Abstracting Deconstruction

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The two images above are the front cover and the tracklist of a fanmix I made for my fanfic of the same name. Way back in 2006 or so, I had this fanfic idea where I’d invert Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy’s social standing, and in the next couple of years, I refined that basic premise into a non-magical AU (short for “alternate universe”). Ron is a famous, wealthy model, and Draco is poorer and comes from a single-parent household (his father passing away in a car accident). The two know each other as classmates at Hogwarts University, and despite their opposite social standings, I tried to keep their personalities the same as they are in the original books. Meaning, that Ron is still a hot-headed, brash, but kind and loyal young man, and Draco remains to be prickly, snobby man with a cynical (and witty) outlook on life, and when these two meet, their personalities clash in every possible way. They eventually become friends and lovers through a series of events consisting of classical music, English literature, and tango.

After the fic was written, I made the fanmix, and that was where the abstraction happened. See, I cannot draw worth a hoot — however, I can use Photoshop to manipulate photos into digital art. Ergo, what I really wanted on the fanmix cover was a drawing of Ron and Draco, but that wasn’t going to be an option for me. So I had to stop and think about the story and figure out its true “essence”. Once I figured that out, I went on Google Images to find something that portrays the differences of the two blokes, but also signifies their coming together. And the photo below is what I ended up founding and loving to death, along with an Andy Warhol quote that also fit the essence of the fic.

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Then came the real fun part of the music compilation. I broke down the fic into scenes, and I picked a song based on the scene’s mood and atmosphere and “renamed” the song to capture the scene. For an example — “The Strife” is a scene where Ron and Draco are first in together, and they are arguing over a literary point of view in their English class. I chose Dark Moor’s rendition of Vivaldi’s “Winter, Movement I” because the song is moody and slowly builds up until its conflict-filled melody burst at the climax. Instead of choosing the original orchestra version, I also went for Dark Moor’s more modern sound since the electric guitar takes over the violin solo, representing the AU-factor of the story. The rest of the fanmix is listed below with my notes from when I was planning it years ago!

“Proem”
Artie Shaw – Begin the Beguine (Opening where Ron strolls through the Campus, waving at people and enjoying the morning sun and the new day. He knows he’s happy, but he feels something is missing from his life and he wasn’t sure what.)

“The Strife”
Antonio Vivaldi – Dark Moor – Winter, Movement I (Ron ends up strolling around too late, walks into his English class late and has to sit next to Draco, the only seat left. The class is having a discussion some literary thing, and the two of them head butt against each other in their theories on Hemingway (whether Hemingway was gay or not?))

“Consonance and Dissonance”
Franz Liszt – La Campanella (Ron hears this in the music hallway, walks towards the source of the sounds, and sees it’s Draco performing it.)

“Whimsicality”
Yiruma – Dream a Little Dream of Me (Ron thinks about ways to get Draco to notice him and realises he likes him. At that moment he is with Pansy having dinner or something.)

“Hopelessly Zany”
Tales of Symphonia – Off-key (Ron tries to gain Draco’s attention and it rather fails.)

“Conniving Strategy”
Chrono Trigger – Delightful Spekkio (Ron goes and talk to Pansy, who’s being difficult, and eventually gives him advices.)

“Deliberation”
Carlos Gardel – Por Una Cabeza (For a tango scene. Pansy reveals that Draco likes Tangoing — while Pansy is a fan of jazz music and swing dancing, which is what influenced Ron into liking jazz.)

“Ruminative”
Kanno Yoko – Memory of Fanelia (Draco invites Ron to his place for dinner, and Ron takes in the poverty that surrounds Draco, but realises that it’s a part of him and embraces Draco’s home and Narcissa’s loving (albeit very snarky and teasing) nature.)

“Lamentation”
Junjou Romantica – Junsui Koigokoro (Have Arthur almost dies and Draco comes to comfort Ron because he lost his father years ago and can sympathise?)

“Tranquil Affair”
Suikoden V – The Night Before the Decisive Battle ~Theme of a Moonlit Night~ (Ron and Draco are walking in the park like the romantics writers did and under the moonlight share their first kiss and yadada.)

