Like most of Peter Chung’s animations, AEon Flux is a strange concept. Centred around the scantily clad titular female character, the series’ stories, which are set in a bizarre dystopian future, focus on AEon’s missions to infiltrate the headquarters of her sometimes-enemy sometimes-lover, Trevor Goodchild, a technocratic leader. This usually involves AEon using her sexuality to overcome male guards or spies, which, more often than not, has little relevance to the story. The series is presented in a manner to be taken seriously, which makes it even more off-putting. That said, the animation style is very Americanised, leaning to towards realism rather than the softened style of anime, and is quite good. Since the stories are incomprehensible nuggets between moments of nudity and sex, I can’t recommend it. Even the horny teenage boys it’s targeted at will find it bizarre. One star. |
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Interested in Speculative Fiction (horror, fantasy, and science-fiction)? Then come and check out KSP's Speculative Fiction writing group. Normally we meet from 10am to 12noon on the second Sunday of the month but this month we're meeting this Sunday 15 March and special guest speculative fiction poet Joanna Fay will be attending. I hope to see you there.
Some inspirational writing advice on overcoming writer's block from some of literature's best: 20 Writers on Overcoming Writer's Block.
I'm looking forward to the online course the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre is running on Practical Creativity. Where: from the comfort of your own home. When: Three weeks from Monday 16 March, via email. Limited to 20 participants. Costs: $100 KSP-members, $150 others Requirements: Email Bookings: Email [email protected] or phone 08 9294 1872 “Thinking is the ultimate human resource.” Edward de Bono.
As a writer, how do you just sit down and be creative? Is it natural or can it be trained? Have you ever felt the pressure to create actually prevents your flow and causes a mental block? Want to learn how to break this?? This online course leads you through three stages of story creation: nurturing the spark of your ideas; creating living, breathing people; and shaping your material to suit your writing goals. Included are step-by-step ways to access your creative brain and overcome blocks, with the option of submitting work for helpful personalised feedback from Valerie Parv, an internationally best-selling author who has sold over 29 million copies of her books. Over the three modules, you’ll develop strong story ideas and people them with characters you can’t wait to write about. Week One will begin with Accessing Your Muse. Valerie Parv, Australian Society of Authors ASA Medal recipient 2014/2015, is one of Australia’s most successful authors with more than 29 million copies of her books sold, translated into 26 languages and as ebooks. The State Library of NSW collects her literary papers as an ongoing project and she mentors new writers through the Valerie Parv Award created in her honour by Romance Writers of Australia. She holds a master of arts from Queensland University of Technology, and is the first Australian author to receive a Pioneer Award from RT Book reviews, New York. She has served as an Australia Day Ambassador for the past decade. In recent years she has ventured into science fiction romance with her Beacons series of ebooks published by Corvallis Press, USA, starting with Birthright and Earthbound, with Homeworld and two related novellas in the series. Valerie was the established writer in residence at Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre in 2012. She is an in-demand presenter of masterclasses and popular speaker including at Romance Writers of America national conference and RT Book Reviews, New York, and is represented by The Tate Gallery, Sydney [email protected] I attended a fantastic workshop with inspirational Horst Kornberger on Sunday at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre called Overcoming Writer’s Block.
After an enthralling recital of the myth of Taliesin, Horst spoke of the difference between imagination and intellect in creative writing – the former evokes inspiration and emotion, while the latter dulls, if not neuters, creativity. During the workshop, Horst led us through four creative writing exercises, each developing on the last. We imagined every being and thing we have inhabited throughout history and wrote of this experience, and then focused on bringing one of these experiences to life in our writing. We wrote from the perspective of an animal, inhabiting the creature and relaying its experience, and then, using short phrases, inspired each other to write about another’s experience. Throughout it all, Horst was adamant that we do not write our stories. Rather, like the bards and druids of Celtic culture, we enter portals into other times and other beings, inhabiting these characters and situations, who guide our telling of their story. Only by fully inhabiting these beings can we tell authentic stories. The way to write affective stories, Horst says, is to find an image that prompts a strong feeling and use this as a guide, following the images it prompts. Bad writing, he says, comes from not following the feeling, and instead following the intellect, which tries to control and distort the story that wishes to be told through you. If at any time you lose the feeling, Horst suggests going back to the original inspirational image and write until the feeling returns. The feeling, he says, is the key to knowing you’re on the right path. And the best way to maintain this connection with the feeling is to write through the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. This way, the writing comes alive for both the writer and the reader. Horst was a fount of inspirational writing wisdom. While so much of what he said was inspiring, the one piece of advice that resonated the most for me is that anyone who wants to succeed in creative writing shouldn’t insert their writing around their regular life practices. Rather, you should insert your life around your regular writing practice. Horst’s enthusiasm for inspiration and storytelling left a positive impression all that attended the workshop and we were all enriched by his presence and wisdom. If the above interests you, please check out Horst’s other workshops and his books, The Writer's Passage and The Power of Stories, which I highly recommend. The arts are often maligned in favour of science, which provides us with hard, cold facts and material results. While these have their place in our life, when was the last time discovering a fact brought meaning into your life? That’s what the arts are for – they allow us to find meaning in life, to feel and know what it’s like to be human by connecting with others through artwork. Writing and reading stories does this. It’s what our fast-paced, fact-focused world needs more of.
So what was the last story you read or watched that made you feel something or that resonated with you? For me, it was watching the acclaimed animation Frozen last night. While I’m not fond of musicals (Sweeny Todd is an exception), Frozen, through it’s portrayal of Elsa, who needed to stop repressing her ice powers to prevent her from hurting others, revealed the importance of needing to let myself out of the emotional prison I trap myself in and just be myself. In a society that encourages people to repress our emotions, this is an important message for people of all ages. While the film is targeted at children, it illustrates my point: stories have something important to teach us about ourselves. This role of art in our society is an important one. Expand this theory to more mature, literary fiction, and it demonstrates that supporting literature in our community supports the community’s wellbeing. Not only does supporting local artists help local artists, but it promotes local stories that will resonate more deeply with small community such as Western Australia, that it stemmed from. So, the state government’s recent announcement of making the WA Premiere’s Book Awards a bi-annual event instead of an annual one is a disservice, not only to the writers who it promotes, but also to the community’s readers and indeed the community itself. A community that is unwell and not self-aware is not a productive one. Take note, WA state government; withdrawing funds from one area to support another only creates more problems. So please, restore the literary award to a annual event. For more information on the debate about the government’s recent decision and some great reads, please check out the wonderful blogs of WA Authors Meg Caddy, Amanda Curtin, and Emily Paull. And, I’m genuinely interested to hear your comments about the most recent story that moved you, resonated with you, or taught you something important about yourself or life in the comments section. The man behind the awesome Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and the recent Avengers movies offers his top ten tips of writing: http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/13/joss-whedons-top-10-writing-tips/ Well worth reading.
Some great writing advice from writing guru Stephen King here:
http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2015/02/24/stephen-king-everything-you-need-to-know-about-writing-successfully/?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits Thanks to Cathy Cat for the link. |
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