Creative Writing finally starts!

So this month is all about flash-fiction writing. For anyone who doesn't know, flash fiction are fiction stories between 250 and 100 words, so the stories you'd find in magazines. That means every week, I'll have new stories to share, starting now! I'd like to present, "Hitching a Ride with a Hitman".

I remember how it all started. My wife was working late at the hospital, and I had gotten a flat tire on the way. I tried to hail a cab, but no one in this city ever stops. Except, I found a random stranger who flagged me down. He opened the door for me, and I stepped in his large, black SUV. “I’m Ricky,” he said as I closed the door behind me.

           “Anthony, but you can call me Tony.”

           “Tony, huh? I like that name.”

           Ricky was well dressed, a three-piece suit, the jacket draped over the back of his seat.

           “Where you headed, Tony?”

           “UMass Hospital. The wife’s a nurse, and she’s been out all day. I just wanted to bring her something to eat,” I said. “Tuesday is left-over night.”

Ricky chuckled approvingly. “Good man. Happy wife, happy life, yeah?” he asked. I nodded in reply. At the next light, Ricky reached back into the back seat and pulled a paper-wrapped package. “Hey, since you’re headed to the hospital, could you drop this off with a man named Leo? He’s waiting for it, and I’ll even throw in a C-note for you. I have to hightail it to my niece’s birthday party.”

           I sat stunned for a moment. A hundred bucks to drop this package off somewhere I was already going, for such a kind man? And I had been between jobs for so long while my wife worked fourteen-hour days. “For a guy like you, Ricky? No problem,” I said.

           Ricky clapped me on the back and pulled promptly up to the front of the hospital. “Good man,” he said, handing me a crisp hundred-dollar bill. “Leo should be on the second floor, room 203. Can’t miss him.”

           I stepped out of the car, took the package, and nodded to Ricky as he drove off. Leo was the next stop, and Ricky was right. Leo was a wall of a man, and he approached me the moment he saw the package. He grunted in thanks, and I was on my way to my wife’s station, where I dropped off her food. She wasn’t on break so I left it in the fridge, and texted her from the cab I finally managed to get back to our little apartment. I sat down in my recliner and sighed, dozing off to the news on channel five. I woke up a few hours later. The news cycle had to be over, but the casters were still on the air. Apparently, one of the UMass hospital’s doctors had been shot. As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Two spooks in suits were on the other side, claiming to be FBI. Within moments, their demands stopped as two gunshots rang out. Carefully, I stuck my head out the door, and there stood Ricky and Leo, dapper and covered in blood.

           “Hey Tony, looks like you’re stuck with us. Welcome to the job,” he said dryly.

           Leo smacked me over the head with something, and the next thing I knew, I was in an ornate living room.

           “Get dressed,” Ricky said. “Time to earn the boss’ favor.”

           I was handed a suit, tie and mask, all of which fit me shockingly well. Too stunned to argue, I did what Ricky said, and he and I stepped into his big, black SUV.

           “Don’t worry,” Ricky said, handing me a pistol. “First time’s always the hardest. Just, don’t miss, okay?”

           After a short ride, Ricky and I stepped out of the car. In front of us was the Commerce Bank on Main. I knew what was going on. “Ricky, no,” I said. “I don’t want to do this. I’m not involved!”

           Ricky cocked a shotgun from somewhere on the other side of the car. “Your face is all over the news Tony, from the UMass killing, where you handed Leo the gun.” He said as he stepped around the car. “Like it or not, you’re involved.”

           He shoved me towards the front door of the bank. It was my first heist. Later I learned, it was my first job offer in months, and seeing no other option, I took it.  Now, I have a well-paying job, I’m a good husband, and every Tuesday is still left-over night.

"I never wanted to be the villain..."

        So last week, I wrote out this prompt, and wanted to see some stories! Understandably though (since only like 3 people actually look at this, but hey I love writing for whoever those three people are!) I didn't get any responses on that post. I do however, have my own little tidbit to use. Enjoy!

        I remember the day it all happened. I came before my king, a humble man from the plains, asking only for more support for my people. Monsters and vile men had been raiding our town for weeks, pillaging whatever good they felt like, taking our people and doing ungodly things to them before our eyes. I stood in awe of the towering figure I only ever knew as "your highness", and barely noticed the young boy beside him. Should I have though, I would have seen the malice and contempt for me and my plight in his eyes.
       
        My pleas fell on deaf ears, not that day, but in the weeks following, my people suffered with no aid. Finally, the royal guards came, but not to our aid. We were told to leave our homes, our shops, our livelihoods, as if they had never meant anything to us in the first place.
     
