of Sunday, April 30th!

The schedule of signups is as follows:

- Monday, 20 March 2017, 7pm EDT - Sign-up for one game
- Tuesday, 21 March 2017, 7pm EDT - Sign-up for a second game
- Wednesday, 22 March 2017, 7pm EDT - Sign-up for as many games as you want!

You can check out the schedule of games to find a larp you might want to sign up for by clicking here!

I myself am running my five-person mystery larp Silver Lines on Saturday night of the event, which is set in the Mrs. Hawking universe and a ton of fun. It's so small I'm pretty sure it will fill fast, so I suggest you get in quickly if you'd like to play. :-)

As for tonight, I think I am going to use my first signup for Somewhere in the Wild West on Sunday afternoon, as I love westerns, but I'm still making up my mind. There are lots of awesome games, so I really think you should take a look and plan to come and join us at the end of April!

New gallery on Mrshawking.com -- Base Instruments, Act II from Arisia 2017

breakinglight11 — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 16:38:43 GMT

New gallery on Mrshawking.com!

Photography by Annushka Munch
Costume design by Jennifer Giorno
Makeup design by Jessicalee Skary
Set design by Bernie Gabin
Production design by Phoebe Roberts

"Base Instruments" Act II
by Annushka Munch

from "Base Instruments" at Arisia 2017

Featuring Cari Keebaugh, Circe Rowan, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, Arielle Kaplan, Eric Cheung, Sara Smith, Matthew Kamm, and Ava Maag.

Click here to view the gallery of images from the show!

The skill in imitation

breakinglight11 — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 01:46:57 GMT

One somewhat controversial thing I believe about writing is that it's very good to be able to imitate other writers' styles. Other writers and scholars thereof might disagree, failing to see any practical application for it, and protesting that it's more important to refine and develop your own unique voice rather than trying to copy someone else's. (You often hear that argument when people denigrate the writing of fan fiction.) But I maintain it's not only good practice, it's actually a skill worth having for its own sake.

Voice is an important aspect of writing, as it influences mood, feel, tone, and style. But I think an author shouldn't necessarily be limited, or limit themselves, to only one. As nice and useful as it can be to have a signature style, I think it's good to be able to adapt your writing to sound different for different pieces, or even for establishing different characters. If you don't find some way to be flexible that way, you run the risk of making everything sound the same no matter the feel of the piece you may be going for-- or worse, you make everything sound like you, which I find to be a sign of immature work. So imitating the sound of other writers' styles and voices is an exercise in developing your flexibility. It requires you to stretch yourself beyond your natural impulses or current artistics strengths in order to create something that sounds like someone else's work, which broadens the possibilities for what you're capable of depicting. It gives you more control over the voice you give any one project, and enables a wider variety of feels and effects you can impart to your work.

This for me ties into the appeal of fan fiction. I know not everybody is this way, but both when I'm reading and writing fan fiction, I'm looking for more of the story I already love, with more of the things I love about it. So I'm drawn to pieces that stylistically capture the soul of the original. That also means that when I'm writing it myself, that's what I'm shooting for-- something that believably feels like it could be part of what's canon. So I make a special effort to study and emulate the way the original material is written in my fic. The best job I ever did at this was with my piece for the BBC radio comedy Cabin Pressure. I wrote basically a script for an additional episode of the series which, after the fashion of its idiosyncratic episode titling system, I called "San Tropez". Cabin Pressure has a very specific, British style of humor with characters who have highly distinctive voices, and I worked very hard to capture them. If I may say so, I'm really proud of how good a job I did. I've gotten a number of comments from readers saying I nailed the style and voices exactly, and that it's both funny and extremely in character.

But not only do I think it's just good practice for increasing flexibility in other projects. I think it's actually a useful skill in its own right. For collaborative projects, particularly ones that run for a while and have teams of writers, being able to fit in with the "house style" is essential. I have dreams of someday writing for television, and writers' rooms have to have some degree of cohesion to make all the episodes feel consistent with each other. People tend to notice when the "voice" or "style" of a television show gets inconsistent or deviates from what is established, and reactions are usually disapproving. Sometimes it's even at fault for what people describe as Seasonal Rot. In that case it would be a necessity for me to be able to adapt to a certain voice that may or may not naturally be mine.

So it's more than just an amusing little "party trick" for writers of fan fiction. It's actually a powerful developmental tool for a writer to expand their toolkit, and sometimes even demanded by a collaborative situation to keep the pieces all cohesive. So I like challenging myself to play in someone else's sandbox every now and then.

