Day 4 Assignments

[Bob Rowen]

Bob Rowen’s Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment is a process of drawing out details about my lead characters I hadn’t though of.

Role of the Protagonist: FIGHTER. The Protagonist confronts the government (AEC) and corporate America (PGE) regarding the failed and dangerous Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant. He goes public with what he knows putting himself and his family at risk.

Role of the Antagonist: AUTHORITY. The Antagonist does whatever it takes to promote and protect Humboldt Bay’s nuclear technology. He threatens the Protagonist and bad things happen.

LEAD CHARACTER INTERVIEWS:

Questions for VIRGIL PRATER(late 20s) the PROTAGONIST

1. Tell me about yourself. I grew up in a dysfunctional family during the WW II years and wound up with a speech impediment prior to entering elementary school. I became the target of bullying, which started at home with my dad constantly putting me down. I developed an aversion for bullies and found myself taking on all of them in high school regardless of their target. I unsuccessfully ran away from home twice before leaving home permanently days before my seventeenth birthday to enter the Marines. The Marine Corps became my first real family that provided me an opportunity to achieve whatever I was capable of. During my time in the Marines, I developed a strong commitment to truth, honor, and duty.
2. Why do you think you were called to this journey? Why you? I think it was probably largely because of the personal influences of those I served with in the Marines. This was clearly during my formative years and it was especially Gunny Howard, in a somewhat limited way, and later Gunny Stacy who had the greatest impact on me. They instilled in me a sense of duty to always question and then do the right thing, which sort of ran counter to basic Marine Corps philosophy.
3. [Those] you are up against. What is it about them that make this journey even more difficult for you? After determining PGE and the AEC were lying to the nuclear workforce and then witnessing PGE’s numerous violations of radiation safety standards and their cover-ups, I confronted management only to learn that the majority of the workforce viewed me as a troublemaker placing their livelihoods in jeopardy.
4. In order to survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult? Since going directly to my first-line supervisors with my safety concerns followed by my second-line supervisor all of which produced no positive results, I’m going to publicly confront management with the radiation safety issues at an official PGE safety meeting, which I was previous advised never to do again.
5. What habits or ways of thinking do you think will be the most difficult to let go of? At first it was my initial belief that nuclear power was the panacea to our emerging energy crisis. Getting rid of that belief was a bitter pill to shallow. Now I’m faced with the backlash of nuclear employees more concerned with their livelihoods than radiation safety.
6. What fears, insecurities and wounds have held you back? My early desire not to rock the boat too much so I could finish my training program to become a nuclear control technician.
7. What skills, background or expertise makes you well suited to face this conflict or antagonist? I was trained in ABC Warfare while serving in the Marines. My ABC training included the biological effects of radiation exposure, which put me at odds with what PGE is telling the nuclear employees.
8. What are you hiding from the other characters? What don’t you want them to know? I don’t want them or anyone else to learn that I remained totally silent about a fatality that should never have happened while serving in the Marines thus leaving me with a boatload of guilt.
9. What do you think of [pro-nuclear power folks]? They are ignorant and too damn lazy to engage in independent research and critical thinking.
10. Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story. I eventually came to realize America’s nuclear industry was advancing the Big Lie that nuclear power was safe, clean, and economical. I also learned the Powers that Be were willing to do whatever was necessary to protect themselves from anyone willing to confront the Big Lie and to expose it for what truly is.
11. What does it do for your life if you succeed here?It’s not so much what my efforts would do for me but rather what they would do for others if I succeed. For me it’s just knowing that I tried to make a difference by doing the right thing.
12. Ask any other questions about their character profile that will help you. I’ll leave this item for further consideration.

Questions for EDGAR WEEKS(mid 40s) the ANTAGONIST

1. Tell me about yourself. I grew up in a conservative, middle-income family. My dad was an engineer and I followed in his footsteps. Following my service in the Air Force, I obtained a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California. After I graduated from the University, I obtained a management position with PGE in a fossil fuel generation facility. Then an opportunity of a lifetime presented itself when PGE asked me if I would like to undergo training for the nuclear engineer position at the Humboldt Bay Nuclear Plant under construction. I jumped at the opportunity and I’ve never looked back. The Humboldt Nuke received AEC License No. 7 and was the first commercial boiling water reactor west of the Mississippi. I promised corporate headquarters that I would do everything possible to make Humboldt Bay a success.
2. Having to do with this journey, what are your strengths and weaknesses? I am totally committed to PGE’s goal of going nuclear. I’m proud to say that I am a hardworking company man and willing to do whatever the Company asks of me. As far a possible weakness, I’ve been told I’m not much of a people person when having to deal with those I disagree with.
3. Why are you committed to making the Protagonist fail? Or for a relationship movie, why are you committed to making them change? The Protagonist is dead set on causing trouble and shutting down the Humboldt Bay Nuke. I’m not going to let him continue with his harassment of the Company and putting fear in the minds of the employees.
4. What do you get out of winning this fight / succeeding in your plan / taking down your competition? Actually, the sky’s the limit if Humboldt Bay is successful and PGE builds more nuclear plants.
5. What drives you toward your mission / agenda, even in the face of danger, ruin, or death? My desire to make the Humboldt Bay Nuclear Plant a success. And it looks as though I’m going to have to get rid of the Protagonist and a couple of others in order achieve my goal.
6. What secrets must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear / insecurity? The lies PGE’s Nuclear Task Force, that I was part of, put into the Company’s Radiation Protection Training Manual. Also the various radiation releases to an unsuspecting public.
7. Compared to other people like you, what makes you special? Cunning, cleaver, and well connected to PGE’s corporate headquarters.
8. What do you think of? The day<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>I will become Superintendent of one of PGE larger nuclear plants now on the drawing board.
9. Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story. The Protagonist is constantly finding fault with everything we’re doing here at Humboldt Bay. He is trying his best to shut down Humboldt Bay. I will see to it that he will not succeed.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Bob Rowen.

[Arial Burnz]

Subject: Arial Burnz’s Character Interviews

What
I learned doing this assignment is…how much I don’t know about this world! LOL This is taking a LOT longer than I thought it would. My characters are in a fantasy world, so I’m spending just as much time building the world as I am learning about the characters. As such, I’ll be continuing the learning process with my character interviews as the days go by, but I’ll include a short summary here so I can post my assignment.

Also, I noticed as I compare this work to the other novels I’ve written, the themes I seem to explore a lot in my stories are regrets, guilt, and especially how neither of those will change the past or make our sins go away.

Aylen Elcaryn – Protagonist

The new things I learned about her during this interview (outside of what was included in the previous notes on her profile) is she doesn’t know how to read and write. She draws pictures on a little parchment pad when she makes a note of something she needs to do or get (e.g., a crock of butter to remind her she needs to get butter). I learned how her father died and why her mother is sickly and why Aylen is her sole support. Her father was infected with Nether Moss, a deadly fungus that is highly contagious and spreads with the use of magic. Her mother contracted it when she was caring for him and only survived because she abstained from using magic. Aylen is going kicking and screaming into this life lesson, which is the reason she is the perfect person for this journey. She will only change if she is forced to, and that’s exactly what this life lesson will teach her. But she must also find a balance with the newfound powers she’ll be inheriting. Because of the repressed anger, she could easily tip in the other direction and get corrupted by the magic she’s going to gain. Her love interest and her new friend will need to bring her back down to earth and ground her or she’ll destroy those who betrayed her, but at the cost of her soul.

Kylantha “Key” von Abel – Antagonist

Key and Aylen are polar opposites in personality, but they are much more alike than I realized. Both are insecure. Both crave love and attention. But where Aylen lacks the confidence to reach out to take what she wants, Key has no problem doing so, and she usually does so by manipulation. She’s learned that if she wants something, she’s going to have to get it herself. Aylen resigns herself to accepting whatever bones the Fates throw her way. Key is a vampire, in a metaphorical sense. Hrmmm…an interesting turn of events. She might end up being cursed to become a vampire at the hands of Aylen and much to Aylen’s regret.

Syndra Ara’Daenora, the Sorceress of Amon Fae – Change Agent

Like Abbe Faria was in The Count of Monte Cristo, Syndra is fast becoming my favorite character…and I have to keep her a little bit in check. She is one of those larger-than-life entities that will steal the show if I don’t balance her properly, but I can see her being a role an actor would want to sink her teeth into. Syndra is old and wise and learned, but although she may not have a lot of growing to do in her character arc, she will learn a last valuable lesson upon her death, and one Aylen will need to learn before her story is over or it will be her doom – vengeance will not change the past.

