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Creative Pitch
3
Once Upon A Portal:
By: Ramisa Chowdhury
A quick plot run down:
Vincent catches Mila and finds out about portal.
Mila is forcibly married to Vincent due to debts
Vincent tries to sexually assault Mila
Vincent abuses portal's access and starts losing all his memories from its effects.
Mila escapes and runs away
Meets Aiden within the alternate universe of the portal and they start to fall in love.
Find portal by accident and activates it
Meets Aiden within the alternate universe of the portal and they start to fall in love.
Mila shoots Vincent and portal closes. Mila never meets Aiden ever again.
Scene: Mila running away from Vincent and finding the hidden portal for the first time
A little sneak peak
I run till my aching legs feel like they’re going to collapse on me. I think I might have twisted my ankle. The dull throbbing of my leg distracts me for a second. I curse out loud. How much longer do I have to keep running? What does he even want from me? There's no way I'm marrying that bastard. Not in a thousand years. Not over my dead body. Never ever.
Wait, there’s no time to think about that. I have to keep going. Where do I even go? God I wish I could drink some water. My throat would kill for a sip right now. I wonder how long has it been? A few hours? Days?
My body cries out for a moment’s rest. I give in. As I sit down, I suddenly feel a large bump beneath the damp leaves. What is this thing? The object before my eyes makes me gasp. It’s those olden day antique mirrors my inner childhood princess would die for. It looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale. I stare hypnotically at the little golden swirls that trail around the handle and my shaking fingers trail the pearls on the borders.
As I sit all alone on the forest floor, in half amazement and half hysteria, I ponder over the thought of who could have possibly dropped it.
Suddenly, there’s a flash before my eyes. It blinds me. The forest ground around me turns to billowing smoke and the clouds darken. A strange, alluring light calls out to me. Is this what heaven feels like? Am I finally dying?
No, it’s some sort of door. There’s a brass doorbell on the front. I should probably walk away now. But then again, what’s left to lose?
I will my legs to move forward and gently tap on the vine-covered and decaying door. I don’t think any human presence has touched this place for a few centuries at least.
The double doors give a heart-clenching creak and I stand before the entrance to a world I’ve never thought could possibly be real.
Maybe this is my exit ticket out of this hellhole.
LITERARY DEVICES
- Overall style of piece: scripted passage in the form of a monologue
- POV: First person
- Tone: Earnest, ardent, desperate, hysterical & informal
- Personal pronouns
- Repetition: "Not..."
- Rhetorical questions: "What is this thing?"
- Hyperbole: "A limb and a half"
- Personification: " My body cries"
Names & Titles:
- "Once upon a portal" plays on the phrase of "once upon a time"
- Mila’s name meaning: "miracle"
- Vincent's name meaning: “having most appeal or influence”
- Aiden's name meaning: "little fire"
WHY I'VE CHOSEN WHAT I'VE CHOSEN
The overarching themes and ideas:
The big umbrellas
When looking at this story piece, some of the main ideas incorporated within the scenes is the:
- abuse of power
- incorporation of magical realism
- reality of forced marriage
- awareness of sexual assault
- common use of corrupt systems
- heartbreak associated with one sided love/forbidden love
- the need for revenge
- the desire for freedom
ABUSE OF POWER
Definition: The abuse of power involves the inapproiate use of authority for personal gain.
This is a common theme in many crime genres as it helps authors set the tone for the rest of the book.
Some key reasons why a character may abuse their power is due to the need to devaluate, attain personal gain/personal gratification, conduct psychological projection, or simply, feel the enjoyment of exercising power and control.
When looking at once upon a portal, Vincent abuses his power as Mila's prospective future husband and his position as a mafia leader to dehumanise and strip Mila's self value, thus adding meaning to the character's intentions by enabling readers to know what Vincent really wants from Mila.
MAGICAL REALISM
Magical realism involves the use of normal world scenes where fantasy elements are also considered normal.
Many books such as Harry Potter and The House Of Spirits incorporate magical realism.
Once upon a portal utilizes this theme when it includes the fantasy element of a portal within the scene of a forest, which is considered part of the normal world.
This theme subverts the crime genre as it creates another subtopic of fantasy crime and helps readers to not only stay on their toes but also have a broader visual aspect to a novel.
