Elizabeth Heppenheimer - Senior Project

December 18th

This week I wrote the last scene of my story. It is the most historically dense section, and its probably the longest. It took a lot of research and I had to work some odd historical details into a conversation. Its been time consuming, but I like how it’s unfolding. I’m not quite finished with it, it probably needs one or two more pages so I can hit every important point. Also, the whole story needs some final editing... and I need to give 3 of my characters names. So basically, at this point, I’m almost almost finished with my project. I have a decent amount of work to do over break, but not too much. 

December 11th

This week I got a lot done. I finally filled in all of the gaps between different parts of the story and I did a tone of research. I also started writing the end of the story. I have about 4 pages and I think I probably need  5 or 6 more to hit every point I want to hit. I'm right on target for my estimation of 50 pages total. Since most of the research is done, it shouldn’t take me more than a few days to finish up the ending, I can probably even do it this weekend. If all goes to plan, I should be pretty much done before break. Scary. 

December 4th

Over Thanksgiving break I met with my outside consultant and we discussed the importance of ritual within a culture and how exactly a ritual is defined. She gave me a textbook reading on it, which has been very helpful. I also did some more writing and editing and I started to brainstorm about how I’m going to end my story. My mentor and I came up with what I think is going to be a really interesting conclusion, but it’s going to require some research.  This week, along with even more writing and editing, I did some preliminary research. I also I ordered a book, which just came today.  I figure I need about a week to write the ending, so if I spend next week doing intense research, I should have enough time to finish before break.  The only thing I’m having trouble with is writing a death scene, I can’t seem to find a balance between too dramatic and not dramatic enough.

 

November 20th

This week I worked mostly on forming arguments for a few characters, planning for the rest of the story and doing some writing. I did some brainstorming and I have an idea about how to take the story passed the level of pure theoretical argument.  Next week I’m going to work on writing more, without any other schoolwork to do I think I’ll get a lot done.I tried to meet with my outside consultant a few times this week, but we had some conflicting schedule issues. Hopefully we're going to meet on either monday or tuesday of next week. I’m not really stuck on anything. 

november 13th

This week I worked more on my final product. I spent a lot of time editing some rough notes and adding them to my story. In the end I came up with about twenty pages. I’ve established distinct characters and developed a clear situation. I have five characters stranded somewhere and they have to decide which person they want to eat to stay alive. Each Character has an argument as to why they picked their victim and how they plan to execute it. Four of the five characters have spiritual concerns and one is only interested in survival. I’ve basically covered the argument for the character that only wants to survive and I’ve started one of the spiritual arguments. Next week I plan to keep writing. I have a couple different ideas about how to approach some of the arguments and I plan to talk them out with my mentor next week. Other than that I’m not really stuck on anything. 

November 6th

Over the past two weeks, I have been working on writing my final product. Depending on the workload from my other classes, I’ve been getting about 2 1/2 to 3 pages done a night. I have solid character ideas, but right now I’m focusing more on getting my content ideas down and working them into a somewhat believable conversation, and less on character development. It definitely needs some work, but I’m happy with where my thoughts are going. So far I have established a situation and found a way to include some of the basic information about cannibalism, like where the word came from and why people in general practice it. Next week I will probably focus more on each character and their personal desires to practice cannibalism and keep writing at least 2 pages a day. I’m not really stuck on anything.

 

October 23rd

This week I finished Twilight and came up with some interesting conclusions about the vampire characters. They’re pretty crazy if you look at them from my perspective.  I started another vampire book, Vampire Academy, which is pretty much Gossip Girl except with vampires, like its actually about an elite school with a social hierarchy of vampires, very trashy, but again from my perspective its really interesting.  The vampires are completely different from the vampires in Twilight or the Vampire Diaries. I’m really happy that I found it because it gives me a completely different angle to work with. I’m not that far into the book, but it’s overflowing with cannibalistic scenes, so I might already have enough information already to try and incorporate them into my story. But it is an easy read, so I’ll probably just end up finishing it. This week I also focused more on starting to think about writing my final product. At this point I think I’ve done enough general research to start to form my product. I’ll probably have to do more research, but once I start writing, hopefully it will be clear what exactly what I need to know more about. To prepare for writing I read No Exit and Man and Superman and took some notes on the style and now I have a pretty good idea of how I’m going to approach my story. I’ve been thinking a lot about the characters that I’m going to use. I have solid ideas for at least three, and I’m working on coming up with maybe two more. I’m meeting with my mentor this afternoon to talk about the characters and to start planning for writing the first draft of my story, which are the areas I need some advice in at the moment. What I do next week will probably depend on how my meeting with my mentor goes, but I will most likely start to write.