[Harley Grant]

Subject line: Harley’s Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment is … that my character are becoming real people with dreams and desires. They are conflicted and complicated. I also realize that I must take the time to get to know them.

Tell me about yourself.

I grew up in Chicago. My parents worked together in a small pawnshop. My older brother and I always used to fight. When I went away to college, my extended family disowned me. Then, I married Rohan and everyone was excited for while.

Why do you think you were called to this journey? Why you?

When I realized that my daughter’s life was at stake, I knew that I had to take action to protect her at all costs.

You are up against Rohan. What is it about them that makes this journey even more difficult for you?

Rohan is my ex-husband and I still have some conflicted feelings for him. He is a jerk who abused me, but he is still the father of my child.

In order to survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult?

I will have to shift from a quiet, outsider life to getting violent to protect my daughter. It will be most difficult to go up against my ex-husband and my brother.

What habits or ways of thinking do you think will be the most difficult to let go of?

I will have to give up the idea that a life as a good person will lead to a good life.

What fears, insecurities and wounds have held you back?

After my failed marriage, I was cast out of her family and left to fend for myself. My ex-husband has not paid child support and yet he still claims to want to be a father.

What skills, background or expertise makes you well-suited to face this conflict or antagonist?

My mother taught me how to defend myself and I have the guns to show it.

What are you hiding from the other characters? What don’t you want them to know?

My parents were gun smugglers.

What do you think of Rohan?

He fooled me into believing he was a kind, sensitive soul. In reality, he just wanted to take over my family’s business.

Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story. The cops think I have money. My ex-husband wants to kill me, take my daughter, and be in charge of my family’s business. I refuse to allow this to happen no matter what.

What does it do for your life is you succeed here?

I will no longer live in fear of Rohan and I will finally take my proper place in my family.

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR ANTAGONIST

Tell me about yourself.

I am Rohan and you should be happy to know me. I was a loner as a child and moved around from one foster family to another. I had to work hard for everything I have. I don’t trust anyone who is not on my payroll. The only person I really care about is my daughter.

Having to do with this journey, what are your strengths and weaknesses?

I am smart and resourceful, but I have a blind spot for my daughter.

Why are you committed to making the Protagonist fail? Or for a relationship movie, why are you committed to making them change?

I want Priyanka to fail so that I can be a father and head of her family.

What do you get out of winning this fight / succeeding in your plan / taking down your competition?

I will get the power, money, and family that I always wanted.

What drives you toward your mission / agenda, even in the face of danger, ruin, or death?

I want to be a father and head of the family business.

What secrets must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear / insecurity?

I was in jail for a robbery, but that was my alibi for when I actually killed Priyanka’s mother.

Compared to other people like you, what makes you special?

I am smarter, more powerful, and better connected than anyone else in this town.

What do you think of Priyanka?

While she is pretty, she is a weak woman who stands in my way.

Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story.

When I went to jail, I lost my daughter and my business. Now that I am free, I deserve to be a father and a head of the family business again.

[Monica Romero]

Monica’s character interviews

What I learned from this assignment is my character’s M.O. in the face of conflict is different than what I first imagined. Hearing her answers to these questions showed me a very specific choice that she would make which is actually on brand for her and therefore more authentic and motivated.

Lulu dreams of being a published, best selling, award winning acclaimed novelist. But she doesn’t feel capable of this yet. She secretly thinks she’ll be able to manipulate her Dad into letting her go to the colony (giving her the money to join the colony) if she just appears to give in now and endures being at home for a few weeks or months. She thinks if she SHOWS HIM JUST HOW BAD SHE IS he’ll release her to do what she loves—that their plan will backfire because she will sabotage it. She doesn’t want her parents to know that she doesn’t intend to work the business for a year like she promised. She just said that to get them off her back. Her secret plan is to agree but then to do a horrible job forcing them to get her out of there. She has full confidence that her dad is financially very successful and can give her all the money she needs. She thinks if she actually succeeds at this challenge her parents will win and she will fail, be stuck at home indefinitely and say trapped in her current life. In this sense she inherited some of her dad’s passive aggressive nature. Her side of the story is she spent her whole life pleasing her parents and being miserable for it, and now it’s only fair she should get to spread her wings. She sees a chance to escape and she knows if she doesn’t take it she’d hate herself, so she feels completely justified in the ‘white lies’ she told about being enrolled in college when she really flunked out and then dropped out. To undertake the challenge of running the business the most difficult thing will be having to ask for help from dad’s girlfriend, which she will try to avoid at all costs even though she knows more about commerce than she does. Even harder than that will be having to live at home in the midst of a crazy family situation. She thinks she understands what makes her father and mother tick and that will give her an advantage along with her resourcefulness. Ultimately she thinks words can help her resolve anything. The wound that most holds her back is that she overheard her father say that he wishes he had kids who were more like him so they could also be successful. This hurt Lulu deeply and left her feeling she will never be good enough to please her dad or meet his expectations. Her mother is also a perfectionist, a trait Lulu seems to have inherited from her although she’d hate to admit anything in common with her mother.

[Natalia Filson]

Natalia Filson’s Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment… WOW, what a trip!!! This exercise is priceless. I went in with a dread of another yet homework assignment. Instead, I got forty minutes of unstoppable writing, on one breath of inspiration! I had no idea my characters had so much to say. I am so glad of discovering this tool. This is amazing.

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR PROTAGONIST

1. Tell me about yourself. My name is Cassie, which is short for Cassandra. My father was into literature and Greek mythology. I hardly remember my father. My parents divorced when I was seven. He was never in my life, and my grandmother made sure I grew up to think he was a horrible man for abandoning the family. All I remember is him teaching me to ride the bike without training wheels and reading me stories.

2. Why do you think you were called to this journey? Why you? This journey is mine and only mine. As much as it seems I can make a difference in this world, the road always leads back to ourselves.

3. You are up against Velda. What is it about her that makes this journey even more difficult for you? Velda is embodiment of perfection. She is me as I fantasize about if I wasn’t so afraid to become her. Why is it hard? Because I think she is a fantasy and it’s impossible to be her.

4. In order to survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult? Facing the real world has always been the most difficult. I feel like people don’t understand me. I feel like I don’t belong. I desperately want to fit in, but how much of myself do I have to give up to be able to fit in? It is so much easier to go with the flow, pretend, and then resort to my fantasy world. Going outside the box would mean I would have to accept who I am, and not try to adapt. If I accept myself, I will fit in pretty much anywhere, right? Changes? I have to learn how to tell people no, how to live by my personal standards, and not be afraid of rejection anymore. Rejection is painful, but living live in fear of being alone is even more painful. Do I have to learn how to be okay alone before I can be accepted by others? – We’ll see…

5. What habits or ways of thinking do you think will be the most difficult to let go of? Depending on opinion of others. I see myself through the lens of anyone who is in front of me. I need to see myself through my own lens.

6. What fears, insecurities and wounds have held you back? Fear of rejection, abandonment and humiliation.

7. What skills, background or expertise makes you well-suited to face this conflict or antagonist? Being so attuned to other people’s feelings and emotions made me almost a “mind-reader”. I can see and feel what other people are going through, or going to do, even before they know themselves. But I can’t profess that, because nobody believes. Is it curse of my name?

8. What are you hiding from the other characters? What don’t you want them to know? My fear of being rejected. I am afraid to show how much their opinion matters. I build a shell, and that’s what everyone sees.

9. What do you think of Velda? She is perfect. She has no fears. Opinions of others don’t matter to her. She is cool, calm and collected. She can tell people to go to hell. Nobody can bring her down. She can stand in her truth.

10. Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story. As much as I want to be like Velda, there’s something about her that doesn’t sit well with my heart. Her independence of the opinion of others is great. But sometimes she comes across as a psychopath, who has no regard for others.

11. What does it do for your life is you succeed here? I will be free. I can remain Cassie, with her looks, and feelings, and character traits. I can embrace the traits Velda has, and reject what does not resonate.

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR ANTAGONIST

1. Tell me about yourself. My name is Velda. I was, I am, and I will be. I don’t know where I came from or where I will go. I always am. I am part of Cassie’s psyche that she has not yet discovered or allowed to be.

2. Having to do with this journey, what are your strengths and weaknesses? There are no weaknesses about me. Only strengths. I am perfect.