“Culmination”
October Sky – Main Theme (The pseudo-ending song for the fic. :) When they realise they do care for each other and blahblahblah.)

“Finis”
Duke Ellington – Take the “A” Train (The real ending theme for the fic . . . it’s more upbeat than the opening theme because now Ron has everything he could ask for.)

This fanfic and fanmix holds a special place in my heart. It’s a story I’ve wanted to write and tell for a long time, so when I finally had the opportunity and the self-motivation to create it, I did. Doing this required a lot of planning and thinking on my part, and for me, abstracting is very handy when one wants to create something.

The Creative “I” ~ Defining Creativity

CreativityWhat is creativity, and how does one’s creative process works? That is what I asked Beth K., a long-time online friend from the Harry Potter fandom, who also read and write fanfics. She is someone who I admire, and someone whose creative process just fascinated me, so I really looked forward to interviewing her.

The Full “Creative I Interview” with Beth K.

Beth eloquently defined “creativity” as where it is a combination of discipline, courage, and desire channelled towards bringing something new into the world. This definition is further explained that discipline is required to allow one to focus and create despite setbacks; courage is needed to allow creators to push on while being vulnerable to negative feedback; and desire is needed because creative individuals want to create new things — after all, being forced to do something against one’s will can be quite counter-productive. The three elements — discipline, courage, and desire — combined will allow creative juice to flow. For some, creativity can be used to create beautiful things in the world (ie: the arts), but creativity can also bring danger to our world (ie: weapons).

As a child coming from a family that encouraged creativity, Beth was involved with writing (her school encouraged their students to “write to read” as opposed to “write to learn”.), ballet, tap dance, jazz dance, violin, piano, and choir. As an adult, she participates in writing poetry and fanfictions, and she sings in a high-level volunteer chorus. She also finger-paints, but those paintings are done for her own privacy, and she rarely shares them with others.

With all these activities, she considers herself to be a creative individual, but her creative process involves synthesis rather than creating completely from scratch. She says that she sees “new” creations from the way different elements (visual, aural, or verbal) come together into infinite combinations. For an example, when she writes fanfic, she thinks about who her characters are and where they are going. Combined with the plot and other story writing elements, she researches for her story, which excites her, and she puts it all together. She wants her works to make sense in a complete way. When she wrote a fanfic featuring a four-year-old once, I mentioned to her that the child’s language seemed a bit too advanced for their age, and she took my observation to heart, and we discussed ways to fix the child’s speech to sound more realistic and age-appropriate.

I asked Beth about the NEW formula to measure and define creativity, and she and I both agreed that the NEW concept kind of went against the “joy” part of creativity. While I agree that works and concepts that are novel, effective, and whole showcase the definition of creativity, but when applied to online fanworks, those would not fit the “new” part of the definition. Fanworks are not considered “new” at all, since they are all based off of existing works. Beth even mentioned about how West Side Story being a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but just set in a different social setting and time period. There are many works out there that are retelling or re-imaging of something that have already been done. Fanworks are just that, but they are created by fans for the enjoyment factor. We fans want to re-interpret works in a way that captures our perceptions. Are we creating something new? In essence, no, but we are still creating works that are “new” to other fans. Not all fanworks are of high quality, but there are gems online that invoke emotions in us as we absorb them, works that just breathe a new fresh of life.

And to me, that is the root of creativity. Some things we create may not impact the whole world as major works have done, but as long as we create something that still makes a difference to someone, then that is what matters. Creativity comes in all shapes and forms, all different sizes. Beth’s creative process takes on a rebuilding route; others take on the ex nihilo route. Whatever the case might be, creativity is something everyone can partake in, and it is a process that can be a very personal adventure. An adventure I encourage the kids I work with, and an adventure I go on myself. In fact, my job alone allows me to experience and see creativity on a daily basis due to my interactions with the kids. Being around them, I get to see things through their own perspective, and I can then bring that into my own creative mindset. So not only do I get inspirations from the kids at work, but I also get inspirations through my media consumption. Whether it’s a book, film, or video game, I always discover something new that makes my head spin, and it draws out my scientific and philosophical side.