Accomplishment chart, 3/10 – 3/16

breakinglight11 — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 15:48:37 GMT

Accomplishment chart, 3/10 – 3/16

Writing
- 1 LiveJournal entry
- edited Frasier spinoff pilot scenes into Stranger House ten-minute play

Theater
- submitted Stranger House ten-minute play for consideration for performance with Theatre@First's Festival@First
- had 1 blocking rehearsal for Nathaniel scenes of Vivat Regina

Teaching
- graded 12 essays for Writing and the Literary Arts class
- planning for 3/20 lesson for online Intro to Creative Writing class

Physical
- 2 days helping Bernie move
- 2 two-mile runs
- 2 fighter abs routines
- walked 10,000+ steps 4 days

Media
- saw Logan movie in theaters
- listened to episode 97 of Tom and Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinionfest

Cooking
- made turkey burgers with avocado and mushrooms
- made eye round steaks braised in marsala sauce with mushrooms and onions and steamed broccoli

Bernie's new place

breakinglight11 — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 23:05:03 GMT

This weekend I came up to Alexandria, Virginia to help Bernie move into his new apartment. He got a place just a five-minute walk from the patent office where he works, a small but very nice one-bedroom place in a fancy apartment building. I like it very much; it's a real grownup place, and a real change of pace from everything in Boston that all tends to be a bit older and more run down. This is all so nice and new, with amenities like a gym and a swimming pool. I'm spending the beginning of the week in Maryland to help him unpack and be together a little. I hope we can make it nice for him, and I may get to miss the worst of the snowstorm, as the DC area probably won't get it as bad.

I have a lot of work while I'm up here. Bernie's got to work of course during the day, so I guess it's not the biggest problem. But before I get back, I need to grade a ton of papers, put together the very first week of my online class and post it to the website, and prepare for the new round of Vivat Regina and Base Instruments rehearsals. So I can't entirely treat this like a vacation.

Accomplishment chart, 3/3 – 3/9

breakinglight11 — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 18:11:22 GMT

Accomplishment chart, 3/3 – 3/9

Writing
- drafting for prose project
- broke 10,000 words on prose project
- applied to 1 full-time writer job
- applied to 1 writing fellowship
- interviewed for writing job
- 1 LiveJournal entry

Website
- posted 1 blog entry on Mrshawking.com

Theater
- attended 1 WCSF '17 organizers' meeting
- confirmed performance space for Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF ‘17

Teaching
- wrote syllabus writing for Intro to Creative Writing online course
- planned 3/6 and 3/8 lessons for Writing and the Literary Arts
- made 5 introductory recordings for Intro to Creative Writing online course

Art
- practiced alternating knitting and purling
- drew portrait of Taraji P. Henson at 2017 Oscars

Activism
- called my reps 2 days

Physical
- 3 two-mile runs
- 2 fighter abs routines
- walked 10,000+ steps 3 days

Media
- read Murder in Three Acts novel by Agatha Christie
- listened to episode 96 of Tom and Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinionfest
- saw Get Out movie in theaters

Editing projects piling up on me

breakinglight11 — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 18:58:36 GMT

The most effective way of producing writing for me has always been the "vomit draft" method-- or, if you prefer a less disgusting description, the process by which you just make yourself write some garbage, no matter how badly it's coming out, until you have some semblance of a beginning, middle, and end such that you can by some measure call the draft "complete." I discovered this method in grad school, and it revolutionized the way I worked. Up to that point I was writing constantly, producing volumes, without ever actually finishing anything. I would try to edit as I go and end up spending forever tweaking individual sentences, or not actually writing things until I was certain I "knew what I wanted to do with them"-- which meant nothing ever actually got drafted. Now, whenever I have a project I want to work on, I make as detailed an outline as I can so I have a roadmap, then I just puke something out, and then go back and edit it after it's complete. I recommend this method to my students, or anyone struggling to write things, because you can fix something that's on the page-- you can improve a piece that doesn't even exist.

Lately though I've got a couple of "first drafted" projects laying around, technically complete but still in a state of garbageitude, waiting to be edited. As tough as I find drafting, I find editing to be even harder-- WAH WRITING IS HARD YOU GUYZ. Usually I push through the editing process fairly immediately, due to the fear of losing momentum, but I do find taking a short break from the piece can be helpful to looking at it with a more critical eye to improvement. However, I have to balance that, as I do lose momentum if I wait too long, or I rush it and don't always do the best job.