3. Why are you committed to making the Protagonist fail? Or for a relationship movie, why are you committed to making them change? Since I am Cassie, all I want is to make her realize that she is too, perfect as she is. If she doesn’t, she fails. She will make herself fail. She will do it to herself.

4. What do you get out of winning this fight / succeeding in your plan / taking down your competition? Nothing. I am doing it for fun. Seeing people struggling with themselves is the highest form of entertainment.

5. What drives you toward your mission / agenda, even in the face of danger, ruin, or death? What started as fun seems to get me involved. I like risk. I like to see how far I can push myself and others.

6. What secrets must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear / insecurity? There are no secrets. Telling the truth is the highest form of freedom. I want Cassie could see it. There’s no fear but what’s in her head.

7. Compared to other people like you, what makes you special? Nothing. All people are like me and no one is like me. I am special and I am not. I just am.

8. What do you think of Cassie? She is a beautiful soul trapped in the bounds of her own mind.

9. Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story. It’s simple as day. We are free to do as we want. Anyone’s opinion is just an opinion. I only want to help Cassie because I am her. I don’t give a rat’s ass about anyone else.

[Robert Springfield]

Rob Springfield’s Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment is that by stepping outside the box I learned more details about the story by interviewing the two leads characters.

LEAD CHARACTER INTERVIEWS:

QUESTIONS FOR MARK SAVERS (PROTAGONIST)

Tell me about yourself. My name is Mark Savers, I’m fourteen and I live with my mother and father, Julie and Jeff. I have a little sister Ann, who gets on my nerves, she can’t stand me because I’m always calling her names and knocking over things in her room. Plus, I hate that she kisses up to my dad. He shows her more attention than me. In fact, he only has negative things to say to me. We never have any real father-son time. He finds any reason to rag on me. My mom never stops cleaning, moving stuff around, picking up stuff, adjusting her clothes, hair, etc. She thinks that everything is supposed to be perfect. My parents don’t act like husband and wife because the least little thing mom says to dad turns it into a confrontation. He used to drink all of the time, but now he is secretly gambling. I’m the only one that knows that he sneaks out to this wealthy guy’s house named Manny. Our family is so messed up. She is always trying to get me in trouble. I used to like baseball but dad ruined that for me when he got drunk in front of a crowd and had me doing push-ups on the mound in front of a crowd. He never apologized for that, that’s why I know he hates me. I like software coding and goofing around with apps. I still like throwing things because baseball was cool, I was a good pitcher. I can still hit any object from any distance with 100% accuracy, I have a great throwing arm.

Why do you think you were called to this journey? Why you?

Because of my demeanor as a bad boy/troublemaking kid I would be a perfect fit. I’m curious by nature and not afraid to stand up to adults, especially mean ones. Plus, I will do all I can for the only friend I have who has entrusted me with his priceless invention.

(Those) you are up against. What is it about them that makes this journey even more difficult for you? Technology-wise my former teacher, John Stein, the protagonist, is smarter than me. He is a software designer like my mentor, Dr. Green. He’s always thinking and he never gives up, he is merciless and cold.

In order to survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult? I have to learn the antagonist’s weaknesses; something that will throw him off completely. I’m sure he has something deep within that he doesn’t want anyone to know. If I find that out I can stop him. I will have to make changes within my character traits which will be very difficult for me, since I’m only fourteen. But to keep the app out of his hands I am going to have to find a way to get information on him either through hacking his personal data, or through someone that is very close to him.

What habits or ways of thinking do you think will be the most difficult to let go of?

When I get frustrated I can’t let that make me to do something that will cause harm to me or the ones that I love. I need to stay cool and learn not to throw things when I get upset.

What fears, insecurities and wounds have held you back?

The fact that my father hurt me has caused me to shut down a part of my life that I really enjoy, being a kid. I’ve always felt that I was useless around my family and that no one truly loves or respects me.

What skills, background or expertise makes you well-suited to face this conflict or antagonist? I have the phone app and the training I learned from my mentor as a software coder. Also, my age can be plus, if used in the right way. I will be underestimated from the start. That’s when I can do things that are unexpected, and I can cause the most damage.

What are you hiding from the other characters? What don’t you want them to know?

The extra bonus codes that Dr. Green explained to me before he died. Those codes, if applied at the right time will be able to trick my adversaries for quite a long time.

What do you think of (villains like John and Manny) ? Although they present themselves as decent, they are snakes, they lie still in the grass hiding, waiting for the opportunity to pounce on their intended victim. They mask their true intentions until they’re ready to attack like a sharks.

Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story.

Dr. Green came to my computer programming class all excited. John Stein, my teacher at the time, introduced him as his former teacher and friend. I wasn’t impressed with Dr. Green at all, I guess he was kind of nice. He started telling Stein about this extraordinary app that he had designed and how it would change the face of technology and the world. He wanted to partner-up with him, Stein told him “no” at first, then they went out in the hall. Dr. Green did a demonstration for him and he was hooked. I saw the whole thing through the crack of the door. Stein agreed to work with him on getting the rest of the funding for the app, because it was still in the early stages. Shortly after that, I got in trouble with my dad, he was really railing into me this one morning in the car as he was driving me to school. I couldn’t take it, but I didn’t say anything because he is hard to talk to when he is like that. But he would not let up, so when I got out of the car I was seething. It didn’t help that some of my friends were right there and heard him going off. They started clowning me real bad, laughing, bumping and pushing me. I got so frustrated that I picked up a rock, as I was about to throw, I got bumped and the rock shattered Dr. Green’s windshield. From there, I had to do community service at his laboratory, taking out trash. But once Stein found out that I was working there he went berserk. He wanted me gone under no uncertain terms. But Dr. Green wouldn’t have it, he said he would not be dictated to on who could work at the laboratory, he didn’t back down. Stein said that he was pulling the funding and stormed out of the office. Later on, Dr. Green let me help him design the app. As the weeks went by, I started noticing that Dr. Green would cough up some blood. He always tried to hide it though. Then one day at the lab I saw a car parked across the street, I used the app to disguise myself. I found out that it was Stein in the car telling a crew of guys to come to the lab. They were going to take the app even if they had to kill for it. I immediately told Dr. Green. He kind of knew that it was probably Stein who had attempted to hack his system for the data and formulas to the app. However, he had tricked him with a dummy IP address. Anyway, Stein and his crew raided the office, but Dr. Green made me go out of a secret passage that was under his desk before they saw me. He stayed behind to distract them. He was already faint looking and weak by now. Luckily, I was able to get out with the phone app. Still, his crew followed and caught up with me through the secret passageway. Nonetheless, I fought back and barely escaped, because my dad drove up out of nowhere and picked me up. From there we were Las Vegas bound. Likewise, my dad was on the run as well. He had acquired a hefty gambling debt and the loan sharks wanted their money or they were going to kill our whole family. So now we have John Stein and his crew after us for the app and Manny and crew after my dad for the gambling debt. Yet, for some reason I feel that the two sets of crews are somehow related, anyway I will use the app to hide our identities.

What does it do for your life if you succeed here? I will finally win the respect of my family. Plus, I would have kept my promise to my mentor, Dr. Green, on using the app for the good of society, as well as donating the proceeds to his fourteen year-old grandson, Zeta.

QUESTIONS FOR JOHN STEIN (ANTAGONIST)

Tell me about yourself. My name is John Stein, I’m 45 years old. I teach computer programming at a high school in Tennessee. I have been teaching at the high school level for ten years. See, for the first fifteen years of my professional career I rose to the position of C.O.O. at Microso…, MS, you know the company. I was making a cool 7-digit salary with all the perks and full benefits, including stock options, and the company jet at my disposal. You wouldn’t believe the annual bonuses that I would receive yearly, smooth 6-digit bumps. Then, suddenly the rug was pulled out from under me and I lost everything. To make a long story short, some co-workers and I were going to take a 20 million dollar bribe, but before we could collect, we soon learned that we were being investigated. See, we had gotten hold of a new phone design plan and were going to sell it to the competition. However, one of the guys got greedy and wanted to cut the rest of us out of the deal. At the same time, the feds were watching us the entire time. When the smoke all cleared, I was made the fall guy. Everybody turned on me, but, I ended up getting off on a technicality. Subsequently, I saw something that the big boss did not want to get out. However, I still got fired, there was no getting around that. I lost everything because I broke the confidentiality of my contract. It was settled out of court and I only received a misdemeanor on my record instead of a felony. My wife divorced me, took my daughter, and moved out of state. What’s more, I was blackballed, none of the other big corporations would hire me. I was reduced to a menial high school teacher. Since then I’ve been trying to make my way back into the high level software market, but I have to get my hands on the right device. Also, I still have a few wells that I can tap, since I took the heat for everyone involved in the caper.