        "Where do we go?" The women of the village cried out. The guards didn't care, they had no sympathy for our plight. Eventually, the women made their way to the canyon, just outside the desert to the west. The men found themselves conscripted, forced into the royal army with no military training. Many of them were slaughtered trying to defend other from the horrors they had faced. The rest either took their own live, or disappeared. All but myself. I was the only man in our tribe that had been blessed by the goddesses, meant to carry on a legacy of greatness, of power. To usher in a new era of peace was my only goal. And that boy, that little blonde boy with the pointed ears saw it fit to whisper in the king's ear, to tell him that I was plotting to end his daughter's life and the royal bloodline with it, when all I wanted was to keep my people safe.
       
        Now though, my goddesses have granted me my opportunity to repay this boy, who without lifting a finger, has thwarted my plan for peace in our time at every turn. Their power flows through my veins, turning my skin a pallid green, but I care not. Their power reverberates in my muscles, making me a gargantuan anomaly among man, but I care not. their power though, also flows into him, my final obstacle in the way to ultimate peace, for my people and the people of this world. His courage is admirable, but I will not let it sway me. I have my goal, to destroy the vileness in this land, and sow the seeds of a world in which all people can live and work together, but here he stands, in my citadel, ready to cast me down.

        They love him, the courageous "hero" they see before them. They don't know how he's been corrupting their sacred rites and temples, casting out the guardians that lay dormant therein. They don't see how, where he goes, death and unnatural destruction follows. All they see is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy, clad in green, who has disrupted the natural order of our world. The same boy who stands before me. I call to him, the boy who ostracized me from the world I wanted only to save, in an attempt to scare him away from a fight that I do not want.

        "I am Ganondorf, of the Gerudo!" I cry, hoping to intimidate him. "Wielder of the Triforce of Power! You cannot hope to stop me you fool!" He remains silent, and draws his sword.

A bit of a review and a writing prompt for everyone! (Myself included)

        So I just finished the new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild (hence why this week's post is on a Sunday night instead of a Friday afternoon), and as a writer, I have to say that this game's story was BEAUTIFUL! I'll do my best not to spoil things here, but honestly, it was a refreshing change of pace. For once, they added some real story beats to the game. "This happened, then because of that, this happened" and so on and so forth, rather than just, "Okay. Go here. Do this. Go there. Do the next thing. Save the princess. You win". I absolutely loved it because for once, there was some real character development to Link and even the side characters.
       
        They had a reason to do what they did, and motivations, and obstacles blocking their progress. For me, I feel like that's what Zelda games were missing, the ability to make the characters seem more real than myth. It made me want to write something new and exciting, so I came up with a prompt, that I'll post my response to next week, and I hope someone else will play along!

        "I never wanted to be the bad guys, but the hero made me." Aaaaaaaand go!

No writing this week, have some advice instead!

        So due to the nature of this month's schedule, I don't have as much writing this week to present as I haven't been able to sit down and put words to paper (aside from this and I want to make this a good habit). Instead, let's dole out some advice for any future Full Sailors!

        If you've decided to go to Full Sail, you'll have a great time, that much I can promise. Within the first week, I'd made some of the coolest friends at the school, and I'm extremely introverted. I promise you, if you're like me, just talk to one person at that networking summit thing during orientation and your whole career at Full Sail will be so much easier!

        Now, month one, you'll have two classes that are pretty simple. No matter what program you're in, you'll have Creative Presentation and Psychology of Play. They're really easy classes, just do your homework, and for the love of all things nerdy, REMEMBER TO DO YOUR REPLY POSTS! You'll understand when class starts, but seriously, don't forget them.

        Here's the part where I turn into Navi from Ocarina of Time and tell you "Hey, Listen!" but that's because, like your teachers, I want you to succeed here and beyond the school's walls. It's time for a tip list!

        1. Network! Go nuts meeting new people. Hit up Vistaprint.com and get some business cards, they're like $30 for 200 of them and that'll last you a good couple months. Just remember to give them out! They don't even have to be anything special really, just a neat design with your name, what you want to do, and some contact info. Mine just says "Matthew Scarpa, Aspiring Screenwriter" and has my email, phone number and address on it. Simple stuff, and the school president, Garry Jones already has one because I had them on me. Look at that, an important man already has my info, boom.

        2. Set aside some homework time EVERY DAY! I kid you not, every single class, you will get anywhere from one to three homework assignments and they can take up to six hours a piece if you're slow at them. The teachers are going to cram as much possible learning as they can into the month they've got their hooks in you, so be prepared to work and work hard! I know you'll hate it, but hey, in the real world, this kind of thing happens a LOT so better to get used to it now rather than later!

