Damn my stubbornness. Walking into the gym bejewelled with streamers and spotlights, I pretend that I’m a mirror of normalcy. Wearing combat boots, a black skater skirt, and a leather jacket to your prom tends to attract attention. You see, that’s the problem. I’m not egotistical enough to want fans dancing around me or paparazzi chasing my shadows, all I want is to not spend my night as a walking mannequin, which is apparently uncommon. Suddenly, I realise that if the spotlight’s on me, I shouldn’t merely stand under it, I should dance. I begin to spin across the dance floor to the beat of the music while silently laughing at the “sly” looks my classmates shoot me. I revel at their shocked expressions and occasionally blow a kiss to a random stranger just to spark myself some fire in this dull grey place. Even though, I’ve barely just entered the dance, boredom already creeps back into my pockets and all the hellos and hugs disappear into smoke. Happiness is fleeting, anyways. Sighing, I sink into the first plastic chair I can find. And of course, that’s when Romeo Montague walks in.
Dark brown hair and forest green eyes. The perfect combination. If only his personality was half as beautiful as his looks. He’s not some devil, although in his mind I’m probably a haunted angel in need of love, when in reality, he’s the lost soul who needs saving. Either way, despite my father’s whispers proclaiming the Montague's traitors and far more vile names, that has never been a factor in the way in which I view Romeo. After all, my old fashioned father stuck in his insane ways would be much more horrified if he learnt about my secret than if he learnt of my love affair with Romeo, not that there is much of an affair or love involved in our relationship. I lay out my options for avoiding Romeo: a) try to merge into the crowd, b) escape the dance without Romeo noticing, c) wait and do nothing. To be perfectly honest, the first and second options aren’t even plausible; there is absolutely no chance that in my dark traitorous outfit, I will blend into the whirlwind of candy pinks and oranges, and as for the second option, sandy eyed teachers guard the doors of the gym: an accurate representation of what this imprisoning school is like every day. I close my eyes and pray that this night is over.
“Hey, can I sit here?” I recognize Romeo’s voice and before I even open my eyes, against my better judgement, I nod my head.
“Okay, I’m going to cut to the chase. Rosaline, I love you.”
I want to shove Romeo off his chair and knock some sense into his delusional mind.
“No, you don’t.”
He’s too lenient. He’s a rock bound to drag me down to the bottom of the ocean.
“I think that I know my feelings better than you do.”
His spirit is too wild. He’ll please until the day he dies.
“Romeo, we barely have a relationship. You don’t know me, how can you love me?”
He’s too good for this world, no one has shattered his rose-coloured lenses, and that’s why he’s going to fail.
“I know love when I feel it.”
He doesn’t understand that I don’t love him back. That I can’t love him back.
“Life isn’t a fairytale.”
And I’m not his princess.
“You have to give me a chance, give us a chance! We are destined to be together.”
I love someone else.
“I’m so sorry.”
I love…
“Please, Rosaline.”
… Juliet.
“Goodbye, Romeo.”
The rest of the night is a blur, and all I remember in the morning is this: I am free.
Before writing my fan fiction, I first decided to plan out how I was going to go about this project. I'm not great when it comes to spontaneously writing longer pieces so knowing myself, I knew that I needed to come up with a solid plan. In addition, I didn't want the characters, especially Rosaline, to be two-dimensional and also wanted a well structured piece of writing. The picture below shows my finalised plan.
After completing my plan, I drafted my first paragraph. While, I did keep the main gist of this paragraph, the writing didn't flow very well and the dialogue was mostly useless.
Since I wasn't happy with how my first draft had turned out, I tried writing the first paragraph again but this time, I tried to add more depth into Rosaline and give her some more confidence so that she wouldn't be viewed with pity.
Now, I was pleased with my first paragraph so I decided to move on to writing my second paragraph, in which I would introduce Romeo. I decided that my writing needed some dialogue to seem more realistic so I created a conversation between Rosaline and Romeo.
However, I didn't like the structure of the paragraph and thought that between dialogues, there were too many useless details. Therefore, I attempted to create an interesting conversation between the two characters. Another struggle for me was incorporating Rosaline's thoughts along with her dialogue, so I italicised Rosaline's thoughts after every line spoken to get through this conflict.
After editing everything to make sure that it flowed well, I finally finished my fan fiction.
I think that the actual quality of my writing was one of the best parts as I spent time trying to make this as professional as possible. I also believe that my idea was fairly original since both of my group members wrote their pieces as if Rosaline was jealous of Juliet, and I did the opposite of that. That being said, there are a few things that I would change. For instance, I would reduce the amount of detail that I incorporated in the fan fiction. I know from previous assignments that I tend to over do the amount of detail that I have in my writing, which can sometimes take away from the plot and therefore confuse the reader. Taking this feedback into my next invitation to create, I would make my future writing more concise and to the point as I am still trying to find the right balance. Since, this was my first time writing fan fiction, I chose to write it in modern day English, therefore next time, I might try writing in Shakespearean language to challenge myself further. Since conciseness is something that I need to improve on, I was wondering how long my piece should be. In addition, because I wrote parts of my fan fiction as thoughts in italics, I was also wondering whether people needed to be able to read my writing out loud to understand it.
ReplyDeleteTavishi, I love this. Your writing was descriptive and I was able to picture the scene, Rosaline, and her interaction with Romeo clearly. I think the use of italics for Rosaline's thoughts was very effective. I had no problem deciphering what was happening there. You mention at one point about Rosaline's father thinking that the Montagues were traitors. Does this connect to the original play in the certain way that I am missing? I'd also be interested in hearing about why you chose to set your fan fiction in modern day in a high school. It works, but I am just interested in what led you to that decision! Well done!
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