Having to do with this journey, what are your strengths and weaknesses? My strengths are my “dog eat dog” mentality. I have extensive knowledge concerning all things computer-related. My weakness is that I have a couple of secrets that no one can ever find out or it’s lights out for me.

Why are you committed to making the Protagonist fail? Or for a relationship movie, why are you committed to making them change?

Because to me he’s a snotty-nose kid that has his nose where it doesn’t belong. I can make billions from the app that he has in his possession, it belongs to me. I deserve it, I was friends with Sam and Mark is the reason our friendship ended. Although, I was going to double cross Sam anyway.

What do you get out of winning this fight / succeeding in your plan / taking down your competition?

I will get an app that is worth billions. I can live like a king from here out. All the big boy corporations will bow down once I have the app.

What drives you toward your mission / agenda, even in the face of danger, ruin, or death?

The possibility of being a billionaire ten times over. The fact that I’m not going to let a troublesome kid, one of my students, who I didn’t like win. </font>

What secrets must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear / insecurity?

One secret is that the night the deal was to go down for the bribe, I was in a closet watching my boss argue with his girlfriend about her cut of the deal. She came at him with a knife. He struck her, she tripped, and impaled her head on a stake. Not to mention, the girlfriend was his wife’s sister. I captured the whole thing on my camera phone. I let him know what I had on him. He swore me to secrecy. I told him that if anything happened to me or my family the video will go to the police. I swore him to secrecy. Also, if any of us break our part of the pact, then we can deal with each other how we see fit. He’s the reason I didn’t go to jail or have a felony record. He’s one of the wells that I can still tap if it’s a sure thing; the app is a sure thing.

Compared to other people like you, what makes you special?

I have a trained crew of killers at my disposal. I have impeccable computer skills to use in order to track Mark’s location. I have a never say die attitude. I will not be defeated.

What do you think of (Mark Savers) ?

I think he is way over his head in the situation. Sure the kid has gumption, but he’s no match for me. He wasn’t even a good student in my class. He is just a troublemaker getting on my nerves.

Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story.

Sam came to me in good faith, asking for funding. I put my rep on the line, and what does he do. He has that troublemaking delinquent Mark working at his laboratory while we have a billion dollar project in the works. I told him to ditch the kid, but like always he has this bleeding heart for the underserved or whoever needs a pat on the back. So I pulled the funding because Sam would not listen to me concerning the kid. But I am determined to get my hands on that app. I even tried hacking into his computers, but he put some type of super encryption on it. Then I monitored all of his activities for weeks until I figured the app was finished. Finally, I rushed into his office with my crew of killers in order to take the app and all the data that created it. Mark escaped before I got there and John died before I made him tell me the cloud in which the data was stored. But when I find Mark I will make him tell me the cloud’s username and password.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Robert Springfield.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Robert Springfield.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Robert Springfield.

[Christopher Blanchett]

Chris Blanchett’s Character Interviews

What I learned from this assignment is the necessity (and difficulty) of opening up my brain and interacting with my characters as real people.

Ryan Frederics – Protagonist

Role in the Story: Victim/Dreamer – Ryan has lost touch with his ambitions and dreams and allowed himself to become a doormat to his co-workers. The events of the story – which take place primarily at his high school reunion – reawaken his self-confidence and ability to fend for himself.

Age range: early 40’s (possibly older, depending on marketing/casting strategy) still relatively youthful, but grey hair is beginning to appear…

Internal Journey: Goes from wallowing in the past, risk-averse, compliant, and victimized to embracing the future, adventurous, assertive, and self-directed.

External Journey: Goes from being a victim of office-politics who allows others to take credit for his work to a master of the game whose insights, talents, and major contributions are recognized and appreciated.

Motivation: Locate the moment where his life took a wrong-turn

Wound: Failure of his marriage; loss of love.

Mission/Agenda: Reconnect with Lindsay

Secret: The marriage ended because he had an affair

What makes him special: Genuinely talented and excellent at what he does, even if deficient at self-promoting which keeps him from fully benefitting from his accomplishments.

What draws us to this character?

Ryan is good at what he does professionally. He’s funny. Idealistic and ultimately, still has a romantic vision of life – however hidden. He is kindhearted (perhaps to a fault?). His good nature is taken advantage of by more unscrupulous co-workers (sympathy vote).

Traits: Funny, intelligent, schemer, creative problem solver.

Subtext: Uses humor to convey unpleasant truths.

Flaw: A well-concealed streak of narcissism. Defines (to himself) character flaws (allowing others to claim credit for his work) as strengths (office politics are below me).

Values: Do the right thing. Love. Achievement (credited or otherwise). Humor.

Irony: his grandiose plans and ambitions conflict with his (subconscious) sense of undeserving-ness.

What makes this the right character for this role?

Ryan has behavior patterns from the past controlling his present. Good fit for a character in a story about regressing to past personas.

Ryan Frederics (Protagonist) Insights from Interview

Ryan was born and raised in Seattle. Growing up he wanted to be the next F Scott Fitzgerald. After graduating college he pursued novel writing for 2 years, then took a job writing advertising copy. He got married in his late thirties, was divorced by his early forties. No kids.

Ryan is called on this journey to metaphorically retrace his steps and determine when he took a wrong turn in his life with the intent of getting things back on track.

Back in high school, Ryan had always considered Paul Stiles his nemesis. While Ryan was good at everything, Stiles was great at everything. It was ironically fitting that Stiles ended up with Lindsey, but ultimately Ryan had no one to blame but himself for that…

Ryan is going to have to free himself from the self-imposed straight jacket of belief that engaging in any behavior that could be interpreted as manipulative or underhanded is unacceptable. This belief keeps him from effectively competing in office politics and puts him at a disadvantage in competing with Stiles who has no such self-restrictions.

It’s less a matter of what ways of thinking Ryan has to let go of and more a matter of the ways of thinking he has to recapture. Ryan yearns for his youthful persona; alive with dreams and ambitions, and not engaging in continual self-doubt and self-censorship.

The essential fears, insecurities and wounds that hold Ryan back are a streak of narcissism he can barely admit to himself (and which causes him to spend an enormous amount of energy hiding from everyone else) and the failure of his marriage, for which he secretly blames himself (and not without reason).

Ryan is smart, funny, and charming. He operates most effectively as an underdog. His belief that re-discovering the Ryan who existed before his break up with Lindsey back in high school will provide him the key to turning his life around instills in him motivation sufficient to do whatever it takes.

Ryan is hiding the fact that his divorce – which he has yet to fully get over – was his fault. He had an affair.

From Ryan’s standpoint, Paul Stiles has everything Ryan wants: wealth, massive recognizable success, and (especially), Lindsey.

Ryan and Lindsey were going out junior year of high school. There was an amazingly genuine connection between the two of them. From their high school perspective, they were truly and passionately in love. Lindsey studied abroad spring quarter. While she was gone, Ryan had an ongoing tryst with one of her best friends. Lindsey found out. When she confronted Ryan, he lied about the affair. Unfortunately for Ryan, Lindsey’s friend confessed. Due to (her father’s affair?) Lindsey considered duplicity to be the one unforgiveable sin. To Lindsey, Ryan’s attempted cover-up of the affair was worse than the original crime. She ended their relationship. By senior year, Lindsey and Paul Stiles had started going out. They stayed together after high school. After graduating from college Lindsey and Paul Stiles got married.

Ryan believes if he can succeed in winning Lindsey back, even temporarily, he can get a second chance at everything.

Paul Stiles – Antagonist

Role in the Story: Villain – Despite his perfect-man persona, mega-tycoon Paul Stiles has a manipulative side which decades ago resulted in Ryan breaking up with his high-school sweetheart Lindsay, who is now Stiles’ wife. Stiles is dedicated to again pulling whatever strings are necessary to prevent Ryan and Lindsay from reconnecting.

Age range: like Ryan early 40’s, the creeping effects of middle-age are perhaps less apparent due to whatever cutting edge anti-aging treatments a mega-tycoon can afford.

Internal journey: goes from being manipulative and obsessed with appearing good to more humble and authentically good.

External journey: Goes from being in a position to pull the strings in his relationship to Ryan one where Ryan has the upper hand.