FORCED MARRIAGE
Forced marriage tropes are commonly found in romance novels targeted towards an audience who appeals to the idea of forced love.
While this is very concerning in real life, it has been commonly idealized in many books and thus has become a very popular genre.
Some key books that centers around the idea of forced marriage are "The Sweetest Oblivion" by Danielle Lori and "Brutal Vows" by J.T. Geissinger.
In once upon a portal, the integration of this somewhat 'romantic' aspect and the crime genre aid in making the novel "multi-layered" and creates a sense of "depth", thus adding literary value to the novel.
On another note, when choosing the characters, much research was done on the cultural context of forced marriages and articles have shown that this concept of non-consensual marriage started in the Indian subcontinent in early 500 BCE, which has now spread to a global scale with more than 850 million women currently alive to be married as children.
Sexual Assault
Sexual assault and the crime genre are often interelated concepts.
When devling into this interelation, I found an expert at crime fiction named Kate Harding. She was the author of "Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture—and What We Can Do About It", and she stated that "rape culture is everywhere in crime fiction. It is in every missing girl or woman."
Thus, this well established genre, while proving to be disturbing, is a critical element to most crime texts.
So when intervening this theme within Once Upon A Portal, I was very hestitant at first, but for the subversion of the crime genre, I deemed it as a vital addition and thereby, aided my passage in the development of "a true crime novel."
The theme of sexual assault that took place between Vincent and Mila was intentionally added in order to help to shed awareness on the gravity of the issue and hopefully, allow readers to understand why actions like these, are a crime.
MAFIAS AS A CORRUPT SYSTEM:
CORRUPT SYSTEMS
"Mafias —a version of gangster novels—are a subgenre of crime films dealing with organized crime, often specifically with Mafia organizations." - City University Of New York
Organized crime and corrupt systems are like brother and sister. To put it simply, they live within the same household and function together.
The idea of a group of wrong-doers not only excites but also interests a large group pf people. This is particularly due to the lack of ability to carry out this life-style and the inner desire of wanting to do what is not allowed in society.
Hence, the use of a mafia system in Once Upon A Portal, enables readers to delve into the world of corruption and brutality that is also associated with thrill, keeping them hooked till the very end of the novel and adding to the crime genre.
Crime Genre Conventions:
The onion layers
Some of the key details that will be focused on further is the:
- symbolism of the portal
- the love triangle
- the hierarchy of power
- the use of weaponry
- the use of victim/villain trope
PORTAL SYMBOLISM (setting)
In many novels, the use of portals and doors symbolize a character's desire to escape their reality and explore the depths of an alternate reality.
Portals have been utilized in fiction texts such as the famous, "Wizard Of Oz", "Coraline" and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", hence making it a developed addition to the world of fantasy and helping to add to the theme of magical realism.
Similarly, when looking at once upon a portal, the importance of the portal is observed through Mila's wanting to escape Vincent's hold on her.
In addition to this, it is also the main setting of the novel.
Mila
love triangles
Love triangles is the presence of multiple love interests which may clash within characters in a novel.
Once upon a portal utilizes this genre convention in order to create conflict of interest between Mila, Aiden & Vincent and thus, create a sense of suspense about what will happen near the end of the novel.
It also adds to the theme of forbidden love, as Mila has to sacrifice one love for the other, even if one of them is unwanted/unreciprocated and the other is brutally ended. This allows readers to relate on a personal level as it connects their sacrifices with the sacrifices of the characters of the novel.
Vincent
AIDEN
VINCENT
HIERARCHY OF POWER
The mafia guys
The power hierarchy in most novels involve the powerful masculine character on the top of the charts, with fragile and submissive feminine characters near the bottom.
Once upon a portal also utilizes this well-known genre convention but goes beyond and inputs the idea that this power hierarchy is interchangeable.
This is proven through the flip in power near the end of the story, when Mila is the one with the gun and the taker of Vincent's life.
mila and other characters
WEAPONRY
The use of weapons are generally associated with protection and safety but when delving into the use of weaponry within Once upon a portal, it is clear that the Mafia's use of pistols and knives are for everything but safety.
The addition to this, the genre convention of weapon use adds to the theme of abuse of power as those characters with weaponry are generally the ones utilizing force and threats to make other characters do what they want.