Therefore my plan to become more creative is to always expand my knowledge-base through media consumption, real-life experiences, and learning. Life itself is a gigantic learning experience, and it is up to me to take that opportunity to do what I can. I’ll try to travel more in the future, including finally visiting United Kingdoms and Europe. I’ll keep on playing my video games and reading and watching new books and films. I’ll try to learn a new skill like computer-building. Whatever I do will benefit me to become a better person and to become a better writer. After all, I’ll continue to write what I know.

Patterning Reflection

PatterningIn my previous post, I thought about patterning as a cognitive tool. Patterning exists in both science and the arts, and it is everywhere as we humans naturally try to make sense of our world, and try and find familiar and new patterns around us. In the world of fanworks, patterning can be seen through the tropes, which are familiar elements of seen in storytelling.

TV TropesTV Tropes is one place that tries to document all the known tropes that exist in our media. From literature to films to video games to online webcomic, tropes like “Luke, I am Your Father“, “Star-Crossed Lovers“, and “Action Girl” have their own pages that define the tropes and list examples from multiple mediums. Having a source like TV Tropes allows individuals to recognise and identify tropes, and once recognised, they can use these tropes when they create their own works that are completely original or are based off of an existing fandom.

That is why, if I were to use fanfics as a learning tool, I’d make sure my students are aware of the familiar tropes they’ve encountered at least once in their lives, and “re-pattern” them to create something “new”. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I focused on the alternate scenarios fanworks can take (like supposing Harry Potter had befriended Draco Malfoy instead of Ron Weasley or Hermione Granger). So we have an alternate scenario going on, and the creator has to figure out how to put it all together in a way that makes sense. The creator has to make other changes, too, such as Draco Malfoy’s character. By befriending Harry, will Draco still be a stuck-up snob? Or will he and Harry get closer and their friendship influence Draco to become a more positive person? What about Draco’s parents? Will they support that friendship? These are just some of the things the creators will need to figure out as they go the alternate route.

Not only that, but by going the alternate route, they can also subvert a lot of the more common tropes. TV Tropes put “Blond Guys Are Evil” for Draco, and while he does prove to be not very evil later on in the series, he’s still seen as “evil” in the earlier series. To subvert that trope, many fanfic writers portray Draco as someone who is blond, but who is misunderstood to be evil. Many fanfic writers in the Harry Potter fandom do just that, and they create in-depth stories where Draco gets redeemed by getting romantically involved with characters like Hermione or Harry or Ginny.

That is what I did with the Severus vignette in my last entry — we never got to read much about Severus’ childhood, so I imagined up one for him. I imagined his home life, an abusive environment filled with fights between his parents, where Severus’ own needs were neglected. Severus gets a reprieve when he visits Lily, though, where her mother will offer Severus food and warmth. And Lily also gave him the warmth he craved through their friendship. All of these came to me as I plotted and outlined the vignette, and I used tropes to bring the story together.

Understanding the tropes and storytelling elements allow future writers to understand “patterning” in poetry and prose. By understanding these elements, they can better their craft. Fanworks can be used as a great tool to help trigger creativity in young people. Encouraging young people to come up with their own stories and worlds are important. Fanworks may not seem to be entirely “new” — since they are based on existing works — but they still can be a great way to exercise creativity to come up with something new of their own.

Rose of VersaillesOne last thing to consider — let’s consider Rose of Versailles. This anime/manga came out in the 1970s, and it’s a historical fiction based on the events and characters leading up to the French Revolution. In a way, this work could be considered a “fanwork” since it is based on an existing “work” (the history is the work). Yet this series is now considered to be a classic in the anime/manga realm. The creator of this series brought in elements of romance, drama, and tragedy, used many tropes in the work, but at the same time still created something full of literary patterning and is still considered to be a “new work”. So yes, fanworks can promote creativity and encourage young people to find “patterns” in literary arts.

Patterning in a Literary Way

TypewriterBoyd (2008) wrote that “art is a form of cognitive play with pattern,” and this also apply to literary arts like poetry and prose. In poetry, “patterns” can be seen when there is a rhyming scheme and/or metrical scheme in use. Sonnets are an example where both rhyming and rhythmic patterning can be seen since certain lines have to rhyme and the sonnets are written in iambic pentameter.