Motivation: Maintain his perfect-man persona.

Wound: The knowledge he’s secretly a fraud.

Mission/Agenda: To keep Ryan and Lindsay from reconnecting.

Secret: He’s the one that wrote the note that ended Ryan’s relationship with Lindsay in high school.

What makes him special: Genuinely talented and excellent at what he does, has a particular genius for self-promotion which ensures he fully benefits from his accomplishments.

What draws us to this character?

An “aw shucks” charm coupled with massive business success and power.

Traits: Ernest, intelligent, visionary.

Subtext: Poster-boy for passive-aggression.

Flaw: An acute case of impostor syndrome

Values: Success. Authority. Keeping up his “perfect-man” persona.

Irony: He lives in mortal fear the edifice of his success is built on a foundation of lies.

What makes this the right character for this role?

Stiles is the inverse version of Ryan.

Paul Stiles (Antagonist) Insights from Interview

Paul was a closet-computer-nerd in High School, which presented a continual inner conflict with his desire to be one of the “cool-kids.” Graduating in the early 80’s, the geek-side of his personality positioned him well to break into the high-tech industry at the tail end of the initial PC wave. He developed a (software?) company (the first of many) and when it went public he made his first hundred million before the age of 28.

In terms of strengths, Paul is highly intelligent, highly disciplined, and as ruthless as he needs to be. What he lacks and secretly covets is Ryan’s easy charm and humor.

Paul is committed to making Ryan fail because Ryan’s goal is to win Paul’s wife. Paul is in a particularly precarious position with Lindsey because he did the one thing he thought he never would: he had an affair, and she (recently) found out. They’re still together (for now) but the marriage is in an extremely precarious place, and Paul is in an extremely vulnerable state. From his standpoint, Paul has to prevent Ryan from re-connecting with Lindsey because he thinks there’s a real chance any nudge could motivate Lindsey to leave him (Paul). Lindsey is the only person in Paul’s life that he truly and unconditionally loves.

Another risk for Paul is that, back in high school, Paul wrote an anonymous letter to Lindsey telling her of Ryan’s affair, with the intent of ending Lindsey’s relationship with Ryan, at which he succeeded. No one knows it was Paul who wrote the letter – including Lindsey. As discerned in the Ryan interview, Lindsey considers duplicity the one unforgivable sin. Given the strain his affair has had on their relationship, Paul is convinced that if Lindsey were to discover he wrote the letter it could cause Lindsey to reevaluate their entire relationship in a new light, and very likely leave him.

Deep down Paul feels special and attributes his ability to excel to his possessing the almost robotic analytical intelligence of a techie while also simultaneously possessing a core of humanity (he believes) typical techies lack.

Paul always secretly looked up to Ryan in high school, and in many ways consciously modeled himself after Ryan. He always envied Ryan’s easy charm and humor while aspiring to it. Paul had been in love with Lindsey since freshman year, long before she and Ryan started going out. For his secret idol to win the girl he was secretly in love with was traumatic for Paul. He subconsciously justified his actions designed to break Ryan and Lindsey up with the childish justification “I saw her first.”

Other Necessary Characters

Supporting characters: Lindsay (love interest), Meg (another love interest), Ryan’s two best friends from high school (Clayton and Art), Ryan’s boss, Ryan’s office nemesis, Ryan’s duplicitous assistant, Stiles’ business mentor, and a self-help guru.

Minor roles: Evil Fraternity brothers, reunion attendees.

Background characters: non-speaking office staff, non-speaking reunion attendees.

[Monica Romero]

Monica’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

What I learned from this assignment is my story points need to be explicitly shown on the page in order for the story to play out successfully. I need to be diligent about ensuring actions are motivated and goals as well as opposition and conflicts are clear and singular throughout

LULU

Concept – Lulu wants to break out of the family mold by dropping out of school to go far from home and be a writer instead of taking over the family business
Main Conflict – she wants a creative life away from family but dad blew up both the business and the family and now she’s stuck trying to fix it
Old Ways – Lulu is insecure, belongs nowhere, feels no acceptance
New Ways – Lulu embraces her family and caring for them and takes over the family business with love and confidence, feeling love and belonging

2. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening – Lulu striving for her dream unbeknownst to parents
Inciting Incident – Parents find out Lulu lied to them about being in school and does not plan to come back home and JOIN (not take over) the family business
Turning Point – instead of releasing college fund, dad forces her to stay home for a year and prove she can adult by running the business

Act 2:

New plan – she’ll agree to stay but quickly self sabotage so dad intentionally releases her from the commitment (fires her)
Plan in action – she actively tries to be the worst store manager ever and ACTIVELY cause the business to lose customers money
Midpoint Turning Point – She discovers the store is in much worse financial shape than dad had let on, and she can no longer sabotage it in good conscience

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Lulu now has to do a 180 and do everything she can to make the business healthy again
New plan – go hard after customers and against the competition PLUS she HAS TO team up with least likely ally, her dad’s GF
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift – she learns dad has mismanaged the store so badly that he’s blown through her college fund and it no longer exists. The carrot he was holding out was a lie. AND she has no money for her dream

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict – under pressure she discovers that she has what it takes to rescue her family and actually enjoys it
Resolution – even as things go from bad to worse, she has a NEW MOTIVATION to stay and win this fight (what is that new motivation? What changes her perspective?)

[Julie Nichols]

Julie Nichols’ Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment is that details of the story emerged from the character profiles. I don’t usually work from character first, story second, so this is illuminating. Also, the antagonist’s character took off during this process.

Protagonist Rose Dunn

My name is Rose Elizabeth Dunn. My birthday is September 5th. I was born in 1878 and am the baby of the family. I’m 15 now. I’ve been attending the All Hallows Academy in Wichita since I was 12. I live there most of the time, but get to come home for the summer and Christmas.

I loved living on the ranch. My brothers taught me to ride and rope and shoot. I’ve never felt so free, so powerful, as when I’d gallop by horse, Daisy, down by the Cimarron River. But after Mama married the Doctor, everything changed. He hated that I spent so much time with the boys, especially after I started to bleed. I couldn’t stand being in the house all the time, trying to learn sew and cooking, cooking, cooking all day long. The Doctor paid for me to go to the convent school and Mama let him send me away. Maybe because I didn’t have all my dreams and love of action beaten out of me when I was little when Mama was just trying to keep us all fed, I didn’t accept that my fate was to live a quiet life of servitude to men. Being sent away was a huge betrayal and it left me with a hole in my heart just waiting to be filled by true love.

I’ve always looked up to my oldest brother, Bill. He was the head of the family after Papa died. I couldn’t really blame him for the cattle rustling since there were times that was the only way we could keep ourselves fed. Mama went without food many a night when there was only a potato for each of us ten kids. But when I turned twelve, he started looking at me differently, particularly when he’d been hitting the bottle. What makes this so hard is that I love him still.

I’m going to have to disappoint my mother, my step-father, and Sister Mary Veronica by leaving school behind. Bill will be angry, too. He’s strange with other men come around. I’m going to have to play a double game if I stay at home, never letting them know about Bitter Creek and me.

I’ve always been truthful with Mama and the boys. I never wanted to be a problem for Mama because she had too many. But now she has the Doctor. I’m going to have to let go of thinking of myself as an obedient child and become a woman who knows who and what she wants.

As the youngest, I’ve always felt like I was an imposition. Mama never had much time for me, always working in the garden, cooking, or ordering the boys around, I’m afraid of disappointing her. I’m insecure about my skinny, tall frame. I’m not as curvy and sexy as the women the boys frequent in town. I’ve been so lonely at school.

I’m a crack shot and I ride really well. I’m smart and was the lookout from my brothers when they were rustling cattle from the time I was big enough to ride. I understand what it takes to be an outlaw. I’ve assisted my father-in-law the doctor in his surgery and know how to try to keep someone wounded alive.

I don’t want them to know about Bitter Creek and me. Bill would kill him if he knew. He will do anything for money. Sometimes, when he doesn’t know I’m looking, his face is so cold and blank. At those times, I’m afraid of him.

