Blog #6: Story Outline

Set Up:

            At the start of the script, The NCIS investigative team, consisting of Gibbs, Zeeva, McGee and Tony, is sitting at their desks working on the most recent case. It is a quiet day in the office since today is President’s Day, and most of the others in the building are out. Gibbs on the other hand likes having his team work on days that are observed so they can take days off when they please. The Forensic Specialist for NCIS, Abby, is out today because she witnessed a murder and is supposed to testify in the case the next day and she was preparing her papers.

            The phone rang at Gibbs desk, but since he was in the bathroom, Zeeva answered the phone. Abby was on the other end, frantic, asking for help because she is being stalked and the stalker just tried to break into her home. Zeeva desperately searches for Gibbs as she leaves the others wondering. She meets up with Gibbs in the hallways and tells him what’s wrong. He bolts for the office and collects his things. He heads for the elevator then yells at the others to hurry up. One of Gibbs worst nightmares is unraveling before his very eyes; Abby’s life is at risk.

Inciting Incident:

            Upon the arrival of Gibbs and the crew at Abby’s home, they try to find any clues as to who was trying to get Abby. They found a minute amount of blood on the glass of her front door. Abby, of course, has an idea as to who the stalker could be. Her ex-boyfriend John, who is obsessive and has creepy tendencies. They all get back into the car and leave for NCIS as they now will analyze the blood for a DNA match. Gibbs is going with his gut instead and is heading out on his own to find the ex-boyfriend.

Rising Action:

1)      Gibbs is on a hunt to find the ex-boyfriend and cannot find him anywhere. He eventually finds him at work and begins his interrogation.

2)      The blood is dropped in the lab along with other viles, no longer can use the blood for testing dues to contamination.

3)      The boyfriend mysteriously disappears after Gibbs goes looking for him another day.

4)      The ex-boyfriend calls Abby to warn her of her stalker. She gets mad at him and they argue on the phone. Then as she starts to leave the lab, he asks her where she is going, she turns around to find he was outside her window. She calls for Gibbs.

5)      After the ex-boyfriend is caught, he is brought to interrogation and explains his theory of who Abby’s stalker is and has evidence through pictures he took.

6)      Cyanide is exposed in Abby’s lab through an opened package

Climax:

           

Gibbs lets the ex-boyfriend go because they can’t keep him for too long without a lawyer. Gibbs goes back to his desk, to investigate on who the man in the photos is. Abby is to be taken to the courthouse to testify in the case of the murder she witnessed. She goes to the NCIS garage and gets in the van with the driver. She strikes up a conversation with the seemingly nice man. Her phone rings, it is Gibbs, and he knows who her stalker is. At that moment, the drivers hand shoots over to Abby’s phone and he throws it out the window. She is terrified and tries to jump out of the car but finds the door handle is missing. This is her stalker, and the murderer of the trial.

Falling Action:

Gibbs is obviously concerned for Abby’s life and gathers the crew to chase the van down. It is clear that the driver a.k.a. the murderer is not going to the courthouse. He is trying to kill Abby so she can’t testify against the killer. Gibbs gets a pin on Abby’s cellphone and finds that she is at the shipyard. When he arrives he finds the phone in the road and then notices the van parked around back. They hear screams and run over with guns in hand to rescue Abby. They open the van’s side door and the killer falls out, with a knife in his arm and a taser clip on his back. Abby is alright, shaken up, but alright. Gibbs in relieved that she is safe and they call the police to take the killer away.

Resolution:

            The ex-boyfriend is brought back into the interrogation room to discuss his stalking ways and the photos that he took. Gibbs presents a suicide note that the ex-boyfriend wrote to make it look like Abby killed herself. He wanted to make sure that if she was going to be killed, he wanted to be the last one to see her. He is clearly obsessed and needs help. Abby takes the week off of work to recuperate from the tragedy. The killer goes to jail for life and the ex-boyfriend is sent to a psychological center to help him with his mental disorder. Abby’s life is safe again and the investigative team returns to normal. They finish the case they had been working one and everything remains normal in NCIS, for now that is.

Blog #5: Revised Story Concept

An investigative team is trying to stop a stalker who is stalking one of their own; however, someone must reveal their true identity before somebody ends up dead.

Blog #4: Story Concept

An investigative team is at odds with a stalker who is stalking one of their own, however, someone must reveal their true identity before somebody ends up dead.

Inspiring Six Word Memoirs

1) " My greatest release is forgetting everything."
- This memoir made me feel partially connected to the writer. I felt this way because this is what I wish I could do. I over-think things constantly and never let anything go. I hold a grudge like it’s my job and I don't and can't forget about anything. Once I have experienced something, large in scale or small, I never forget. Sometimes not forgetting things is a good thing, but in others, it is annoying because it causes me stress. If I were able to just forget about the small things in life, I know that working through stress would be much easier for me.


2) "Write, Submit, Rejection, Submit, Publication, Finally."

- I like how this entry is cut up and forced me to pause when I read it. It allows me to feel like I can hear the writer speaking. I liked this memoir because I goes along with a theme that I live my life by. That this is to never give up. I feel as though this is an extremely important theme in life because if you give up, you are missing opportunities that could bring great things. Just because a failure occurs that could cause you to be upset, does not mean you should let it get the best of you, try again and a different result could occur that makes you happy. Perseverance is something that I believe will get someone far in anything they do, school, and work and in life in general.


