Category Archives: Our Favorite Fiction

What are some of the books, movies, or TV that we the Fictorians love?

Zootopia

A Guest Post by Peter Clampton

As an avid movie goer, I have found myself over the years experiencing a stark range of emotions as I sit down in front of the large silver screen. With the wide array of movies now, you know there are going to be ones you like, others you dislike. Some are complete and utter crapshoots, which most of the time don’t land on 7. However for the first time since I’ve gone to a movie I have to say I was completely and utterly left without words to describe my surprise. When I walked into Zootopia I was expecting another forced “Kid’s movie” with clichés, and silly forced humor. Instead I found the best movie I’ve seen in a long time.

This movie, simply put, is beyond good. If you haven’t watched this movie, stop reading this article, it will spoil the movie, and go buy a ticket to see it today!

For those who have already seen it, stick around because I’m going to talk about one aspect of Zootopia’s excellence that I noticed right away that has separated it from other films. Its story plotting.

RELUCTANT PARTNER -- Fast-talking, con-artist fox Nick Wilde is not really interested in helping rookie officer Judy Hopps crack her first case. Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, and produced by Clark Spencer, Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Zootopia" opens in theaters on March 4, 2016. ?2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
RELUCTANT PARTNER — Fast-talking, con-artist fox Nick Wilde is not really interested in helping rookie officer Judy Hopps crack her first case. Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, and produced by Clark Spencer, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Zootopia” opens in theaters on March 4, 2016. ?2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

Now as writers we know effective scene writing comes in how every scene builds and adds to your story, especially in movies where you have only so much screen time to work with. A scene that pushes the plot while illuminating character, themes and world building will always be preferable over something that just looks cool, but does nothing to add to the overall story movement. It is in this aspect, Zootopia is flawless.

In the beginning we are introduced to Zootopia’s main star, Judy Hops. A determined and stubborn rabbit who dreams of becoming ZPD’s (Zootoopia Police Department), very first bunny cop. The greatness of this scene is not only does it work to endear us to Judy, but it also serves up powerful priming for the stories themes of predator vs. prey. We are shown the first conflict to Judy’s police dreams and see that the odds are stacked against her, and so are her parents. However within the first 7 minutes of the movie we know her motivations and witness that she is capable of reaching her goal when she steals back the carnival tickets. We are also sold on Judy character because “she doesn’t know when to quit.”

Now of course we already know the answer, but it is this presentation of the conflict, with the character arc as well as the theme in the movie that this opening is only the first of many well-conceived scenes throughout the movie. Even the fact it was a school play makes a pseudo effective way of getting around the usually weak voice over narrative trope, (Which is a big break on SHOW vs. Tell), but this movie gets away because the theme is demonstrated again and again, in EVERY SCENE throughout the movie.

From even as simple a scene as when Judy enters the city by train and the song “Try Everything” is playing, Zootopia is already priming the setting for pivotal scenes to occur throughout the movie. As introducing the minor character of Gazzelle and the world of Zootopia, with its diversity.

This diversity then illuminates another theme of “the small town kid enters big city” as Judy goes on to learn that Zootopia is far from a Utopia, and that even though she accomplished her goal there is a lot more she has to prove. I want to note that only one scene, the train scene, has transpired before the plot and conflict is again evolved and presented. From her defunct cramped apartment to her lowly assignment as a meter maid, we now see that Judy has to reconcile with her crumbling expectations of Zootopia, and her dreams to be a “real cop.” Not only do these scenes work to build up to the main story conflict within the movie, but in one seriously slick scene we are introduced to Zootopia’s other star, Nick Wilde the fox, who cons a popsicle out of Judy and some elephants. This is an article about plotting but I just want to mention offhandedly how choosing a fox to star along a rabbit builds wonderfully into the themes of tolerance and diversity. Two natural enemies who have to work together and in the end become friends…way to hit it on the head Disney.