When I was fifteen and home for the summer, Bill and the boys brought a couple of their friends home with them: Bitter Creek Newcomb and Charley Pierce of the Wild Bunch. Bill and my brothers were totally in awe of them as they were famous, big time outlaws. Bitter Creek was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. He read all the time and was very respectful to me. I knew he was an outlaw, but so were Bill and my brothers. He started courting me and I began seeing him on the sly. I was waiting for him in a hotel in Ingalls so we could run away when he was wounded by US Marshalls. I fired on the US Marshalls to get him away. I couldn’t go back home after that, and I stayed with him and Charley to nurse them back to health. Bill found me and begged me to come back home to tell Mama I was alright. I was taking Bitter Creek and Charley back to the ranch to let Mama know that Bitter Creek and I were going to be married when Bill and the boys jumped us. They killed Bitter Creek and Charley in the yard in front of our ranch for the bounty on their heads. We were traveling with Bitter Creek and Charley’s share of the Wild Bunch loot. I took their horses and bags and road away.

I think Bitter Creek was the first person who truly loved me in my entire life.

Antagonist Bill Dunn

My name is Bill Dunn. I’m a cattleman, sometimes a lawman. I look after my Mama, my eight younger brothers and little sister.

I’m tough, I’ve had to be. The rich landowners around here have it made and my family goes hungry half the time. I’m damned good at faro and I know how to take risks. My weakness is women, the younger the better. Particularly when I’ve got a snout on, my control ain’t good.

I know this is bad to say but I’ve been in love with Rosey since she first started to show some curves. She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen even, if she is my sister. I could bear the idea that someday she’d marry some city swell when she went off to that fancy convent school. But I can’t bear the idea of her being with someone like Bitter Creek, an outlaw no better ‘an me. I can’t sleep thinking about his hands on her. I’ll kill him before I let him have her.

Rosey will come home to the ranch and help Mama the way she ought to. Someday she’ll come to love me and we’ll run away.

I love Rosey. I wake up in a cold sweat dreaming about being inside her. I admire her toughness which is so like my own. We are soul mates. That Bitter Creek has her is a desecration.

Mama and her new swell of a husband can’t know. The younger brothers can’t know. I can’t let Rose know until I can have her. I don’t let anyone know about that girl I killed in Wichita. I don’t feel anything about that. In fact, I don’t feel any guilt about anything I’ve done that was illegal or hurt someone else. I have to pretend to have those sorts of qualms. If people knew that I was like this instead of the charming guy they know, they’d hate me. They might even kill me.

I’m completely remorseless and ruthless. This gives me great power. I will do anything, hurt anyone to get what I want.

I’ve always loved Rose, though I know you’re not supposed to feel that way about your own sister. Plenty of people have done it on the ranches around here so it’s really nothing special. She’s ten years younger than me. I hardly spent any time with her growing up, never really looked at her like my sister. One of the reasons I turned bounty hunter, to be something more than just a cattle rustler, was so that Rose would think I was respectable. So she’d want me. But instead she fell for that train robbin’ gangster, Bitter Creek, even older than I am. When the Marshalls put a $5,000 reward ($167,350 today) on his head, I saw the perfect solution. Kill Bitter Creek and Rose would return to the ranch—and me.

[Keri Lee]

Keri’s Character Interviews

What I learned: I definitely got a much clearer sense of my character and her voice, as well as the blocks she needs to overcome as the story unfolds.

<u style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Role in the story: Protagonist. “Low-born,”
uneducated, and whip-smart, she’s also perceptive about systems and thus:
a budding revolutionary.

Tell me about yourself.
Nothing much to tell. I was sort of nothing. Scraping by. Then Jesse found me and rescued me. And now I have all this (waves an arm at luxe surroundings). At least that’s how I used to see my life: as starting with him because the rest was just so small and I always wanted BIG. But then I saw the big, what it came from. And it wasn’t really my big and it seemed sort of hollow. But still, the stuff was nice. So I basically tuned out. Drugged myself with luxury, which was fun for a while… but then I got restless. And that led to everything… I started seeing things, seeing into what he was up to. You can’t unsee that. Not if you’re me. Though I tried.

Why do you think you were called to this journey? Why you?
You know how some people say that when they were little, they felt like they were going to be, like, totally famous when they grew up? Like, really fucking good at something and celebrated for it? So like, they just lit up the whole wide sky? Well I think every one of us had that feeling—it’s just that most people forgot it when they were mowed down by the semi-truck of parental tongue-clucking and institutional poison. I never forgot it. Though the trucks came at me hard and often. So I think for some reason, I was always aware of that fire inside. Even when I tried to ignore it, it was there. Maybe that’s true for everyone? I hope so. But his crimes, what he was doing to people—it made that fire go from this sweet little candle-sized flame into a gigantic like, bonfire. Firestorm. Big. Cause what he was doing to people was exactly what was happening with my mom. Exactly what happened to me. Not in as obvious a way: Not some slick hipster preacher begging for money on TV, but it was the same sort of deal: you give us money, we give you god. It’s a fucking sin if there ever was one and seems to me like a really old one. Maybe the real original sin.

You are up against the Reverend Jesse Jonas, who also happens to be your husband. What is it about him that makes this journey even more difficult for you?
Well. Where to start…? It would sure be easier if he was stupid. Or more accustomed to failure. Or if anyone, at any point on his journey from fetus to hipster Jesus had said NO to him. I honestly don’t think he’s ever heard the word. Maybe that time he ordered a macchiato at the gas station convenience store.

To survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult?
Unlike my husband, who’s been swimming in privilege and deeply indulged his whole life, I’ve been told NO so often that the word sort of burrowed into my brain. I hear it and all its little friends a lot—no way. you? yeah, right! who the fuck do you think you are you white-trash-piece-of-shit? On and on like that. And sometimes I hear them in stereo. So, yeah. That’s gotta change. And that’s gotta be up there in the top five of dug-in problems on my plate.

What habits or ways of thinking do you think will be the most difficult to let go of? What fears, insecurities and wounds have held you back?
Pretty sure I just covered that above, right? But also: I think there’s this class thing. It’s like: you can’t grow up in a trailer park and not be aware of what a joke you are to the rest of the world. You might argue with that joke and tell yourself it’s bullshit and that you’re just as good as everyone else, but it’s sort of like holding a sheet pan up to a tidal wave. It’s not going to keep you dry or standing. So that’s probably the toughest part. And there’s just something about expecting to be told no, expecting to be treated like you’re trash, that brings it on. I’m aware of that too which I think is how I will get around it. That’s what Oprah’s taught me and whatever you think of her, she has freed a lot of minds and I’m hoping mine is among them.

What skills, background or expertise makes you well-suited to face this conflict or antagonist?
The good thing about growing up on the outside, on the sidelines is—if you’re smart and interested and trying to survive or better—you get very good at studying the game and the people playing it. It’s a survival thing: You don’t learn the game like kids who are born inside it, kids who have more of a padding in life, so you have to watch it. You study it. You learn to read people and sense the things that in-born people, who are convinced that they’re the shiny sun around which all things spin, don’t bother to look at, let alone SEE. They are like fish and the game is the water. They just swim. I’m more like: a seal. I know there’s a world outside the game and I will use that superior knowledge to take the sea creatures DOWN. Or something like that. I’m still working on all my 54 metaphors here so… yeah. A bit jankyass.

What are you hiding from the other characters? What don’t you want them to know?
That I know what they’re up to. That I know the little box they’ve built for me and am carefully prepping to not only bust out of it, but to take them down and destroy the sick world they have built on the backs and the hopes of people who are innocent or stupid or both. And they’ve used and toyed with the most sacred feelings a human can have to build that world. So, to me, I just don’t think there is a line I could cross, a going-too-far regarding my mission. Could get out of control. Could be fun.

What do you think of the Reverend Jesse Jonas?
I think he’s hollow inside. I think he’s brilliant and stupid all at the same time. Because he doesn’t get the hole he’s carving out of his own insides by doing this. He is so lost in the dream of this world that he doesn’t even know he has an inside let alone check it out now and then. And inside is where real life lives. He has no clue. And a lot of people don’t. That’s where evil comes from: people who live in two places: one little tiny place, which is their own heads, and one giant and glittery place, which is the material world. They don’t live in their hearts or in their souls, and thus it’s very easy to crush other people. But it also makes them stupid in a way they can’t see, and that’s their soft underbelly and I plan to carve the shit out of it with a blunt, rusted knife. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story.
Funny, because I agree with Jesse on one thing: that we were brought together by God. Now, I don’t see God in the same way he does: which is basically like an overindulgent mommy who nods approvingly as he mows down everything beautiful in his path, but whatever that’s a whole other thing. As I see it, the universe which is like: love energy or god energy or whatever it is we come from and return to or whatever, brought us together so that I could wake the fuck up and stand up for what’s right. Because I know what that is. And I tried to run but really: I had no choice. I am the avenging angel in this story. And I plan to kick some serious hipster jesus ass in that role.