In prose, patterning may not be as clearly defined or seen, but they do exist. Boyd states the following:

Stories fall into patterns of patterns, which storytellers can play with to arouse, satisfy, defeat, or surprise expectations — and no wonder that expectation and surprise drive so much of our interest in story . . .

The most powerful patterns in fiction tend to be those associated with plot: with goals, obstacles, and outcomes, with expectations and surprises . . .

Patterns in fiction, as in life, may proliferate and obscure other patterns. They can yield rich but sometimes far-from-evident implications. They may be open-ended: they and their implications often do not come preannounced and predigested. Sometimes they feed into efficient, evolved pattern-detection systems, but often they have to be discovered through attention and curiosity, and sometimes in ways that neither audiences nor authors fully anticipate.

In other words, when it comes to prose, it follows a similar format of having characters, plot, and setting. The plot will then usually consist of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and the resolution. All of these then lead to tropes. Tropes are devices in a story that are familiar to us. Examples include the wise mentor (ie: Gandalf and Dumbledore), the Bildungsroman genre (stories where characters come of age like Harry Potter and The Outsiders), and rebelling against a corrupted government (ie: Star Wars and Animal Farm).

Harry PotterAll these tropes exist in storytelling, and with those who write fanfics, they are given a chance to write stories of their own with existing characters and settings. Writing their own fanfics allow individuals to deconstruct the story and recognise tropes themselves, and then they can put a spin of their own to make a “new” story. An example of this is to re-tell Harry Potter’s own story — suppose Harry’s father was killed as in the original story, but Harry’s mother survived and raised him by herself with the support of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin? Or what if Harry had befriended Draco Malfoy in his first year at Hogwarts instead of with Ron Weasley or Hermione Granger? These alternate scenarios present a lot of path a writer can take. Adding in their own perceptions, their new stories take on even more different existing tropes.

The BeatlesAs a fanfic writer, that is what I do. I wrote a fanfic once based on Severus Snape and Lily Potter friendship from their childhood days. I wrote about how a ten-year-old Lily was a fan of the Beatles; Severus was bewildered by Lily fangirling over them, but he tolerated her obsession because she’s his friend. When the Beatles officially split up, Lily was devastated, and Severus stayed by her side and comforted her. Prior to writing this, I had to plot out the whole thing, and I thought about how I’d portray them as ten-year-olds, along with what Beatles song to feature in the fic. Some of the tropes I figured into this story are like “Severus’ dismay over at Lily acting like a girl” to “Lily acting like a pre-teen fan who’s in love with a boy band” and so forth so on. In order to make this story work in a way that follows the plot diagram, I had it be a flashback fic where an older Severus is reminiscing his childhood memory, the memory came back “alive”, and the story ended by going back to present-day Severus and his thoughts on the future.

Along with the tropes, I gathered all my storytelling elements (plot, characters, setting, etcetera), my storytelling “patterns” to write a little vignette. That is how I write fanworks.

Reference: Boyd, B. (2008). The Art of literature and the science of literature. The American Scholar, Spring 2008. Retrieved from http://theamericanscholar.org/the-art-of-literature-and-the-science-of-literature/

Perceiving Reflection

The exercise I did a few days ago on perceiving has left me thinking about how it is an important tool that affects creativity and individualistic thinking. Perceiving, to me, is interconnected with re-imaging, and is the ability to use our five senses to “study” an idea or concept that can be re-imaged with our unique perspective. Perceiving can be brief or it can be something that takes some time, depending on the individual and the subject matter; re-imaging comes next, a tool where one can use their imagination to re-create the perceived subject.

That is what I did with the “Rune of Punishment” song — for years I had listened to the song, but I had never listened to it in a way that allowed me to analyse the song. My analysis revealed to me a hidden instrument (the viola) and an interlude that emitted a hopeful mood instead of a melancholic one. I took the next step to re-image the song and thought about how the song would be if it were slower, or if the song would sound different if the instrumentation had changed. That led me to remember the second piece that featured the melody, and I also remembered that I had arranged the song on the piano a few years ago.