Anyway back to plotting. For the final scene of the first act before the main conflict of the movie, we get a chase scene where Judy chases down a thieving weasel.

bunny1Judy is banging her head while hating life because she is a simple meter maid, and doubts if she is even a “real cop.” Then the opportunity comes where she must chase down the weasel through the mouse district of Zootopia. During the chase she is shown righting the wrongs by correcting toppled houses and saving a small vole from being crushed by a giant donut. Judy eventually catches the weasel, using the giant donut and confiscates his bag of “onions.”

Simple chase scene right? Wrong. This scene is another great example as everything from even the blocking of the action in the scene builds to add to the story world and plays into the plot while also being fun to watch.

Focusing on just pure plotting elements Judy’s little hoorah in “Little Rodentia” sets the stages for three major obstacles in the stories main plot. The first is when we meet the character “Mr. Big,” who we see is simple a tiny vole mob boss in the vein of “the Godfather,” who has no problem “icing” our stars.When all seems lost we learn that the vole that Judy saved earlier is indeed the Mob bosses beloved daughter, who vouched for Judy, and saved both Nick and Judy from a watery grave.

The second major plot point set up in this scene is the name and eventual identity of the “nighthowler” flowers which are causing the residents of Zootopia to go crazy. It’s subtle but when Judy is talking to Chief Bogo after the chase she drops the name “Midnicampum holicithias,” priming us to see and recognize this plant when we learn that rabbits and foxes call them by different names.

This also in-turn solves the last conflict of where Judy knows where and how to find the nighthowlers because she tracks down our weasel illegally bootlegging Disney movies solving the problem of finding the location of who exactly is using the flowers in the first place. Not bad for a single chase scene, huh?

Now it should be noted that this is Disney’s longest animated feature film to date with a run time twelve minutes shy of two hours. Easily exceeding traditional limits applied for family films, it is no easy task to tell a crime detective story in that time frame. So the fact they managed that, along with astounding characterizations, as well as the appeal to children boasts significantly to its writing chops.

Zootopia is an amazing movie from top to bottom, and though I don’t want to call it perfect, I’ve been hard pressed to figure out why not. With its presentation of plot, story and its amazing environment and characters Zootopia is a marvel of classic and modern day storytelling wrapped into one. Watch it at least twice, you won’t be sorry.

Onyie 4Peter Clampton is an author, a dreamer and most importantly a man with a vision. It’s a simple vision really. He is working to become a great story teller and hopes to share light through stories and enable others to do the same. He is Author of the Post-apocalyptic Western series “The Girl and The Beast,” which can be viewed, along with his other fiction on his website www.Peterclampton.com.

The Twilight Zone

A Guest Post by Matthew Becket

Warning: This post is not a safe alternative to nicotine.

Guilty pleasures. I have two of them while watching TV, the unrelated duo are scifi/horror anthologies and infomercials. This time we’ll focus on the first thing. I’ll share my thoughts on the Ninja Blender and that wacky garden hose you can fold up in your pocket for another entry.

Give me the grit, give me those low budget masterpieces from the eighties, then sit my happy little bum in front of the TV and I won’t make any noise but laughter for a good ten hours. I see through the camp and I imagine the script, but more importantly the script writer. I visualize the poor bastard pounding out his manuscript on a tight deadline and an even tighter budget just to give me and my comrades (assuming I’m not alone in this) an irremovable smile. But here’s a question—Is this good writing?

I want to say “no” right off the bat. I should, but I can’t, not completely. All these anthologies (by the way, I’m mostly referring to Tales From the Darkside and Monsters, two gems from the eighties that I cannot part with) have a Grandaddy, a Master, an I’m-way-better-than-you prototype. I only need to say three words – if I’m lucky it may even make you tingle when you read them. You may even hear a certain song.

The Twilight Zone.

SerlingRod Serling. Rod Serling. Rod Serling. The man almost wants me to take up smoking. He held that lit thing in his hand and bravely gave the intro to each and every original episode. And did you know he wrote ninety-two? Yep that’s right, ninety-two of the one hundred fifty-six episodes were written by Mr. Serling. I’ve read a few in script form, but also as short stories—they’re beautiful. I have a tiny area of bookshelf space dedicated to things relating to The Twilight Zone. The stories and TV show age quite well. Not bad story writing. NOT guilty pleasure.

