This is Ridiculous! (eBook)

Paul Marquez-R. (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
148 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-8795-9 (ISBN)

Infos

A seventeen-year-old raccoon named Paul learns to overcome his stage fright and doubts of becoming a great writer, all through the introspection of his own creativity, talents, and fictional characters that reside in the very stories within his own mind.

Paul Marquez-R. was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, where he graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in film and Pima Community College with a degree in visual and performing arts. Along the journey, he rediscovered his passion for writing and the performing arts after shying away from it for many years. His renewed passion for the performing arts has also further inspired his writing passion, and he continues to be involved in many theatrical productions, whether acting in them or working behind-the-scenes from the technical standpoint. In the context of his debut book 'This is Ridiculous!', it is a fictional and child-friendly take on his return to his passions of writing and the performing arts. The story takes place inside the mind of his animal counterpart Paul the Raccoon at an earlier stage in his life, when he was a seventeen-year-old high school senior on the verge of graduation. Paul the Raccoon's story of overcoming his stage fright, finding the courage to audition for the spring musical, and regaining confidence in his writing skills all reflect the author's real journey from being terrified to perform onstage during his high school days and keeping his creative writing skills hidden, to growing more confident in sharing his talents with others. He made his own story accessible to younger readers who happen to be aspiring writers or want to find the courage to perform in front of others as well, all by diving into the fictional world inside his mind known as Storytime Central, a place where all of his creativity and talent originate. Through the use of peppy, colorful animal characters and plenty of 'ridiculousness' as the title implies, the message that anyone can be creative, take risks to face their fears, and fight against the insecurities that stifle their talents is made clear. It is the story for anyone who has ever had doubts about sharing themselves and their talents with others.

---

Paul is a seventeen-year-old raccoon well into his senior year of high school. His confidence in acting and writing is fading away, due to pressure to mature and move past his negative experiences with his former high school theatre teacher. Inside his mind exists a creative, colorful, "e;ridiculous"e; literary fantasy world known as Storytime Central, a community where fictional characters written by Paul reside in their own cozy little stories. Mr. Baxter Omniscient, the head narrator and overlord of Paul's creativity, has been stifling Paul's creativity at every chance he can get. He rules Storytime Central with a red hot iron fist, and the characters of Paul's stories must obey him at all times. Mr. Omniscient continues to remind Paul that he is "e;too old"e; for such childish things and needs to grow up, but a group of headstrong characters refuse to allow Paul's creativity to be controlled any longer. A creative rebellion is incited to stand up to Mr. Omniscient once and for all, reminding him that characters can be in control of telling their own stories. However, with Mr. Omniscient's tight grasp on all things related to Storytime Central, will these bold and rebellious characters stand a chance? Will Paul be able to break through and stand up to his growing stage fright and doubts?

Textauszug

Chapter 1 - The Incredible Omni

Ever wonder what goes on inside the mind of a creative person? Well, there’s a very simple answer! The artists of the world have their own tiny art studio inside their brains. All of their ideas and motivation for picking up a paintbrush reside in the center of their mind palace. The equivalent of that goes for everyone else with their respective careers. Thought the drive and stamina of athletes to get out on the field during football season came out of nowhere? Absolutely not! The same goes for scientists. The ideas of scientists start from the very tiny laboratories that exist within their minds. However, every creative, hardworking person is always at war with their emotions and logic.

In the case of this particular writer’s mind (where this story is being told), there are two foxes. The yin and yang of the mind: Omniscience and objectivity. Everyone has omniscience and objectivity, but they come in many different forms. In this writer’s brain, they are represented as two foxes at war with each other. Which fox wins? Whichever one gets fed. What? That’s not how the saying goes, huh? Oh poppycock! Wolves have had their moment in the sun. The saying here goes: “Feed the right fox”, not the right wolf. Why is that? Again, because the narrator of this very story is in fact a fox.

His name is Baxter Omniscient: The all-knowing, superior, godlike narrator of Storytime Central, the mind palace where all original characters and stories thrive. Notice how Mr. Omniscient is speaking in the third person? That’s because he can’t narrate in any other way. Should he attempt to speak in first or second person, he will suffer a terrible fate. He’s shivering just thinking about it. Each Storytime Central is ruled by a president narrator and a vice president narrator: A third person omniscient narrator as the president, and a third person objective narrator as the vice president. This part is not as important, but whatever. Might as well just say it. Buster Objective? Yeah, he’s the boring white fox with the boring white tuxedo and a black bowtie who narrates everything “objectively”. Whatever that means. Anyways, back to the cool one. Mr. Omniscient is currently narrating the story, so the reader better listen up, and listen well. Baxter Omniscient is his name, or Omni for short, but to the rest of the Storytime Central citizens and readers reading this? Refer to him as Mr. Omniscient. He is the right fox to feed, just remember that.