        3. Go to events! Full Sail has absolutely INSANE events. In February, we basically shut down all the classes and party for a week to celebrate the six coolest alumni that have been outside Full Sail for a decade or more at the annual Full Sail Hall of Fame. And let me tell you, that week is absolutely nuts! Food trucks, games, absolutely awesome prizes (I won a $400 audio interface that I still have zero idea what to do with), and at the end of the week there's a huge award ceremony and party for our Hall of Fame inductees. Besides that, Full Sail hosts WWE NXT every year so snag some tickets, or better yet, volunteer to work it for some free wrestling! And of course, we have club events like the LAN Club's Clash of the Campus (where Full Sail and neighboring UCF go head to head in Super Smash Bros 4, League of Legends, Overwatch and more!) that officially starts this September at our very own Full Sail Live Venue! And speaking of clubs...

        4. Find a club you like and join it! Or if they don't have one already, make it! No joke, Full Sail has so many clubs, I can't keep track. Like I said, we've got the LAN Club (with a twitch channel right here where we stream our events like last month's Super Smash tourney that Nate and I got to commentate on), Cosplay Club, Tabletop Club, Role-play Club, one for Creative Writers (represent!), heck I think if I look hard enough I'd find a club for long boarding in a chicken costume we've got so dang many!

        5. Do collaborations! This goes back to networking, but once you guys meet people, do stuff with them! If you guys meet me and you want to do a webseries or T.V. show, just text me! Be all "Yo Matt, I got a story for a show, but I need someone to write the script." I promise you, by the time you're done typing out that next text I'll be all over that like white on rice, I love this stuff, and the people who go here love their field as much, if not more than I love mine!

        6. Explore the campus, especially when it's busy! Hit up The Fishbowl in FS3B at any daylight hour and you'll see anywhere from fifty to a hundred students all doing so much cool stuff it'll blow your dang mind! I promise you, make a lap around The Fishbowl and you'll meet at least two people who are cooler than the fridge in your apartment that you'll want to hang out and work with.

        7. Finally, and this one is a personal piece of advice that I learned REAL dang fast; meet your instructors. These men and women here want you to succeed like I said before, so they will be your harshest critics, but also your biggest advocates if you just follow their advice. Each of them has so much experience in their field and nine times out of ten, in the field you want to go into. If you can meet your department heads one-on-one too, holy crap you'll be golden! They'll hit you with so much info so fast, you'll get whiplash and start yelling "That was awesome, can we go again?!" And of course, be on the look out for Garry. He's without a doubt, one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet (I mean come on, dude's gone crowd surfing at concerts hosted at the school he's the president of!), and he actually genuinely cares about you succeeding at what you want to do. He's like the cool uncle that watches you rock people's socks off. Plus, if you actually go up and talk to him or ask him for advice, chances are he'll hit you up later in the program (make sure you give the man a business card!) to see how you're doing. That's good looking out Garry.

        Anyhowitzer, thanks for letting me spit my opinions and junk at you through this whole thing, just remember to do your best and don't miss that balance of work hard, play hard and you'll do fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I've put off homework enough for today for V.E.M (month 2 class for film, CW and the like programs) and I need to get things done. Peace in the Middle East, I'm out!

Me and Garry rocking the Hall of Fame Feb. 2017

A sample of "Colossal"'s pilot script

Good morning everyone, I'd like to present you all with the first seven pages of "Colossal"! These pages can be viewed through Google Docs right here! I hope you all enjoy this little taste of what's to come! 

Obligatory Introductory Post!

        Hello denizens of the internet, my name is Matt! As is customary, I figured I'd tell the world a bit about myself and why I'm here! I'm a creative writing student, and by definition, a freelance screenwriter who focuses on animation and children's entertainment. That being said, I also enjoy writing short stories and live action scripts as well, and I absolutely love ancient mythology and military history, especially Greek and Roman (enough so that I traced my family name back to the oldest recorded instance and proceeded to get the Roman Legion number my family would've been most likely involved in tattooed on my shoulder).

        I love writing almost as much as reading, video games, and enjoying classic and alternative rock music, but enough about me. You're probably here because you want to know what I've done! Well, before I moved to Florida to Study at Full Sail University, I lived in Allen, Texas, where I completed the pilot script for my own show, "Colossal". The show is an animated series following Carter Hernandez and Amber Greene as they balance, school, friends, and battling giant manifestations of the forces of nature called Colossi (Colossus if it's only one). I have a pilot script that will be sampled in a post later on, as well as a series bible with some artwork (courtesy of my good friends Joseph Taylor and Ash Corona) and a whole lot of episodes!

        My personal goal is to eventually be a show runner for Cartoon Network and bring back shows that encourage people to sit down with their friends and marathon the episodes until their eyes hurt and their hearts well up with all sorts of emotions.

        Thanks for dropping by!
~Matthew Richard Scarpa

"Fortune and Glory kid. Fortune and glory."
~Harrison Ford, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984)