Writing Prompt: Writer's Digest Your Story #57

For the next Writer's Digest Your Story competition, the following prompt is offered:

Prompt: Write the opening sentence (25 words or fewer) to a story based on the photo to the left.

Use the submission form OR email your submission directly to yourstorycontest@fwmedia.com.

It's a pretty straight-forward exercise.  The real trick is to try and convey something unique, funny, exciting, or all-around promising, in only 25 words.  Exercises like this could be useful for visualizing story openings, because starting a story is one of the hardest parts of story writing.

If you wish to submit to this competition, simply go to the web page for this exercise, and submit through Writer's Digest.   If you win, you could be published in their magazine.  No cash or prizes, but it is a fun thing to try, and it's a good exercise for the brain.  The deadline for this exercise is April 14th.

The first responses that come to my mind:

Scrambling along the floor of the prison cell, Jacques desperately tried to find the lock pick that Serj had dropped.

After stepping through the mysterious vortex, Robinson Crusoe was surprised to find himself no longer on a desert island.

Despite his exhaustion, Dennis struggled to do one more push-up for his robotic overlords.

With his legs bound in tie-wraps, Don had no choice but to roll off of the gurney, fall on the floor, and crawl away from his captors.

  

Waking up face-down on the hard white floor, Arnold realized to his terror that he had been drugged and abducted by organ harvesters.

Knowing that the aliens would be back to probe him, Ernest struggled against the drugs and tried to pull his numb body toward the hatch.

Examining the floor carefully, Roger affirmed with his keen senses that there were traces of gasoline leading to the next room.

Having been knocked to the floor by his opponent, Earl started to wonder if this martial arts school was for real…

Sprawled on the floor, James thought to himself, "This is the worst job interview ever."

Joe immediately lunged to the floor, looking for the gold coin that Mendes had dropped.

After all he had been through, Matthew suddenly wished he was in Disneyland.

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Film Review: The Lego Movie

Legos have always been my favorite toy.  In fact, they still are.  For as long as they've been around, it makes me wonder what took so long for somebody to make an official Lego movie.

Then again, what kind of movie could possibly be made out of these silly little construction blocks? The biggest fear going into this movie is that it could have just been 90 minutes of senseless fluff.  Even kids thought this would be stupid.

Fortunately, the film overall proves to be quite sharp and clever for audiences of all ages.  It breezes by at a brisk pace, loaded with fast-paced comedy and visually-striking action.  Even during the film's most grim and dramatic parts (of which there are a few), the tone remains light, but without being too overbearing or sappy.  The comedy keeps everything consistently fun and endearing, thanks to a ton of great random lines, sight gags, pop culture jokes, and some self-parody.

What really makes this film work, however, is the substance.  You'd think it'd be easy to write this film off as a mere marketing tool to sell more Legos (and it's probably working), but even then, The Lego Movie takes care to use Legos as the medium, more than a mere product to shove down our throats.  With Legos as the film's primary canvas, the film immediately whisks us through a universe of colorful building blocks, complete with literal worldbuilding and mythos.  The story treads on familiar ground; the characters inhabit familiar archetypes (I especially couldn't help but to draw comparisons between Emmit and Neo from The Matrix; the wizard might as well fulfill the same role as Morpheus, and Wild Styles is much like Trinity), and the plot is molded in a formulaic epic-journey structure.  What really makes this film brilliant, however, is the meta-fiction dynamic that becomes apparent as it goes on; it's a dynamic that made films like Cool World and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? novel, but The Lego Movie takes it a step further by tying in the story and themes together with (at least seemingly) earnest and heartfelt intentions.

At it's core, The Lego Movie emphasizes creativity as the theme.  It is the basis of the story's conflict, it is the focus of the characters, and it is the idea that resounds through the script.  The film firmly declares that we are all special individuals, all capable of creating new, imaginative, unique things.  Legos have always been a toy to nurture that creativity, and The Lego Movie is a celebration of the creative spirit.  It is a theme that's not only inspiring for children, but also for the inner child.  I believe this film supports one fundamental truth I've always believed in:  it is more powerful to create than to destroy.

This film is animated very distinctively with CGI that convincingly looks like stop-motion animation.  It is all very colorful, well-rendered, well-textured, and has good-looking lighting.  Movements are made to be a bit stiff on purpose, and it achieves the perfect effect of looking like a home-made feature.  Voice-acting is great, and the script is pretty sharp.  This production does a great job of replicating thousands and thousands of Lego pieces on-screen to create big imaginative worlds.  Music can be strangely catchy too.

The Lego Movie is to movies what LittleBigPlanet is to video games; they both have a seminal home-made look and charm, but with a firm focus on creativity and individual expression.  Legos have been an endearing medium of creativity for years, and chances are that they'll remain on toystore shelves for more years to come.  Even if this movie is merely a marketing tool, it is a well-made one with a lot of heart and spirit.  I think the movie - and the toy - is quality entertainment for anybody young and old.

4.5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Good | Film:  Very Good)
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Feeling rather nostalgic and inspired, I managed to dig up this old picture of myself with my favorite toys.  It's possible that the film has struck a chord with my inner child, but I don't think that's ever been a bad thing.