I do have a tinge of jealousy. Jealous of Serling? Sure, I can only aspire, but no, I’m talking about that generation of Baby Boomers who saw the images glow on their black and white screens for the first time. No VCRs, no DVRs, no DVDs (I officially despise acronyms after writing this) only magic! A special Serling sort of magic served with nicotine and sometimes Shatner. A journey into a dimension that made your senses feel puny. Four dimensions were not enough for Serling. If you hopped into his small black TV-shaped vehicle for a ride you signed a contract to breach this plane—an invitation to Heaven, Hell, and all the junk in between. These were bold messages that often were only found in the quirky comic books of the day. Some episodes still scare the hell out of me. Some give me a near Bradbury-ish nostalgic hug. They all make me smile.

Why does it work so well? I think (I may be wrong) it’s utter expectation. Serling gives us a promise every episode. He promises to take us to a weird place. He makes good on his promises.

It sounds simple, but that is a common problem with new writers. In fact, I’m struggling with it right now. I first have to ask myself, “Shit! Does this story even make a promise?” But the paranoid state is good for a writer, or so I hear. Master storytellers like Serling have laid certain foundations and have shown us that these seeds of expectation work. They make the reader feel crafty as if they’re in on the joke.

We don’t need to stand in front of our reader, take a healthy drag off our cig, and give a two paragraph soliloquy just before they start on the first line. (Although let’s face it, that would be cool as hell). However, we can present it in the prose just as we’ve been taught. Promises, expectations, whatever you want to call them they need to be there for the reader. When the promise has been met then we are one step closer to resonance. This is what we want, fellow writers!! We can hear “that was clever”, “you’re so funny”, “beautiful writing” and those are great compliments, but if someone looks you in the eye and says, “that thing in your book resonated with me” in so many words or less – you wrote something Serling might like. I, as you do, very much want to be “might liked” by Serling.

Picture if you will, finding a promise and making good on it. It’s somewhere out there in the ether we call—The Twilight Zone.

MattBioPicMatthew started lying as soon as he could talk. Thrilled with the reaction he received, he started making the lies bigger. Some of the lies he had kicked around for years became commodiously appropriate for the written word. Matthew has fun lying in the Middle Grade genre, but lately has been taking on the Adult Dark Humor Crime Thriller genre. He is currently working on his novel – The Sommelier.

When not lying, he is usually traveling, or hanging out with his wife and three cats in Celebration, Florida while looking up words like “commodious” on thesaurus.com .

Where do I find this guy?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matthewdavidbecketauthor/?ref=hl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewBecket

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/MatthewBecket

Captain America: Civil War. Great Art?

chris-evans-captain-america-helicopter-main_0*Warning: Spoilers in the form of 2 pictures, but that’s all*

They say that great art invokes emotion. If that’s the case then Captain America: Civil War must qualify. It invoked emotion for me, much more impactful than entertainment awe.

First, I have an admission. I’ve noticed that many of our blogs this month are focused on Fictorians’ favorite movies or TV shows. As much as I love Marvel and Captain America, that’s not why I chose it. It sounds a bit shallow, but it may or may not be true that I just wanted an excuse to see the film as soon as it came out and knew that even if taking the whole family wasn’t in the budget, my having to write a post would give me “permission” to go see it anyway. We did take the whole family and at the end of the movie, the emotions and viewpoints leaked into our little family to create another civil war.

One of the great aspects of fantasy and science fiction that I love is the ability to present real world problems and perspectives in less threatening ways. By using a fantastical backdrop and alien characters, we get our audience–whether readers or viewers–to let down their guard. There’s a reason that religion and politics are often a taboo subject in our society. People tend to have very set views in those areas and arguments can heat quickly.

Whether we realized it or not, I believe that Civil War took down mental walls and then slammed us with a very real-world question, one that is both philosophical and political: Is it better to have more oversight in an effort to protect or have less in order to safeguard personal autonomy? How much do we want our police policed and how much do they need freedom to make split-second decisions? It’s a question that comes up in stories of every kind, from traditional westerns to post-apocalypse young adult novels.  But I think it’s rare for both sides to be so well balanced. Civil War did a great job representing both sides. Which is what led to the Black family civil war of May 5th, 2016.

