I completely forgot about making a post to the blog because I had almost forgotten clubs existed at all, what with them being cancelled for most of April and May. So I'll be making two blog posts today. Last Tuesday we talked about tips for dealing with writer's block. Or rather, Julia P. did, and I was there. We all know that just telling yourself to get over it and write is not the best strategy, especially since student writers like us are self-motivated already. That is why we turned to the internet and found a number of amazing websites. They range from short prompts to tips and tricks and they are if nothing else very inspiring.
I'll put them all here:
http://writeordie.com/
http://www.webook.com/911writersblock
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-websites-writers-cure-writers-block-freewriting-exercises/ 

Today we did sort of an introduction to a lesson about humor writing, with a joke writing activity. We pulled randomly from 2 categories, one would be a common situation/place/event, such as "airport" or "stubbing your toe" and a random person such as "pizza guy" or "Beyonce." Then a joke would be formed about the two of them, such as Jordyn's with hipster and a fire: Why did the hipster beat up the fireman? Because he wanted to see the house before it was cool!
The results were not that amazing, because the situation was rather forced, but it teaches a lesson about how comedy works, by taking familiar concepts and making odd connections or observations about them, We will go more into how comedy works next week!

Today we looked at a wonderful literary project for inspiration, called The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig It started out at this website, which is actually a Tumblr with a purchased domain, meaning you can follow them easily. Essentially what it is is a collection of words invented to describe unnamed and pointedly obscure human concepts. Each one is defined beautifully.
They recently made a youtube channel, which you can look at here. They are masterful in their command of cinematography which just adds to their intelligent concept. It's awesome and you should check it out.
In case you aren't sold, here's an example:

lachesism
n. the desire to be struck by disaster—to survive a plane crash, to lose everything in a fire, to plunge over a waterfall—which would put a kink in the smooth arc of your life, and forge it into something hardened and flexible and sharp, not just a stiff prefabricated beam that barely covers the gap between one end of your life and the other.\

How awesome is that?
This serves as inspiration in several ways. The first is that it inspires us to create our own words. From Shakespeare to Dr. Suess, authors have created their own words to describe things that they feel don't have the proper existing vocabulary for them.
Second, this is all an example of how abstract writing can be. This is not a book nor is it poetry. It is not fantasy nor is it non-fiction.
Finally, we've been talking about short films, and just look at the YouTube channel. It's brilliant.

This week's writing prompt: Invent a new word and use it in a current work of yours or write its definition.

Last Tuesday in coordination with the opportunity to write scripts for short videos, we talked about what it takes to write a short story. We look at this article in combination with this one. They are more oriented towards written stories, but had helpful tips. We especially liked the idea of the logline, which puts the premise of your story into one sentence (without spoilers).
Then we compared the similarities and differences of short films and stories. For example, while a short story is limited by word count so details may not be in the writer's best interest to dwell on, films are lengthened only by adding plot, with the exception of film techniques like slow motion or prolonged scenery shots. Also, short stories are viewed by an audience with a fair amount of suspended disbelief, while films are expected to seem real.
This week's writing prompt: write a script!!!