3) "Overnight success took thirty-five years"

- This entry made me think about how unrealistic the whole "overnight success" thing is. Unless one of your very wealthy family members died and you inherited a lot of money, you are not going to get any money overnight like that. However, being successful does not always mean having a lot of money. You could be successful at what you do as a job, as a parent, a leader, anything really. From this quote I am assuming the man/woman is referring to money. In anything that you do in life, practice makes you better. Time also makes you better due to experiences gained through mini-failures. This memoir just re-iterates my feelings about being successful; you have to work for it! It may not be easy but it is worth it in the end and if you are patient enough and worked hard enough, everything you did will pay off for the outcome.


4) "My six words grew to thousands."

- I really enjoyed this entry because of how true the statement is. In my opinion, it is very difficult to express or tell a story in very few words. I feel as though you are only touching on a certain part of something that you have encountered. For example, turning fifty, you were not and are not going to be fifty forever. This entry also relates to me with writing in general. When I am told to be concise or make it short and sweet, it drives me crazy because I always have so much to say and never want to miss a detail. I assume that is something that I will have to work on and get over as my writing career progresses.


5) "Recovering perfectionist, still not good enough."

- This memoir is me. I am a perfectionist and know it, it drives me crazy. I have to have things my way and perfect all the time, otherwise I feel as though I have to fix it and make it the best it can be. I push myself to do well and study like a maniac, staying up late many nights just to make sure I go over everything. Once I feel I have done enough, I go to bed confident, and wake up a nervous wreck. I feel as though I missed something, or that I will forget the content, all that studying just doesn't seem like enough. This entry speaks to me and makes me realize that I am not alone in my madness. I would love to not feel this way about everything but honestly I cannot imagine myself accepting things that I have not tweaked to make perfect. The funny thing I am nowhere near perfect but for whatever reason I try to be every day.

Goals for Growth

Hey Again,  
      I am taking Creative Writing to become a better writer, obviously, therefore I have some areas in writing that need some help, done by growing as a writer.
        The first area that I would say I need to improve on would be in variety. I tend to write about the same type of subject...every time I write. It's not that I have the same story line, characters or anything like that; it’s that the theme and tone of my pieces are all very similar. For whatever reason, I tend to write thought provoking or mysterious occurrences, which works for me every time (or at least I think it does) but I think it is time for a change. I want to be able to subconsciously come up with a story at any time on various occasions that has a different tone and theme as the previous pieces. I am not sure exactly how to do this but I think that as long as I take my time in thinking about a story, at least for now, eventually ideas will come to me more quickly and perhaps by then my growth will be sufficient enough.
         The next area in which I am weak as a writer is in my thoughtfulness. I usually write quite blank mindedly, not really giving what I am writing about a lot of thought, which in turn makes what I write kind of dry. For whatever reason, I have a hard time expressing my voice in my pieces, I kind of "tell it how it is" as plainly as i can and am very vague, expecting the reader to catch on to what I am hinting at. I truthfully do not know why I tend to do this but it kind of frustrates me. It frustrates me because I feel like I am boring to read. I also tend to be very conservative on how deeply I think about subjects or topics of discussion because I do not like to make people angry, which in turn leads to vagueness, and eventually confusion or frustration from the reader because I am vague. I want the reader to be able to know how I feel about something, yet I do not want them to be annoyed by my opinion. I guess I am going to have to write it and leave it for what it is worth. If someone does not like what I wrote, then I guess they shouldn't continue reading anything that I write from that point on but I am willing to take constructive criticism as a way to grow as well.
Until the next time,
                       - Ryan

Welcome Entry!

Hi All!
        This blog will include most of the writings that I will do in Creative Writing and possibly some unrelated to class pieces that I feel like doing. I tend to write short stories more than any other type of writing but I do dabble with poems occasionally. Who knows, maybe by the end of this class I will be able to comfortably write all different kinds of pieces but we'll see. At this point in time I am completely engulfed with school work but I am sort of okay with it because oddly enough I enjoy school. I do not like going outside of my comfort zone in life, and in writing, mostly because I hate making a fool of myself.
        Mystery is my favorite genre of writing, I think that is because it makes me think ahead and assume various things. I also like stories that deal with problems in society like racism, sexism and other social breakdowns; there is something about overcoming a problem and squashing an evil character that I enjoy.
        My all-time favorite writer is J.K. Rowling. I think she is a genius. I am in awe over how creative she was/is and also by the fact that she was able to create a series of stories that flowed together amazingly with no error or confusion as to what was missed or why one thing is the way it is. And to think, it all started on a napkin....
        My problem when it comes to writing is that I have trouble starting something, either I am unmotivated or I have little inspiration. The strange thing is that once I start I am able to just go, which I would definitely categorize as a strength, however, then I can't stop. If I am doing a timed assignment, when I run in to the aforementioned type of situation, I end up wrapping up the piece quite chopping and abruptly. I absolutely enjoy writing as a whole. To me, as a quiet and reserved person, it is a way to express myself and not feel as though someone is going to judge me for something I have done, because I only have to show what I write to who I want to.
        I am taking Creative Writing in order to be able to learn how to be, well, creative and to learn how to write in many different styles/types of writing, which in turn I can express myself through.
        You can expect to see a lot of pieces in this blog as the year progresses, perhaps every weekend I will update it or when I am supposed to!