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Day 11 Assignments
Post your day 11 assignments here.
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3 Replies
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Karen Crider—lesson 11, Inherently Dramatic Characters
What I learned: The importance of extreme.
#1. A divorced woman, plain and tall, stands to lose everything, including her sons.
Traits: Independent, hard-working, broken, introverted
Subtext: A woman who trusts her husband, finds he has sold everything not nailed down, and leaves her high and dry.
Revised. A woman whose husband sells everything on their farm, walks– leaving her holding the bag containing the mortgage and three retarded sons.
Traits: independent. Hard working, clueless, vengeful
Subtext: When a husband betrays his wife he learns, hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned, and he’s fixing to have a taste…
#2. A boy, who is constantly bullied, spends his time nursing his wounds, until he decides to do something about it.
Traits: clueless, fearful, ashamed, intelligent
Subtext: A boy decides to use a gun, instead of his muscles to overtake bullies.
Revised: A boy who is bullied, is taught to turn the other cheek, until he’s had enough of cheek turning, and one by one kills his tormentors.
Traits: covert, forbearing, enraged, vengeful
#3. A wife, who has grown indifferent to her appearance, is being coerced to sign divorce papers by her cheating husband.
Traits: dedicated, overweight, clueless, in denial
A woman wakes one morning to find her exotic, pet chickens dead, shot by her cheating husband, to coerce her to sign divorce papers.
Traits: domestic, frowzy, in denial, crafty
Subtext: A woman decides on a makeover, and when she achieves it, she’s gorgeous, with plans to get even.
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CM 11: Inherently Dramatic Characters
Syd’s Full-out Characters
What I’ve learned that is improving my writing is to back up and look at the big picture and find those traits that serve the story and heighten the character’s journey.
CURRENT
DESCRIPTION: Vanhi, 38, strangely well-educated for a woman in Medieval India, just became a widow. In this time and place, a woman can neither inherit nor remarry. She’s screwed.
TRAITS: Crafty, Chameleon, Fatalistic, Artistic
SUBTEXT: Smart enough to know her plight should be different, she’ll risk a lot to change her own fate — but she’s not willing to risk her daughter’s future.
DESCRIPTION: Charita, 17, well-educated by her mother, just reached marrying age when her father died. She’s about to discover that, without a father and patriarch, her value plummeted.
TRAITS: Curious, Creative, Naive, Bold
SUBTEXT: Autonomy and love — can a woman in Medieval India have both. Can a poor woman have either.
DESCRIPTION: King Abzar, 40, rules a city state at the cross roads of the Silk Road and the Spice Route. At this time in history, more money flows through the Golden City than any other city in the world.
TRAITS: Diplomatic, Heart-broken, Wise, Ambitious
SUBTEXT: A widower in serious need of an heir, Abzar’s family seeks to push a political marriage on him while he’s busy managing Portuguese and Chinese traders, negotiating class and religion conflicts, while maintaining autonomy under Mughal rule.
REVISED
DESCRIPTION: Vanhi, 38, has the air of an aristocrat though she’s the wife of an Army Captain in a small village in Medieval India. Oddly well-educated with a mysterious past, she’s screwed. Her husband has died and she may neither inherit or remarry.
TRAITS: Crafty, Chameleon, Risk-taker, Privileged
SUBTEXT: Unwilling to accept the hand fate has dealt, she’ll travel to the Golden City and reinvent herself. She’ll manipulate the system to improve her daughter’s future, but is too fatalistic to believe the system can change.
DESCRIPTION: Charita, 17, just reached marrying age when her father dies. She’s open to love, but she’s believes she’ll also get to use the education her mother gave her. She’s about to discover that as educated, orphaned female her value has plummeted.
TRAITS: Curious, Artistic, Naive, Bold
SUBTEXT: Can a poor woman have autonomy and love? Charita’s got too much of her mother to except the rules this society wants to place on her.
DESCRIPTION: King Abzar, 40, rules the Golden City where Silk Road crosses the Spice Route. At this time in history, more money flows through his kingdom than any other city in the world. Money attracts enemies.
TRAITS: Heart-broken, Wise (with Blind Spots), Ambitious, Stubborn
SUBTEXT: Abzar pursues ambitious and risky political partnerships (Portuguese and Chinese traders, people of different classes and religions, the Mughal empire) as an excuse to avoid remarrying and producing and heir.
Copyright 2021 Sydney Burtner, all rights reserved
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Tom’s Full-out Characters
What I’ve learned that improves my writing is it’s challenging to weave the plot and transition the characters into a structure that works well. This class is amazing.
BEN (Before)
DESCRIPTION: Ben struggles to work his farm. His young wife raises three grade school kids.
TRAITS: Strict, firm, happy go lucky, works hard at farming, leaves raising the kids to his wife.
SUBTEXT: He has a secret date once a week with one of the older women teachers at the kids’ school.
BEN (After)
DESCRIPTION: After his wife dies, he remarries, must life down his affair and can’t hide in farm work while his kids get used to their new Mom, and need to know Ben loves them.
TRAITS: Struggles to become be a real father to his kids.
SUBTEXT: When his wife dies, he woos the girl he left in college to marry his young wife.
KAREN (Before)
DESCRIPTION: Seasoned teacher grew up with Ben in this hard-working farm community.
TRAITS: Patient, friendly but firm, strict with students.
SUBTEXT: Wounded when Ben dropped her in college and married his younger wife.
KAREN (After)
DESCRIPTION: Overwhelmed when she becomes Ben’s wife and his kids’ new Mom.
TRAITS: Loving, understanding, adjusting.
SUBTEXT: It’s a challenge to be a good Mom to adopted kids who miss their “real” Mom.
MARK (Before)
DESCRIPTION: Ben’s brother employed on the farm is at odds with him over how to be successful.
TRAITS: Academic, naïve, caring, strong.
SUBTEXT: Believes his agricultural degree will enable him to help Ben make his farm a success.
MARK (After)
DESCRIPTION: Learns to adjust to the reality of a real farm operation.
TRAITS: Experienced, practical, more mature.
SUBTEXT: Realizes there’s more to a farming than what he learned in text books. #
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