Ant ManAfter the movie, we started talking about the parts we liked most; my teenage girls really enjoyed Captain America holding Bucky’s helicopter so he couldn’t take off and my tween son thought Ant-man going giant was pretty awesome. But then my college-daughter expressed how Iron Man had the right of it. Captain America should have just signed the accords. I disagreed. They were too stringent and would get the Avengers caught up in too much red tape. We argued all the way home and it only escalated. Ridiculous, right? And yet, this movie evoked thought, emotion, and real-world comparisons. Which is one of the reasons that I will call Civil War great art.

I think we, as writers, can follow Civil War‘s example. In our own stories, do we evoke emotion from our readers? Does each character’s perspective ring true? Do we present each character’s beliefs like a good lawyer in a courtroom, giving the best representation that we possibly can whether we agree with it or not? As we strive for that level of authenticity, rather than push our own agenda, I think our art can help the world come closer to understanding one another…even if we must wade through difficult disagreements.

Colette Black Bio:
Author PicColette Black lives in the far outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona with her family, 2 dogs, a mischievous cat and the occasional unwanted scorpion.  She loves learning new things, vacations, and the color purple. She writes New Adult and Young Adult sci-fi and fantasy novels with kick-butt characters, lots of action, and always a touch of romance. Find her at www.coletteblack.net

 

I Fell in Love with StarDust

A guest post by Sarah Golden.

IMG_7189The film StarDust has everything a story needs to thrive in the hearts of dreamers. There’s the hero- Tristan Thorn, the villains: the three witches and an evil Prince. A goal- to catch a falling star and a wonderful message that the process of growth can happen only when you decide to be yourself.

I fell in love with StarDust when I read the book by Neil Gaiman, and I was fascinated by the turn of events that lead Tristan on a path to adulthood. While the story is a little more serious in the book, the film uses elements of the fantastical to convey the same spirit and message as the original tale.

The story itself plays out like a fable. Tristan’s growth is the backbone of the tale, because it is a tale we can all relate to. The process of growing up and discovering what you are capable of. Tristan learns this as he journeys through the fantastic world of Stormhold, and along the way, he learns his own strengths- weaknesses and values.

Tristan begins the film as a boy desperately in love with a fickle lady named Victoria. Blind to her condescending behavior, he does the unthinkable, and he promises to retrieve something nearly impossible to prove his love for her: a fallen star. Once he meets the star, things change. The star has a name- Yvaine, and she has no desire to go with him as a prize for his girl.

As the two get to know each other, they discover that Tristan is not the only one after the star. Two villains: a witch and an evil selfish prince are following their trail.
It is only when Tristan and Yvaine face the brink of death that they discover each other’s company isn’t so bad.

They make friends with a sky pirate who teaches both of them how to be sophisticated and confident. This is the moment Tristan’s quest changes, and Yvaine’s desire to go home has changed into spending as much time as she can with Tristan. Tristan soon realizes that Yvaine has become more dear to him than Victoria, and he no longer wants to bring her back with him.

The characters’ motives change, but their greatest conflict appears when the witch catches up with them. Yvaine is taken, and Tristan goes after her as a hero. He wins her heart in the end, and becomes a king- finally learning his capabilities and discovering where he belongs.

The story of StarDust is a timeless tale about following life wherever it leads, and sometimes the path will take you on a journey that you never expected, but it could lead to an even better place. Tristan represents the hero in all of us.

Sarah 2Sarah Golden is a creative writer who draws inspiration from fairytales and folklore all over the world. She is a Kingdom Hearts addict and now owns her own keyblade! She is also a proud tour guide of Beast’s Castle at Magic Kingdom. With a Bachelor’s degree in English, Sarah hopes to share great stories through the written word and inspire others to be the heroes of their own story. She has written her first novel, and she is currently on a quest to publish it. Most of her other writing can be found on her blog Bara Lotus Garden: http://crystallizedheart.blogspot.com