The Adventures, Mishaps and Musings of Me

So, I'm home in England again.  Uneventful journey, except for the strain of dragging 25kg from my dormitory in south Milan to the train station in north Milan, which morphed the short walk to the tram stop into a desert expedition and thus caused me to become a sweaty blob ready for the airport. Naturally, the bag I was using to transport my luggage had to have a broken handle and, of course, all the escalators in the Metro where out of order.  Fun times indeed!

I also managed to insult an elderly British couple on the plane by asking them, in Italian, if the seat next to them was free.  They stared at me in silence for the moment, then the women in tone of complete disgust said, "I beg your pardon!" as if I'd just uttered profanity at her.  This was my re-introduction to the British public.

In other news, I just got the results for a poetry competition I entered about a month ago and I won it!  I get to have my poem published in the sponsers summer edition of their poetry journal - huzzah for being able to claim myself as a "published poet"!   

Let's face it, 90% of fan fiction is utterly tedious teen trash.  Seemingly, no matter how much advice that is given, no matter how much you mention the existence of punctuation, sentence structure and the source material: Fic persists to suck majorly.  Because of this writing injustice, (but mostly to distract myself from revision) I have decided to take a stand (of no consequence) on the issue.  Ladies and gentlemen, for your pleasure and amusement, I present the '30 Point Guide on How Not to Write Fan Fiction'.  Because what you can say in a constructive, friendly, helpful manner, can always be better said using condescending sarcasm.  

Poem ahoy!  Slightly satirical take on national pride.  I fear that this is a rather bland poem in which the very nature of the concept limits vocabulary to give a result that is somewhat lacking.  Ah, well.  Feedback is always appreciated.

( Proud of my Plot of Land... )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

OK, so I've just finished a (polished) first draft of a short film script that, as I want to enter it into a script competition (cash prize people!), I'm trying to get as much feedback on as possible.  To summarise the script in one not so catchy sentance: One man's struggle with the human race and the human mind.

WARNING: It is exceptionally and deliciously dark, contains not-so-occasional strong language and is a tad surreal and very experimental.  You will most likely need to read it through twice; once to go: "What the..?" and a second time to go: "Ah..."

I'm looking for opinions, critique and nitpicks.  What you liked, what you didn't like; what worked, what didn't work; what you thought of the characterisations etc.  Whatever you think, I want to hear it.  The script is about 3000 words.  You can find it here:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/13867364/MyLife-Draft1-Export

Enjoy!

So, Bocconi has it's own free newspaper written by and for students.  For the Christmas edition, I was asked by the editor (she liked my "Steak and Kidneys" script) if I could write a short, Christmas themed story as the edition was a little sparse on articles.  A little bit of ego flattering later and I agreed (I do have a weakness for flattery). 

This was on Tuesday and the deadline was on Friday.  I had three days to go from idea to finished draft.  And I did.

Tuesday:  At the back of a maths lecture, I thought up the general premise.
Wednesday:  Fleshed out characters, developed idea - I had a beginning and an ending, I just needed to concieve the middle!
Thursday:  Outlined the whole plot on paper.
Friday:  From 8am to 11pm, I sat at my laptop writing the story and getting insane foot cramps.  Phew!  Deadline met!

My story in it's 3000 and something word glory has now moved to become the main focus of the Christmas edition *glows with pride*.  It may not quite be a masterpiece of short story telling (it is rather rough n ready and in need of some refinement.  I'm a little unhappy how some character traits weren't quite emphasised right), but, considering the insane time restrictions, it's a bloody good piece of work.  You can find the story below the cut - draft 1.5.  I'm looking, as always, for constructive criticism - enjoy!   

Just came back from Virginia last night - 24 hours worth of planes and airports and my sister being sick on planes and airports made for a lovely journey. Horrorfic connecting flights overlooked, the holiday was awesome - totally brushed up on my American history (of which Viriginia is steeped in), ate lots of  steak and basically chilled for two weeks.   During this period of utter relaxation, I also finished writing my twenty minute short film and revised a second draft - tis looking good so far.

Now I'm back for my last week in England (it was raining when we landed in Heathrow - home sweet home :P)  before jetting off to Milan for Uni. I am so unbelievably psyched for it!