Production Principles – Creative Writing
This post contains all my creative writing work
For this rotation we analysed how to create an interesting story. In summary, the most important things to have are a dark or otherwise unpleasant character and a mystery of some kind (even if you’re not writing a horror story) that the reader wants to figure out. One short story in particular that really drew me in was the opening of Axolotl by Julio Cortazar:
"There was a time when I thought a great deal about the axolotls. I went to see them in the aquarium at the Jardin des Plantes, and stayed for hours watching them, observing their immobility, their faint movements. Now I am an axolotl."
To me, this was deeply unsettling. I have a horrible fear of regressing- into an animal, a child, or being otherwise helpless. Media of any kind where someone has their limbs removed haunts me, as do my nightmares about being turned into an animal against my will. I remember one nightmare where the devil character from The Ballard Of Buster Scruggs (2018) was going to turn me into a monkey-human creature as I was chained to a prison bed. I know where these fears come from but I won’t go into them here- however I know its a very specific, particular fear and that’s why it stuck out to me so much. I was caught off-guard reading this opening that pinpointed my biggest fear when I wasn’t expecting it. However, I can imagine that others without this specific fear would also be deeply unsettled by the mystery and strange lack of fear present in the text; why is this person an axolotl? Why do they seem so calm about it? How did they become one? Are they literally one, or has something changed in their brain? Is it a metaphor? Etc…
The opening of Viewfinder by Raymond Carver is also unsettling, for similar reasons:
"A man without hands came to the door to sell me a photograph of my house. Except for the chrome hooks, he was an ordinary looking man of fifty or so. "How did you lose your hands?" I asked after he'd said what he wanted. "That's another story," he said. "You want this picture or not?""
The real appeal of this story lies in the mystery- there is no outright dark or unpleasant character, although the reader certainly feels unsettled by the man’s lack of hands, he isn’t necessarily a threat. The mystery lies in the reader wondering what the connection is between the picture and the man’s hooks. There is obviously a connection, but it’s not explained. Furthermore, the reader could conclude that taking the picture, or interacting with this man, could somehow make you lose your hands (whether they’re taken by someone, perhaps as payment for the photo, or by a mysterious force).
For our homework, we had to write a short story or opening of a short story of our own. It must be 150 words maximum, which is a challenge for me. I like to use a lot of imagery in my writing so to challenge myself further I want to write the full short story rather than the opening, so I have to force myself to really get straight to the meat of the mystery and unsettling atmosphere. Without flowery language, the subject of your words becomes much more important than how you say them (not that that’s not important either). You’re left with only a few words to express yourself with so the more impactful the language, the better it can tell the audience how to feel about your story.
My Short Story: (prompt: “this has to stop”)
My brain pulses. Oblivion, eyes skyward, skin wracked with sweat. The world swings, reverses, and spirals down. I change angle, change everything and the intestinal strings slither and wretch from my bloodstained eyes to touch and teethe the mirror’s.
Vigor, clots, fluids, blood, hormones, whores, horror. I see me, him, me looking back at me- no, him. Teeth silver sickles, sharp, cutting, scraping, using me, in, out, up, down, side to side and all again, again. Wringing me like a mongrel’s scratched up, fucked up toy, Wrench, writhe, wriggle, twitch, throw, drain me as the blood chokes out of me in a cataractic downpour.
Floor-bound, I distort, bones breaking, shedding snake-skin and sit up.
I did this.
As a note, I know Cataractic isn’t a word. However, Clockwork Orange uses an idiolect to get its point across so I have here too, albeit briefly.
This piece is about the painful process of reinventing yourself. As tempting as it is, especially when you have problems with yourself (however they’re caused) or how you’re perceived, the process always involves acting in a way untrue to your real self. People can sense this, so to reinvent yourself fully you have to destroy yourself. It’s only tempting because you think it can fix you- in a way that’s the easier way out. I wanted to make this piece have sexual imagery and energy to drive home the violent, bodily message as well as to drive home the personal nature of my subject matter. In addition, I wanted to compare the “dance” of sex and relationships with others to the one with yourself, highlighting how your relationship with yourself can be just as impactful, or vicious, as one with someone else.
Final Reflection:
Note: this is the same writing from my final production principles PDF.
I was very proud of my final outcome, and pushed myself hard to achieve it. I wanted to create a piece that had a natural rhythm when spoked and emotive language to create a horror focussed atmosphere. I think this was very successful, but know that without my explanation on what it’s about, it would be difficult to understand what’s going on. I feel I could have improved on the clarity but worry that would take away from the impactful word choices.
I’ve always enjoyed creative writing, but creating a story so short with my very wordy, detailed style was a huge challenge. One thing I’m happy with is my approach to choosing the language- I went into this with a set goal and aesthetic, and kept writing and rewriting until I’d achieved exactly what I had in mind. In contrast, I think I could have done better with my approach to imagery. I have several different image ‘families’ in this, such as animal imagery, gore imagery, sexual imagery, etc, which I feel could have been more focussed and effective if I had spent more time creating mind-maps and plans of themes to use.
For my concept, I wanted to depict the process of reinventing yourself. Being a personal topic to me, it wasn’t too difficult to get the potent emotions I wanted into the piece. I spent hours choosing the exact right words to get these emotions across to readers, which was a challenge that I’m glad I overcame. I feel that my overall concept could have been narrowed and made less personal to just me, making it more relatable so more people could understand what I was going for instead, which is something I’ll have to think about in future works.