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Film Review: Godzilla vs the Sea Monster (Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no Daiketto)

Godzilla's back, and he's hungry for some lobster meat! Taking place on a remote island with secret underground military lairs and a bunch of natives, the sea monster Ebirah is just one unique entity in this colorfully fantastic addition to Godzilla's saga.

The actual monster combat is pretty limited in this film, and what you see is ultimately short and silly. When Godzilla and Ebirah clash, they initially throw rocks back and forth at each other, like some kind of monster-sized volleyball match. When they clash again, they have a more prolonged struggle, but the cheesy rubber-suit acting often makes it more funny than exciting. And then Mothra shows up, just for fun. And, for whatever reason, a giant bird appears to claw at Godzilla's head. When all the monsters aren't doing battle, the film still maintains a very light, colorful, and campy tone as the characters explore an island that almost seems to be a mix between Skull Island and Dr. No's island. The film overall is silly, but the camp strikes a perfect level that's not too overbearing, and keeps the film evenly entertaining throughout.

The story's pretty wild; it tracks a group of energetic dudes who sail to an island and wind up facing a military nuclear weapons base, headed by an overzealous commander with a wicked eyepatch. They hook up with a hot native girl, and Godzilla just happens to be sleeping nearby; the guys come up with the brilliant idea to wake him up, so that all hell can break loose. Definitely not a great story, but it's full of endearing characters, and the plot is laid-back enough that it's easy to digest. The classic themes of nuclear warfare are touched upon, but it's hard to tell what this film is trying to say about it (if anything, really).

This film uses good, colorful, and steady photography and editing. Acting is pretty silly and over-the-top. Writing gets the job done. This production uses some cheap-looking sets, props, and costumes. Some of the special effects hold up, and others don't. The music is okay, matching the film's lightheartedness.

There's a lot to laugh at in this film, but with its campy tone and colorful scenes, it's clearly doesn't take itself seriously either. And it is pretty fun that way.

3.5/5 (Entertainment: Good | Story: Average | Film: Average)

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Video Game Review: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

The films of Studio Ghibli have teleported audiences to fantasic new worlds, the likes of which haven't been so captivating or endearing since the glory days of Disney.  Nausicaä, Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, Ponyo, Arietty, and so many more, have all presented fantasies full of deep imagination, myth, and emotion; with Ni No Kuni, however, the studio adapts all these same strengths into a new medium, using its full potential to allow gamers to not just see the fantasy, but to live it.

If you've seen and enjoyed the films of Studio Ghibli, then you'll feel right at home with this game; it's all designed and rendered to match the look and style of the films.  Once you leave Motorville and enter the other world, you'll become immersed in a universe full of magic, whimsey, and wonder.  It's a world populated by fairies, monsters, steampunk kingdoms, weird animal people, and majestic landscapes.  The game has its share of cuteness and its share of epicness.  Above all, it presents a vast world with dense mythology and deep storytelling; it's like a hundred times more satisfying as Ghibli's films, because it's all spread out so far and so wide, and there's always something to explore.

The game itself plays out much like other JRPGs on the market; you spend your time gathering a party, roaming around the landscape, and fighting your way through hoards of monsters with hundreds and hundreds of battles.  As the game progresses, you grow more powerful, learn new spells, find new companions and creatures, and eventually fight your way to the finale.  Grinding for experience and loot can be repetitive (especially if you're aiming for the platinum trophy and looking for those elusive alchemy ingredients), but the main story keeps things rolling pretty well.  Overall, whether playing the main quest, bounty hunting, or running errands, the game is consistently engaging, highly immersive, and incredibly addicting.

The story is great; it starts off tugging the heartstrings really hard, for its opening is quite tragic.  As the story goes on, it turns into a sprawling epic that digs deeper into the myth and history of the fantasy world; some of the revelations, especially regarding the White Witch, are pretty invoking as well.  The story is full of lovable characters; even the villains are lovable, once their motivations are revealed.  Classic themes of good-vs-evil emerge, but what makes this game unique is that it's not all swords and sorcery; the good and evil exist more on an emotional level, and most of this conflict involve fixing hearts that are broken.  It's not only a different mechanic for some of the quests, but it's also a fresh new take for fantasy fiction in general.

This game runs smooth and reliably.  It uses pretty basic graphics that emulate cell-animation (with some quality anime cutscenes on occasion).  Despite not having terribly detailed textures or renderings, the game looks great for its given artistic style.  Gameplay is quite easy, with an intuitive control scheme.  There are oodles of tutorials available, making the game accessible for young, old, experienced, and unexperienced gamers alike.  The levels and world design are pretty decent, and there is a ton of places that can be explored.  Voice-acting (for the English version) is good.  The game is written well-enough, although I think it has a tendency to over-explain the objectives and over-simplify things.  Designs for all the settings, characters, props, creatures, and everything else is highly imaginative and fantastic.  Music is really great as well.

Throughout the game, I could easily identify countless references to the Studio Ghibli films:  My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, Nausicaä - and really, the whole thing plays out a bit like Howl's Moving Castle.  Even on its own merits, however, Ni No Kuni is still a phenomenal world all on its own, filled with endless hours of addicting gameplay, emotionally powerful storytelling, and whimsical experiences.  At the time of this writing, it stands as my favorite JRPG, and it is highly recommended for gamers young and old.

5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Perfect | Game:  Very Good)

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