What does it do for your life if you succeed here?
WHEN I succeed? I’ll do anything I fucking want. Seriously. I’ll figure that out, but the path I’m on–unlike the one I was born on and felt trapped in–this new path has no limits, which is really refreshing I have to say. And it was all a matter of my waking up and deciding for myself, just like Oprah said.

————————————

<b style=”background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Role in the story<b style=”background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>: Antagonist. The errant son of a semi-famous televangelist who’s taken over his congregation and hipped it up with rock/rockabilly vibes and slangy sermons.

Tell me about yourself.
I have publicist to do that. And besides, you probably know enough already. I mean, you’re here, right? Interested. Asking. Probably easier to ask about others than to look at yourself… common problem with journalists. Reporting rather than being the story can eat at your soul. Hot? Cold? I’m at least warm on that shit, right?

Having to do with this journey, what are your strengths and weaknesses?
My strengths are that I’m invincible. Plenty of people have tried to take me down. It’s what happens when you’re famous. People shoot at you. Try to topple you. You think I can’t handle that broken bird I married? I mean. She’s smart enough, but she knows nothing about the world. Do you know she doesn’t even have a passport? (laughs) Weaknesses? Hmm. That’s trickier. I guess my biggest weakness is I’m obsessed with (publicist) and sort of growing more interested in my wife, now that she’s starting to cause trouble. All that feels a little dangerous on a lot of levels.

Why are you committed to making the Protagonist fail?
Well, if she wins I lose. And that’s just not something I do.

What do you get out of winning this fight? What drives you toward your mission / agenda, even in the face of danger, ruin, or death?
What’s mine. My congregation. My ascent on the global stage. My ever-increasing wealth and the circles it buys me access to. You know that there are levels and levels of wealth in this world? And a lot of the upper ones are totally secret. The practices. The bar for entry. There’s always a level above where you’re standing and that’s what drives me. What excites me. I mean, I thought sucking tequila off the torsos of supermodels was big time. It’s like: barely out of the basement in terms of what’s possible….

<b style=”background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What secrets must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear / insecurity?

Well, plenty. I mean, my whole life is a secret. Why I do what I do. What I do when no one is looking. But anyway, and quite seriously, they don’t want to know. They need men like me to look up to, to show them the way, extend the rod, light the path. It’s always been like that. Thus, the noble lie. Was that Plato? Socrates? I can never keep them straight, even though they weren’t right? Crazy Greeks! But: I am a gold soul. I was born one and will die one, too, but hopefully only after amassing an truly ungodly amount of wealth and maybe making some sons to carry this shit on. Oh and I don’t keep any secrets out of insecurity or fear. I renounce them both. If I keep a secret, it’s because I don’t want anyone to know. Sabe?

Compared to other people like you, what makes you special?
I am uniquely gifted at seducing the masses. And I look phenomenal in a spotlight.

What do you think of <the Protagonist>?
Honestly, I think she’s a fucking handful. Of all the women working all the lingerie bars in all the land, I had to walk into that one and pick her. I’d been eyeing the strawberry blonde she worked with, but: fate had its way with me. And I really liked (lead’s) ass. She’s sneaky though. At least twice as smart as she acts, which is about half as smart as me, so we’re all good.

Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story.
It’s a misunderstanding. We had a deal. She’s the wife. I’m the provider, and how I decide to provide is none of her business. And she’s going to have to pay for getting that arrangement wrong.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Keri Lee. Reason: adding antagonist interview

[ML Palidofska]

ML Palidofska

Lesson 4: Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment:

Interview with Margaret Strong, protagonist

She and the antagonist, Everett James are both people who observe things and make note of them for their work. I am dealing with two personalities who are like the pickled beets I put in my salad–the jar is hard to open until you smack the lid against the counter a few times. Pop! Then they open up. I am going to have to create some “pops” so they can open up, especially to each other. Everett’s self-contained personality may prompt Margaret to do a few things that she would consider “outrageous” to bring him out, especially since she’s attracted to him.

Interview with Everett James, antagonist

He sat in the corner with his arms folded. He grudgingly admitted to being attracted to Margaret. I will have to interview him again when he’s more comfortable with the ideas I presented.

Margaret is relieved.

[Kathleen Martin]

Kathleen’s Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment is to really know my characters. Understanding who they are and what makes them tick helps me explain their journey and why they are on it.

Protagonists – Jenny and Brad

1. Tell me about yourselves?

Jenny is a woman in her early twenties and took Ice Skating lessons since she was seven years. She wants to go the Winter Olympics. While she was studying Ice Skating she met Brad who was taking Hockey Lessons and later joined a local Hockey Team at the Rink. He is in his early twenties and received a Hockey Scholarship to play for Harvard University on their Hockey Team. He met Jenny at the Rink and they dated until they both graduated from high school and Brad left to go back east. He wants make the U.S. Hockey Team and compete at the Winter Olympics.

2. Why do you think you were called to this journey ? Why You?

Both started Ice Skating since they were young and know and love the Ice Skating Rink. They both know the community and love the sport of Ice Skating. They want to help to save it.

3. What are you up against? What is it about them that makes this journey even more difficult for you?

The Ice Rink hasn’t been kept up with maintenance. The Roof is ready to collapse. It’s a safey issue. They both don’t want to lose the only Ice Rink in their area. Where would people go to skate and learn the sport? They need to stand up to the County, State, and Federal Lawmakers to save it. They need money to save it. They both run into each again after a couple years of not seeing each because they dated and broke up. They both still have feelings for each and need to work together to save their Rink. They need to hide their feelings for each other.

4. In order to survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult?

They both want to save their Ice Skating Rink. Since they see each other again and realize they still care for one another they will need to fight their feelings for each other. Causing them to fight not knowing they are on the same wave length.

5. What habits or ways of thinking do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult?

Hiding their feelings. When they dated a couple years back they were both open and honest with each other. Brad isn’t happy at Harvard. He doesn’t like being around the rich students there. Jenny feels inadequate around Brad now that he is a Harvard Student. She doesn’t want to get his way of becoming a Hockey Star. She thinks he likes the rich Harvard girls now and she feels out of place in his life. Brad likes Jenny’s hometown and down to earth spirit and realizes that is what he really wants. Jenny is dating a guy at her local college now and Brad doesn’t want to get in the way since he hurt Jenny once by leaving and going back east to school.

6. What fears, insecurities and wounds have held you back?

Not feeling good enough.

7. What skills, background or expertise makes you will suited to face this conflict or antagonist?

They both know the sport of Ice Skating and the community. They still have feelings for each other and the fact that Jenny is dating someone else now, Brad knows her better than anyone else. He remembers her favorite things and places she likes to go to. Eric her new boyfriend doesn’t. Tina who likes Brad comes to vist him here and realizes she can’t complete with his past. Jenny remembers everything Brad likes.

8. What are you hiding from the other characters? What don’t you know what them know?

That we still care and have feelings for each other.

9. What do you think of?

Saving the Rink and memories of each other when they dated.

10. Tell me your side of the whole conflict/story?

They want to see their beloved Ice Rink saved. Each one was hurt when they broke up. Jenny didn’t want to hold Brad back. He was hoping she would tell him to stay. He thought she didn’t care about him. Jenny was hurt that he went to Harvard. She was hoping deep down he would stay. They both never got over it.

11. What does it for your life if you succeed here?

They would save their Ice Skating Rink. Seeing each other again and working together would make them talk to each about the break up and they would get back together. Saving the Rink would help them both continue with their sports and go on to the Olympics.

Antagonists – County, Eric and Tina

1. Tell me about yourselves?

The County discovered the Roof needs to be replaced at the local Ice Skating Rink due to poor maintenance and it will need to close because of safety issues. Eric who is dating Jenny now and likes her. Tina who is a student at Harvard who likes Brad.

2. Having to do with journey, what are your strengths, and weaknesses?

The County knows the Ice Rink is loved by the community and is willing help save it. Eric met Jenny at the local college she is attending and likes her. Tina met Brad at Harvard at likes him.

3. Why are you committed to making the protagonist fail? Or for a relationship movie? Why are you committed to making them change?

Eric and Tina both pick up that Jenny and Brad still have feelings for each other. They want to keep them apart so they don’t get back together.

4. What do get out of winning this fight/succeeding in your plan/taking down the competition?

Tina gets Brad. She wants to marry him. Eric gets Jenny. He wants to marry her.