Rune of Punishment Midi File | Rune of Punishment Sheet Music

My arrangement is really simple because that is the level I can play at. I arranged the piece at a faster tempo because it gives the song a more frantic feel, and because it is a tempo I prefer playing at because the slower tempo would put me to sleep! When I did the perceiving exercise, I came to the realisation that my arrangement of the song is a form of “fanmix”. I also realised that fanmix should not be limited to fan-made soundtracks, but fan-made arrangements could also fall under this category. Music arrangers are taking pieces they know and are “re-creating” the pieces with new elements that make the piece familiar, yet different.

This “epiphany” of mine also reminded me of a very famous video game remix/fanmix site called OverClocked ReMix. This site and community have over 2,000 fan-made remixes from more than 500 fans. Fans who love video game music arranged and remixed their favourite songs to something of their “own” — their own tribute, so to say. For these fans, the music made an impact on them, and it helped their creative juice flow after they perceived these songs.

My own arrangement is nothing on the level of those on OC Remix. I will be the first to say that my piano skills are mediocre. However, that does not stop me from loving music, and there are just some songs that affect me to the point of wanting to learn how to play it on the piano, and figure out how to play it at my own level. My perceived notion of the song is “I love it, love it, love it — must learn it now on the piano so I can play it!”, and I then re-imaged it. Perceiving is a key to the door of creativity; if the individual feels something with their perceiving, they will unlock new ideas and concept that will contribute something similar or new to an existing idea. And that is the essence of fanworks.

Perceiving a Familiar Song

A couple of years ago, one of my online friends couldn’t get into a sad mood for a fanfic she’d decided to write. She asked her LiveJournal friends for some song recommendations. I recommended “Rune of Punishment ~ Meeting the Cursed Rune” from a video game called Suikoden Tactics or Rhapsodia, a song that’s actually remixed from the original version in Suikoden IV.

Later, she told me that this song had her sobbing, and it had done the job of getting her in a very melancholy mood to write her fanfic. It pleased me to know that the song had the right effect on her, and that alone intrigued me because, unlike me, she didn’t know the whole story of the song’s origin, on what the whole “Rune of Punishment” was, and how it was cursed.

I re-listened to the song today, and this time I really “listened” to it, and I picked up a lot of different things this time. Sure, I knew the melody and the harmony, I knew that the piano opened up the song, but I somehow missed the fact all these years on how a viola comes in next, not the violin. I picked up other things like how the viola, the violin, and the piano all play the main melody in different parts of the song, and I picked up how the interlude actually sounds like it is in a major key instead of a minor one.

With these thoughts in mind, I begin to re-image the song differently in mind. I thought about how it’d sound if different instruments played the piece, wondered how much more depth it could have, whether the mood will still be the same or not, or even if the tempo change will affect the piece. I re-image the song where it was a duet with a piano and a cello or a string bass, and I pondered on whether it being too “gravelly” sounding, but still sounds haunting compared to it being played on a flute or a clarinet.

After I re-imaged the song, I then remembered another song on the soundtrack that reuses the melody, and the song’s called “Epilogue for the 108 Stars” from Suikoden IV.

The melody comes in at 3:00, and I listened to it featuring a much slower tempo and a more diverse instrumentation, while still keeping the spirit of the other version, still maintaining its haunted, melancholic mood. I cannot say which version I like better — I like both versions, each with their subtle differences.

Topic for the Semester

I have decided on my topic for this semester. I will be focusing on online fanworks, which can be a diverse tool to promote creativity in any individual. Fanworks are works created by fans based on an existing media such as books, movies, TV shows, video games, comics, and etcetera. Fanworks can be further categorised as fanfictions (writings), fanarts (artworks), fanvids (videos), fanmix (music), fansites (websites), and cosplay (costume designing and showcasing).

I grew up with fanworks, having stumbled upon them online during my anime fangirl days, and those have affected me in many ways. Not only have they helped me become a better writer, but I discovered a world online where I meet other fans who like what I like, and we formed our own community as we created fanworks and gave feedbacks and support to one another.