It might seem odd to read ‘creative writing’ and ‘Rooster Teeth’ in the same sentence. I assume most people don’t think of one when the other is mentioned. However, the discovery of Rooster Teeth around 10 years ago has had such an impact in so many parts of my life, it would be unfair to not link one without the other. You see, this company represented a part of my life I was embarrassed to talk about. When I’m not working, reading or writing, I’m usually planted in front of my television playing a video game. While I was in primary school, it was a time where it was acknowledged that playing video games was okay but you couldn’t seem too invested or passionate because that would make you weird. I suppose the same could be said about anything back then. Even my love for reading and writing could have been weird when I got too involved with it. It brought on a social anxiety because I realised the things I really enjoyed doing didn’t involve what most people enjoyed (unless they were in the same boat as me and felt they couldn’t express their love for their passions, in which case I hope that’s not the case now!). I stumbled upon RT through my sister’s boyfriend at the time. It was 2008 or 2009 and he brought over a disk of some show. I was interested mostly because I recognised the characters wearing Halo armour. Turns out this show called Red vs Blue was quite funny. I found the rest of the episodes online and found their main channel. This also had me discover their Achievement Hunter channel. Since then, watching their videos, shows and more has become almost like a religion. How does this affect my creative writing journey though? We’ll have to look a little more deeply into my history with them for that to make sense. I always knew I wanted to write, having discovered my passion when I was nine years old (more on that in a future post). However, I also didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself. I wanted to write about subjects that took the real world and twisted it. I had a bit of an obsession with writing about cats and their perspective (again, more on that in a future post), but I always wanted to write about the supernatural or fantastical. A world away from ours. A lot of my ideas brewed from the stories in video games. I liked the idea of being a character that had abilities unlike the ones we have in the real world. Even the games I played when I was three years old, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, started influencing the themes in the stories I wrote. However, I felt I couldn’t speak about it. I didn’t want to be ‘uncool’ or lose any of my friends because of it. The lack of confidence stopped me from pushing myself and my writing abilities. It also stopped me from putting myself out there and expressing my love for what I did. This included sending out my work to publishers or creating a profile of myself on social media to formulate an online presence. I didn’t think myself as ‘good enough’. There was always someone better or I thought my work was not original enough. After watching RT grow and learning of how they began, it became very apparent where hard work could get me. Confidence would always be my major struggle but it became clear that what I really wanted to do involved putting myself out there and taking risks. So, slowly I pushed myself to take risks and to grab opportunities when they were available. This included studying in Oxford (with a push from Peter), finishing a novel to be read and analysed by my classmates (more on this in a future post), applying for a full-time professional writing job when I hadn’t finished studying, and recently taking the opportunity to work alongside a company to review their book. I never thought I’d get to where I am now. I mean, comparing it to the huge company Rooster Teeth makes it seem quite small. However, these opportunities add up and they make me proud. My confidence in my skills has increased and I put myself out there more than I did before. This has translated into my writing. I find myself feeling like my skills are good enough for what I do. I have more energy and motivation, and I don’t sit there for hours reading over a sentence over and over again thinking it needs to be rewritten because it’s not ‘poetic’ or ‘beautiful’ enough. Meeting different cast and crew over the years also pushed me to continue moving forward. And this year, getting to attend a ‘content creation 101’ panel at RTX Sydney really opened my eyes to the reality behind getting anywhere in life. And that is working hard, pushing yourself, being passionate in what you do, and striving to be better. To hear them have moments where they didn’t feel like the content they were creating or what they were doing was worth it but continued to push forward really resonated with me. Also, hearing that they all had a passion to tell stories and that was why they did what they did opened my eyes. Although the impression they have made on me isn’t directly involved with my creative writing, I know I wouldn’t have been so passionately driven to do what I’ve done without their influence. The confidence to do what I want to do, to strive towards living and working doing what I love can all be pin-pointed back to the first season of Red vs Blue when I was 12 or 13, unaware of how much influence that would have on my life. Is there anyone out there that has influenced you in the same way? I think having that outside influence is important. I could go on and on if I was writing about all the people who have changed me individually but that would be a very long post. However, having Rooster Teeth as an outside reference provides a different perspective. If you want to check out other Creative writing journey entries, read my previous ones: Creative writing journey: Oxford
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AuthorCharlotte is a reading and writing lover who has completed a creative writing intensive course at the University of Oxford and is a current university student studying a double degree in journalism and creative writing. If you are curious to learn more, check out the 'About' page. Archives
January 2019
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