Eileen Mills’ Mastery Journal

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Adapting O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” to a short film was a challenge, but I found the process exciting. Adapting any material into a different medium is going to be difficult. One has to consider the audience of the adapted material, the fans of the source material, the essence of the source material, the format of the new medium, and personal style. 

When adapting “The Gift of the Magi” I knew it was important to retain the gift exchange between the main characters and the themes of love and money because those elements are the essence of the story. Determining what to keep was the easy part. The difficulty came in figuring out how to translate the aforementioned elements. Film is different from prose in that only what is seen and heard can be written, and what is seen and heard by an audience must be engaging. Therefore, taking the conflict in “The Gift of the Magi” and increasing it was necessary. I asked, “What if the couple in my story were homeless and their love for each other even greater than Della and Jim’s?” The couple in my story, Dee and Jay, experience similar issues as the couple from the source material, but these issues manifest differently than they did in 1905. For instance, instead of being a stay-at-home wife, Dee is a busker who lives in her car. My adaptation is reminiscent of the source material, but it is also a representation of my writing style and modern society. 

I think there’s something beautiful about taking a story that already exists and modernizing it. As someone who values inclusion, I quite like the idea of taking an existing work and updating it so that it’s more accessible to previously alienated audience members. 

Hello everyone,

I hope you’re doing well.

Today I would like to tell you about the class I’m currently taking, Writing for Games.

The class itself is set up like a game. When the class began we were presented with a board and a task. Our task is to unlock at least one badge in every row and column on the board before the end of the month. Perfecting a skill (assignment) unlocks its badge.

I have accumulated quite a few badges so far, and I wish I could keep going until I’ve earned every single badge. However, there is not enough time to do so. But there is enough time to complete an entire row. I have earned 3/4 orange badges and am on a mission to earn the 4th.

UPDATE: I HAVE EARNED ALL 4 BADGES

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I’ve received a badge for…

Mechanics:

Mechanics are the actions that comprise gameplay. For instance, collecting rent in Monopoly is a mechanic. To earn this badge we had to invent a chess piece and its mechanic.

The chess piece I came up with is “The Hamsa”.

The Hamsa is the King’s helping hand. On its first turn, it can move horizontally to meet the King. Once it lands on the same space as the King, it will push the King 5 spaces in any direction to finish the turn. The Hamsa can only move one space forward at a time, in any direction, after its first turn. 

Towns & Cities:

This assignment tasked us with creating 3 landmarks (places) within one town or city and 9 bystander-NPCs (non-player characters).

We were to follow the SPERM method when creating NPCs.

S ocial
P olitical
E conomic
R eligious
M ilitary

The places I came up with were a meditation garden, market, and library.

My NPCs include a Master Diviner (religious), Gardener (economic & social), Scryer (religious), Guard (military), Merchant (economic & social), Tarot Reader (economic & social), Council Member (political), a librarian (economic), and a Neophyte (religious & social).

Read this document for my town’s place descriptions and NPC quotes.

Hazards:

For this assignment we had to create a natural danger (hazard) that we could draw on a map of our world.

Michael Merriam, the course instructor for this class, has this to say about hazards “Hazard is something which a player has a CHOICE about facing. When the player gets to this natural HAZARD, they may or may not decide to CHANCE it. They’re betting that their skill at SOMETHING is strong enough that taking this route will be the better option for them. If they’re wrong, it has to end up being far worse for them. Odysseus, at Scylla and Charybdis, didn’t take the risk — which was probably for the best. He could have lost 0 men, if he risked the whirlpool, or he could have lost all of them + the ship. If he went Scylla’s way, he was guaranteed to lose 6 (but only 6). That’s the dilemma part of the hazard.”

With all of this in mind, I created my hazard.

You can download the document below to read about my hazard and the map I placed it on.

Items:

To earn this badge, I created a collection of technomagical items. Check them out in the document below, and let me know which item you like most!

I’m especially proud of the “glitch book”.

Before attending Full Sail University, I was interested in writing episodes for television and streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. All that I’ve learned since beginning my master’s program, especially in the Episodic and Serial Writing course, has helped turn my interest into a passion. I have gone from someone who appreciates web series and television shows to someone who writes them and wants to make a career out of it.

Writing a web series is different than any of my other writing experiences. Writing a web series is different than writing a film or short story because it is not autonomous. Writers of web series are given more space to develop characters and stories than those of self-contained stories. I find that I enjoy revealing aspects of characters and stories over time as opposed to wrapping-up entire stories in one installment.

I’ve found that the biggest difference in writing a book and writing a web series is that there isn’t as much attention paid to dialogue in a novel as there is in a screenplay, and I quite like delving into dialogue. I am fond of the process of writing distinct voices. Working with accents, sentence length, word choice, etc. is fun for me.

The most difficult part about writing a web series, especially a short one, is ensuring each act meets length requirements. Determining what to cut from a script can be difficult, especially when everything you’ve written seems important. However, a benefit to writing a series is that parts cut from one episode’s script could be moved to another episode’s script. Web series are flexible in that way.

While writing a web series has its challenges, it’s something I could see myself doing for a very long time. To make this dream a reality, I plan to write a web series that I can produce and upload to YouTube and other sites. I will utilize the help of family and friends, buildings and locations around me, and resources in my area to make this happen.

I look forward to learning all that I can about the world of web series and honing my craft.

These images are meant to help me keep track of my community writing ideas.

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Carrigan, a hypothetical character of mine, must go on a journey from unfulfilled to satisfied to avoid a divorce. Carrigan’s personality type is “epicure”. Like others of the same personality type, Carrigan is upbeat, adventurous, and uncommitted. He loves traveling, storytelling, and having fun. He grows bored if he stays in one place for too long. All of these qualities make him a great friend but a terrible husband. At least that’s true in the eyes of his spouse, who is content with settling down and starting a family. Although Carrigan cares deeply about his husband, and wants nothing more than to work things out, the very idea of marriage goes against what he’s always believed in. To stay married to his husband, Carrigan needs to appreciate what he has instead of looking for happiness elsewhere. He is likely to attain his goal of staying married if he can quit being self-absorbed. Carrigan needs to lean on his imagination to invent opportunities and adventures at home.

It is difficult for me to maintain a positive mindset when I am feeling anxious. I tend to think of the worst possible outcomes for any given situation. It can be difficult, but I know I need to step back and tell myself that “it’s okay” to have a bad day, to be less than perfect, to make mistakes, and to be myself.

I know I will get through bad days like this. I just need to remember why I do what I do. I am working toward my dreams, and I believe that all of the stress and anxiety will be worth it in the end.

Reference

Stacie Swift. (2019, June 21). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/By9l_mNlRmC/