Day 3 – What I learned …

[Deb Johnson]

Changes I made to my scene and what I learned…

While I’m not writing a comedy (my genre is horror) – I was still able to escalate on a gradient by intensifying the characters’ reactions, building tension, and incorporating unexpected elements.

I added more physical symptoms to each character’s escalation of the situation.

I intensified the conflicts between each character.

I added more visual and auditory cues to add to the dread and mystery.

I made the physical struggle between two of the characters more intense.

I added a final scene transition that foreshadows more challenges to come.

[Mary Dietz]

My scene is drama so the extreme is hysteria. My young character is afraid for her sister who is to marry soon. She spotted a charm laid out on the wedding dress and recognized it as the same charm responsible for her mother’s death during pregnancy.

The youngster now fantasizes about terrible consequences if her sister relies on the charm. The dialogue escalates into a loud argument at which point, the child grabs the charm, runs to the door, and throws it into the yard. She returns to her sister with a tearful show of affection and statements of how important her sister is and how much she loves her and relies on her love. Because this dialogue comes from a six-year-old it is simplistic and exaggerated.