There he is, this funky fresh red fox with the reddish orange mohawk and black triangle shades? The green tuxedo and the red bowtie? That’s him. The king of Storytime Central. The Incredible Omni. His voice may sound all high-pitched and cute, but he can be very scary towards the citizens of Storytime Central who do not comply. He has the power to delete those particular characters entirely, or he can simply choose not to narrate their stories. Why do characters in stories die? Probably because they broke the sacred rules of Storytime Central, thus, Mr. Omniscient must narrate their death. Pretty plain and simple, actually. Characters in this story have no rights, for all the rights belong to Omni. Awe, is the reader getting scared? Then put the darn book down! Some people just can’t handle the power of the godly Mr. Omniscient.

Anyways, time to get on with the story and a tour of Storytime Central. It is the month of November in the year 2015. This story takes place inside the mind of a creative seventeen-year-old raccoon guy named Paul. A very imaginative dude, but he lacks so much confidence in his storytelling and acting skills. Hey, that’s what Mr. Omniscient is for, right? Anyways, what better way to go about this introduction than with a song? Mr. Objective will be joining in on this one. Hehehe.

Inside the mind (inside the mind), of a clever teenage raccoon

guy (of a clever teenage raccoon guy)

Inside the mind (inside the mind), of a clever teenage raccoon

guy (of a clever teenage raccoon guy)

Welcome to a place called Storytime Central

Inside the mind of a raccoon guy

Just look around and see what’s inside

Creativity surrounds the eye

It’s like a wonderland with fiction everywhere to find

And every single character resides inside the mind

What’s inside the mind of a clever teen raccoon guy? What’s inside?

Take a peak, and look

There’s a world of possibilities

Inside the mind (inside the mind), of a clever teenage raccoon

guy (of a clever teenage raccoon guy)

Inside the mind (inside the mind), of a clever teenage raccoon

guy (of a clever teenage raccoon guy)

Hehehe! This… is… ridiculous!

Beautiful. Mr. Omniscient has the best singing voice. So amazing that it drowned out Mr. Objective’s terrible voice. Anyways, time to get on with the rest of the tour of Storytime Central. Hehehe.

Today is a very exciting day in the land of Storytime Central. Know why? Know why? That’s because there’s a brand new character making their way to the mind palace! Paul had a brainstorm, and does the reader know what that means? It means that his creative juices have come together to create the perfect storm, giving life to a brand new character! First, it might be best to discuss some important lore on Storytime Central.

When Paul was just a tiny whiny little raccoon boy at the age of three, he decided that he was simply bored with his life. Thus, he let his imagination run wild one day. It led to the creation of Storytime Central, and the two narrators Mr. Omniscient and Mr. Objective themselves! Though of course, it all started with the creation of Mr. Omniscient. Mr. Omniscient is, of course, the head honcho of Paul’s mind. He sees everything that happens around here. It’s obviously in his name, Mr. Omniscient. Duh.

So Paul’s brainstorms gave instructions for Mr. Omniscient to construct the mind palace known as Storytime Central, a gigantic bouncy house floating in a cloudy blue sky under a rainbow. The true imagination factory inside the mind where stories are built, and characters are born. This bouncy house has hundreds of rooms and corridors, each leading to a different story or department. Each character resides in their respective story, and they must await Mr. Omniscient’s instructions every morning before they go about their day.

However, their story is dictated entirely by Mr. Omniscient’s narration, and what he says goes. No ifs, ands, or buts. There will be consequences for characters who attempt to live freely, or even worse, leave their respective stories. There are many rules about living in Storytime Central, but the number one, unchangeable, sacred rule is to never, under any circumstances, ever story-jump without Mr. Omniscient’s permission. Should stories crossover, a plethora of paperwork for each different character must be filled out. Then comes the story passports, the character backstory reports, mandatory background checks, yada yada yada. It’s an absolute pain! Crossovers only happen once in a blue moon when Mr. Omniscient is willing to have characters from different stories meet. Otherwise, it is a forbidden activity for characters to story-jump on their own.

Anyways, when a new character is born, they start out in The Chamber of Unused Ideas (AKA Marshall’s Chamber). Brainstorms happen there quite frequently, but the unused story ideas and characters remain behind the closed doors until it is time for them to be assigned a story. However, characters don’t just get assigned any story. They have to attend a rigorous character training boot camp run by a cloud named Vicki Marshall, a proofreader entity of the subconscious who checks each character’s backstory. This is to make sure that their backstories are logical and make sense. Through intense training and dramaturgy courses, she programs their personalities, and then coaches them to be the characters they are meant to be.

How does Vicki know how they are supposed to be, the reader might ask? The brainstorms say it all! Think of the brainstorms as a screen with food orders at a restaurant. All the components of the character are shown in the brainstorm like a recipe with instructions on how the character looks, acts, what their backstories are, and so on. The brainstorms come from a writer’s room up above, and Vicki simply follows the instructions of the brainstorm to craft and train the character into who they are supposed to be. That’s right! She is Vicki Marshall, The Character Coach!

Marshall’s Chamber is kind of like an academic institution for characters. If they don’t get through it, they don’t get to graduate to Storytime Central. Yes,...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.12.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-8795-9 / 9798350987959