Best Lj School Listing EVAR!!!

[wednes]

And I'm so bummed I didn't think of it myself.

Just keep in mind that the real school will have to be at least three times this size...

Your LJ Halloween Party by cerulean_dreams
Username
What are you going to be for Halloween?
Dressed up as a Vampire	jezaimee
Came as a psycho Clown	lickingtoad
Dressed up as a Nudist	raggedrose
Came as a Sexy Witch	sugarytea
Painted themselves yellow and ran around screaming	emperorsamir
Dressed up as a Pirate	slapnticklejr
Wore a Catwoman outfit	porcelain72
Dressed up as Dr. Frankenfurter	mediocratez
Spiked the Punch	joe_christ
Is coming after you with a real knife	near_dark
Quiz created with MemeGen!

While I'm here, I beleive I'll post my one word review of the Family Guy movie: Meh. As we observed during the special features, "mildly amused" pretty much sums it up. Some very funny moments, and a slightly better plot than we often get on the TV. But all in all, I didn't laugh as much as I expected it to do. You'd think people would have learned from South Park that shocking us with vulgarity is fine but it's still absolutley critical that you be funny.

Myself, I only do funny in a casual way. I would never attempt to do it professionally. In all seriousness, I think that comedy writers tend to be more screwed up emotionally than people who do horror. No, I'm not basing this on anything but my own impressions. But I think horror writers (the good ones, not the book equivalent of a slasher movie) are more prone to be introspective. They probably have a better understanding of insanity just because they need it for thier work. Comedy writers, OTOH, are funny to keep from dealing with overwhelming things plaguing them in real life: repression, rage, intense fears, all kinds of crap. I guess I suspect this because that's what I use comedy for in real life, but my writing is totally separate from that. My writing is much more sarcastic than funny, which I guess sarcasm is just wit with a bunch of anger thrown in for good measure. Anyone feel me on this?

Comments

Re: Hmmm...I grasp the point...

[wednes.livejournal.com]

You make some very good points here. I do find that I want my horror stories to be relentless and intensely psychological. As such, I find that they are not as commercial as other things I come across.

I have done a few short stories that are structured and have a punchy ending. Even though they get good responses, I just don't like them as much as the more personal accounts of real life terror. They just don't mean as much to me.

That said, my approach to NaNoWriMo this year is something more structured so I can see how organic I can still be with character development. I really hope it's possible that I can write something structured with wide appeal and still be true to myself. I suspect that an MFA in creative writing would help me there. As soon as I get it together to take the GRE, I'm going to start applying. Of course, I've been saying that for several years now.

Re: Hmmm...I grasp the point...

[paulcurtis.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's usually most satisfying when one's horror writing evokes an actual emotion...I've just found that the results are much more likely to satisfy everybody when that heartfelt feeling is draped over a structure, rather than presented INSTEAD of structure.

The best result is when the reader is so wrapped-up in the story, there is no sense that it is following a pattern. At best, there should be a delicious moment where the reader wonders, "Where is this GOING?!" ...but the challenge is to make sure that it actually goes somewhere.

My favorite example of a movie that gets almost all the way there, is JEEPERS CREEPERS...and then the last five minutes fall completely flat, ruining all that has gone before. I've had a roomful of people shout "THAT'S the ENDING!?" when I showed it to them. And if you listen to the Director's commentary, he thinks it's a GOOD ending!

Re: Hmmm...I grasp the point...

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Oh man...Jeepers Creepers was such a huge dissapointment. One of the classic terrible endings, like "It" or Alien 4. And yeah, it's so much worse when it's good all the way through and then suddenly falls flat.

Actually, ID4 was also this way. Started out with scary alien action and ended up a pandering peice of fluff. Damn shame.