Right now I have two "technically complete" pieces laying around in first draft form, which is unusual for me. The first is my "Frasier" spinoff pilot, as yet unnamed, which I never dove into editing because something more pressing came up, though I currently can't remember what it was. That one has good bones but is pretty much a mess and will need a lot of fixing. I came up with a lot of things I wanted to do with it, but it's been long enough I'm a bit worried I won't be able to actually remember what they all are. I took some notes, but I'm not certain they're enough. This is hardly a pressing project, as there's nothing I can do with it, but I liked the concept and I'm going to fix it up at some point.

The second is a short story which I banged out over the last few weeks, mostly to get in a little practice as to writing prose. I find prose to be incredibly challenging, probably due to the fact that I've done so little study or practice of it in the last five to ten years while I've focused on drama. This will likely need a TON of work, again due to my inability. When I finished I wanted to take a nice break from it, and fortunately I have no preconceived notions of what it will need to improve, so I'm not worried about forgetting anything. However it will definitely need work before I show it to anyone, and the difficulty of that may make me avoidant over it. I will have to steel myself to get through, given that I struggle to believe my prose has the potential to not suck.

New post on Mrshawking.com -- "Cast lists for Watch City Steampunk Festival '17 shows!"

breakinglight11 — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 00:10:45 GMT

New post on Mrshawking.com!

"Cast lists for Watch City Steampunk Festival '17 shows!"

We have our current casts for our next round of shows at the Watch City Steampunk Festival 2017, Mrs. Hawking parts 2 and 3, Vivat Regina and Base Instruments!

Read the rest of the entry on Mrshawking.com!

Accomplishment chart, 2/24 – 3/2

breakinglight11 — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 14:26:24 GMT

Accomplishment chart, 2/24 – 3/2

Writing
- outlining plot for Mrs. Hawking part 4
- drafting for prose project
- finished drafting short story, version 1
- 2 LiveJournal entries

Theater
- held auditions for replacement roles for Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF ‘17
- cast actors for the roles of Nathaniel, Chernovsky, and Mrs. Braun at WCSF ’17
- made rehearsal schedule for Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at WCSF ‘17

Website
- made gallery of Act 1 photos of Base Instruments at Arisia ‘17

Teaching
- planned 2/28 and 3/1 lessons for Writing and the Literary Arts
- graded 3 essays for Writing and the Literary Arts

Art
- practiced alternating knitting and purling
- drew portrait of Janelle Monae at Oscars 2017

Activism
- called my reps 3 days

Physical
- 3 two-mile runs
- 2 fighter abs routines
- walked 10,000+ steps 3 days
- walked 15,000+ steps 1 day

Media
- listened to episode 95 of Tom and Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinionfest
- saw The Lego Batman movie in theaters
- read “Carnival, Las Tablas” short story by Cristina Henriquez

Cooking
- made broiled teriyaki salmon filet with steamed green beans
- made pork sausages with applesauce
- made turkey and avocado sandwiches

New page on Mrshawking.com -- "Gallery – Base Instruments at Arisia ’17 - Act One"

breakinglight11 — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 15:27:50 GMT

New gallery on Mrshawking.com!

"Gallery – Base Instruments at Arisia ’17 - Act One"

Photography by Annushka Munch
Costume design by Jennifer Giorno
Makeup design by Jessicalee Skary
Set design by Bernie Gabin
Production design by Phoebe Roberts

Arisia 2017

Base Instruments - ACT I

Featuring Cari Keebaugh, Circe Rowan, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, Arielle Kaplan, Matthew Kamm, Eric Cheung, Sara Smith, Andrew Prentice, Isaiah Max Plovnick, Ava Maag, Sara Dion, and Travis Ellis. Photography by Anna Muench with costume design by Jenn Day.

"I am a hundred percent not Bruce Wayne."

breakinglight11 — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 16:34:26 GMT

I saw the Lego Batman movie this past weekend and it was a blast. I spent about seventy-five percent of the film cracking the hell up, more so than the mostly families with children that surrounded me, to the point where they might have even been a little annoyed. But not only is it funny for its own sake, I think it's WAY BETTER if you are a serious Batman fan. The film is a parody, the best of which have a deep understanding of the narrative being parodied. These writers must have been real fans, because all the humor and the essential spin on the storyline came from a real understanding of the essentials of Batman. As a person who has spent MANY HOURS picking apart the character and the most significant storylines, I had such an appreciation for what very well may be evidence of the work of very similar kinds of nerds. Because even on top of all the great jokes, the central struggle was based in the true heart of Batman-- his fear of getting close to people will just result in him getting hurt again, and they conveyed that in really effective terms. I wouldn't exactly say it had a ton of dramatic weight, but it was grounded in a real story that fit the character well.

So I highly recommend it. It may be the strictly best movie involving the character that's not part of the DCAU.