October 16th

I made some good progress this week. Over the weekend I went through all my Hannibal Lecter notes and organized all my thoughts and formed conclusion on the character. I also called Thomas Harris and talked to his wife. She was nice but said that he was at their other house in Florida and he wouldn’t be available. I figured that would be the case, but I had to try. After that I pretty much jumped right into researching vampires. I started reading Twilight and I’m a little less than half way through it. It isn’t a very difficult read, so I don’t think it will take me that long to finish it. I watched the first two episodes of True Blood and I’m noticing some general patterns in the personalities of all the vampire protagonists and even some similarities between vampires and Hannibal Lecter. I’ve done a lot of brainstorming in my process folio about vampires, and I’m really happy with where my thoughts are going.

This week I also reread Montaigne’s “Of Cannibals” and took notes on it. I started reading Sartre’s No Exit yesterday, and I’m working on analyzing the style of writing he used. I also made a minor correction on my rubric and wrote my progress report. Next week I’d like to continue with what I’m doing, maybe with a little more emphasis on some anthropological research, which I didn’t really get to this week. I’m not really stuck on anything at the moment.  

October 9th

This week I started doing some research on the style of writing that I am going to emulate. I talked to my mentor and got three different works to review, No Exit by Sartre, Man and Superman by GB Shaw and a passage from the Gospel of Luke.  I also looked over Montaigne’s essay "Of Cannibals" which I have read before, just not recently. I finished the last Hannibal Lecter book, and I think I have a pretty solid understanding of his character and his cannibalism. I recently found out that Thomas Harris, the author of the Hannibal Lecter books, lives (at least part time) in Sag Harbor, so I’m going to give him a call this afternoon and see if he’ll speak with me…which would be awesome but I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much. Also this week I did my rubric and Sally Booth agreed to be my outside consultant, so that’s all set. Next week I plan to be finished completely with all my notes on Hannibal Lecter by Monday, and on to reading vampire books and doing other research on my writing style and tribal cannibalism. I’m a little behind on where I wanted to be right now, probably because the rubric was more time consuming than I anticipated, but I’ll try and catch up over the weekend. I’m not really stuck on anything at the moment. 

October 2

I started off this week by updating my process folio...a task I’ve been avoiding for a couple weeks. I found all the notes I had saved on my computer, printed them and arranged them in my process folio. I also copied a bunch of notes I had scribbled on the back of scrap paper and made everything look all organized and nice. Then I went through all the sample rubrics and found the two that are relevant to my project. I spoke with my mentor on Wednesday and went over what I can eliminate and what categories I need to alter to fit the specifics of my project. I haven’t filled out my rubric yet but I’m hoping to knock that off over the weekend. I also talked to my mentor about finding an outside consultant and I sent Sally Booth an email asking her if she was interested. This week I also started the last Hannibal Lecter book and watched the film Hannibal. I want to finish the last book early next week, if not this weekend and watch the corresponding film by next Wednesday

Next week I really want to start focusing on vampires. I have a few vampire books like Twilight and some other series called Vampire Academy, which I’ve never heard of before but it’s the second suggestion when you search “vampire” on Amazon. I think I’m just going to read the first book in each series unless anyone that’s read them thinks I’ll actually get something out of reading all of them. I started watching the new TV show Vampire Diaries, which is painfully addicting and I plan to continue watching it. I can’t quite bring myself to watch True Blood because the one episode I saw I hated, but people who watch it tell me its an interesting portrayal of vampires so I guess I’m going to suck it up and start watching it next week.

            As far as the development of my product goes, I’m meeting with my mentor again later today to talk about the genre and some other details, which is the only thing I need some advice on at the moment. At this point I don’t think I’m going to make a book, but I might like the option so I’m going to go to the book-making workshop on Monday.