Some stuff I loved about it, in no particular order, with a spoiler warning:

- The driving conflict of the narrative was the Joker's need to be the most important person in Batman's life, manifesting as an obsessive romance with an emotionally withholding person
- Will Arnett's hilarious, gravelly, douchey performance, particularly in how Bruce Wayne was basically a non-self-loathing Bojack Horseman.
- Batman's persistent "fuck that Superman guy" resentment
- They embraced the father-son relationship between Alfred and Batman and Batman and Robin
- The basic acknowledgement that a Batman left to his own devices is kind of a huge douchebag and needs other characters like Robin affecting him to make him tolerable
- The romantic song playing in the background when Batman first lays eyes on Barbara Gordon is "I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight"
- "Batman lives in Bruce Wayne's basement?" "Bruce Wayne lives in Batman's attic!"
- COSTUME TRYON MONTAGE
- Batman flopping around on the ground in protest of Alfred making him do stuff. (Bernie's comment: "Oh, my God, you are Batman.")
- The fact that the JLA doesn't invite Batman to parties because he's no fun to be around
- I have never actually enjoyed Michael Cera in any role before, but he was pretty great as Robin
- Barbara being played by Rosario Dawson, who I love, not least because she's CLAIRE TEMPLE AND I LOVE CLAIRE
- Barbara says there's gotta be a better way to deal with crime than just letting "Batman beat up poor people."
- The weird voice they gave Bane to make fun of the weird voice Tom Hardy used in Dark Knight Rises.
- The writing for the Joker is strong enough to make up for the fact that Zack Galifinakis is COMPLETELY BLAND and A TOTAL WASTE OF THE ROLE.
- Ellie Kemper's weird and weirdly adorable little cameo.
- Superheroes without pants jokes.
- When the Joker infiltrates the Batcave, he puts his butt on all Batman's stuff. (Bernie's comment: "OH, MY GOD, YOU'RE THE JOKER TOO!")
- Because they had Ralph Fiennes already in the cast as Alfred, they had him play Lego Voldemort too.
- The ceaseless mocking of earlier, more self-serious Batman films
- The final saving of the city involves SHREDDED ABS, which one could argue were seeded like a Chekov's gun throughout. So you could say it was a CHECKOV'S GUN SHOW WHAAAAAAAT
- "I AM A HUNDRED PERCENT NOT BRUCE WAYNE."

For the start of Lent tomorrow

breakinglight11 — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 14:22:46 GMT

Today is Mardi Gras, which means that the start of Lent is tomorrow. I like to observe Lent in some way, mostly as an exercise in self-discipline for a structured duration for a good cause. Traditionally the observance is giving up some indulgence, particularly one that isn't good for them. Most people now interpret with something food-related; I myself used to use processed sugar as my go-to, and while that would probably be good for me right now, I think I'd like to use it as an opportunity to change some behavioral habits that I'd like to improve in some way.

Last year for Lent I gave up procrastination, and that was actually pretty good for me. I resolved to do the things I needed to at their appointed time, rather than putting them off to the last minute, as well as cutting down on "screwing around time," like being on Twitter when I should have been working or something. I think I'd like to do something like that again. I feel like my work habits need an overhaul, as I've fallen back into the struggle to get my head into whatever I'm doing, and being highly distractable, even from tasks I theoretically want to do. I am going to devise a system that I will stick to for Lenten period, and see if in that time it gets more natural or automatic.

I like giving it a shot over Lent because doing it for a set period makes it feels easier than just "you have to work hard on this forever indefinitely." And with that period of practice, it might get easier to implement on a consistent basis. Structure always helps my brain, and lately I can use a dose of it to get me back on track.

Accomplishment chart, 2/17 – 2/23

breakinglight11 — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 16:06:39 GMT

Accomplishment chart, 2/17 – 2/23

Writing
- drafting for prose project
- drafting for short story
- outlining plot for Mrs. Hawking part 4
- 4 LiveJournal entries

Gaming/Larping
- GMed Silver Lines for friends

Teaching
- planned 2/23 lesson for Writing and the Literary Arts
- graded 20 essays for Writing and the Literary Arts
- did week 2 module of Teaching an Online Course workshop

Art
- learned how to cast off knitting
- learned how to knit the garter stitch and purl stitch

Activism
- called my reps 2 days

Physical
- 2 two-mile runs
- 3 fighter abs routines
- walked 10,000+ steps 1 day

Media
- listened to episode 94 of Tom and Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinionfest
- read “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Cooking
- made filet mignon with steamed broccoli
- made sausage sandwiches with carrot sticks, almonds, apples, grapes, and cheese and crackers