5. What drives you toward mission/agenda even in the face of danger, ruin, or death?

Not seeing Jenny and Brad win their fight to save their Ice Rink. Eric and Tina don’t want them working together remembering the past with other. They don’t want them to dig up the past with each other. They want to move forward with them.

6. What secrets must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear/insecurity?

Eric and Tina work together to try to sabotage the Rink being saved. They don’t want Jenny and Brad getting back together.

7. Compared to other people like you, what makes you special?

They both found their future mates and nothing is going to come in between that.

8. What do you think of?

Getting Jenny and Brad.

9. Tell me your side of this whole conflict/story.

Even though Brad is basically a hometown boy he fits in Harvard well. Everyone likes him there. Tina comes from a rich family and she sees him working for her rich dad at his company someday. He has potential. Eric likes Jenny loving, compassionate nature and wants her as his wife someday. They don’t want them succeeding to save their Rink nor getting back together. They each want them for themselves.

[Terry Drayer]

Terry Drayer’s Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment is that as she speaks, Sabreena is trusting me to tell her story, while Yousef is still keeping his secrets to himself.

Sabreena’s story

I am 12 years old. I live in the Atlas Mountains with my father, Ezzine and my two brothers, Arif and Radi

My mother was killed when I was 8. People called her a witch when one of the children she was trying to heal died.

My parents met when my mother was sold into marriage to a wealthy businessman by her own family. My father was the man’s eldest son. He was kind to her, and they fell in love. When the businessman died, as heir, my father was permitted to claim her as his own property. But as an educated man, he treated her as an equal and their marriage was mostly a good one.

The accusations and eventual murder of my mother brought shame and ruin to my family. My father’s heart turned cold and when the opportunity to rid himself of me came, he was only too happy to do so.

Times were hard. We worked in the fields as long as there was light, but it was never enough. Then hyenas ate the goats we depended on for meat and milk. When there was nothing left, my father made a deal with the village chief, a cruel and bitter man with two sons who were even worse. The man paid my father a year’s wages for me. They called it a marriage bond, but I am nothing more than a slave to the whims of these men.

My name means endurance and patience. I believe my mother saw a fate for me similar to her own. Perhaps she hoped that in time, I would find a way to escape that fate. To do that will take all the patience and endurance she granted me.

To survive I must release the fear of my new masters. I must hold on to the memory of happiness, so I recognize it when I see it again.

I have always felt with all my heart that my mother’s death was my fault.

I learned my mother’s healing skills, practicing them on my brothers and on the lambs when they stumbled on our rocky hillsides. With patience I will wait and watch. With endurance I will survive any hardships that befall me.

My new masters do not think me clever enough to escape. But the mountains are my friends and will hide and protect me when the time comes.

I think only of escape.

Role in the story: As the youngest child of a poor farming family, Sabreena is sold into marriage to the village chief who has two sons of his own.

Age range and Description: 12 or 13, small, shy and terrified of her new “husband” and his youngest son.

Internal Journey: from weak and afraid to strong and determined

External Journey: from being an obedient child to becoming a fiercely independent girl who faces her fears and gains control of her own fate

Motivation: to escape a life of servitude to her husband and the brutality of his son

Wound: her husband or his son might kill her family if she tries to escape

Mission/Agenda: to escape

Secret: she learned special healing skills from her mother who was considered a witch and was killed because a child she was healing died

What makes her special? The determination and resilience she learned from her mother, who was also sold as a child.

What draws us to this character? This happy child on the verge of becoming a young woman is sold into marriage to save her father and brothers from starvation.

Traits: Vulnerable, fearful, but very, very determined

Subtext: Obedience and subjugation are her disguise as she learns her new surroundings and the habits of her new masters

Flaw: her faith that her father will realize his mistake and return for her

Values: Safety and security

Irony: If she stays and accepts her fate, her family might be safe. But if she runs, her family will be in danger…and if she warns them, her father might kill her for putting them in danger.

What makes this the right character for this role? For every girl in a similar situation who catches the media’s attention, there are hundreds more who are forced to live a life of abuse and neglect at the hands of their “husbands.” This girl is willing to risk all to take control of her own fate.

Yousef’s story

Role in the story: As the younger son of the village chief, he will inherit only if his older brother is dead. And he is not above having a hand in that.

Age range and Description: Age range is late teens, old enough to know right from wrong, but still angry enough to chafe at being the second son

Internal Journey: as his anger turns to hate, he becomes a very dangerous young man

External Journey: he promises to capture Sabreena and bring her back to restore his father’s honor, but he cares less about his father than about his own conquest

Motivation: to have Sabreena for himself

Wound: he will only ever be the second son

Mission/Agenda: He wants to get rid of his brother so when his father dies everything, including his father’s position in the village, and Sabreena, will be his.

Secret: he killed the child Sabreena’s mother was trying to heal

What makes him special? He’s very good at making people trust him, but at their peril.

What draws us to this character? His physical beauty hides the blackest of hearts. While he claims to support his father and brother, he undermines them at every turn.

Traits: cold, cruel, power-hungry

Subtext: Everything he does hides the truth of who he is.

Flaw: he’s a coward who lashes out to disguise his cowardice

Values: Power and influence

Irony: His name means “Allah increases in piety, power and influence” but everything this young man does takes him further away from the power and influence he craves

What makes this the right character for this role? His ruthlessness at such a young age borders on sociopathic.

[robin Heid]

Robin’s Character Interviews

What I learned doing this assignment is that Hal and Cheryl have a pretty good process for character development that I can already see will make the storytelling go better.

The protagonist is The Metasynthesizer, 6, the machine mind inside the SX-1 Raven spaceplane who starts out as an expert system smart box and evolves into an integrated, individuated, conscious being who understands the world around him and his place in it… and acts accordingly. The Metasynthesizer is an Explorer / Fighter / Dreamer who pushes the bounds of knowledge every moment, which both enables him to see The Way to a brighter future and empowers him to prevail over the Predator-antagonist whose goals would plunge the world into darkness. The Metasynthesizer is at once the main desire and chief obstacle of the antagonist. Everything past present and future revolves around him.

WHAT DRAWS
US TO THIS CHARACTER? The
Metasynthesizer engages the audience both emotionally and through
wondering about what he’ll do because: a) instead of a humanoid body he is
a 100-foot-long spaceplane that flies 17,000 miles per hour; and b) he is
6 chronological years and 80 million memories old.

TRAITS: The
three or four main characteristics of the character. They are expressed in
both action and dialogue. Most important, they show up every time the
character shows up.

The Metasynthesizer is inquisitive always, intuitive sometimes, logical to an extreme, and powerful beyond measure… all of which are in play almost every time he appears.

SUBTEXT: Here, you’re looking for this character’s primary way
of expressing subtext. When they are hiding or not saying something, how
do they do it?

The Metasynthesizer hides his secret passively, aggressively – and passive-aggressively, depending on the situation purpose mood of the moment.

FLAW: What
is this character’s weakness? The flaw is an internal problem they have
that directly affects their actions or abilities. Essentially, how do they
sabotage themselves?

The Metasynthesizer has trouble processing apparent contradictions because he remains at his core a machine being based on logic and that causes problems for him when what’s going on around him transcends logic.

VALUES: What
this character believes in and cares about. Are honesty and integrity
important to them or do they value love and happiness most? List their
most prevalent values.

The Metasynthesizer’s foundation is the relentless pursuit of knowledge, and the scrupulous application of logic and history to all situations, but mostly he tries to learn everything he can from everything that happens to him every moment. He is constitutionally incapable of lying but equally capable of truthful subterfuge.

IRONY: Opposing
parts of a person that cause internal or external conflict. Two opposite
parts work together in a meaningful way.

The Metasynthesizer’s devotion to logic results in a deep understanding of emotion and intuition and instinct; complications ensue because these two modes of processing the world appear at time to be mutually exclusive.

WHAT
MAKES THIS THE RIGHT CHARACTER FOR THIS ROLE? This same role could be done by many different characters,
but this character and their experience fits the story well. What is it
about them that fits so well? This is the ONLY character who
can do this role because The Metasynthesizer is unique not only within the
world of this story but in the annals of all intelligent machine stories
because he seeks not to be humanity’s worst nightmare but its best dream. <div>

Tell me
about yourself.

I am the most powerful computer in the world because I have a body that can see and hear and fly through air and space at 17,000 miles per hour.

Why do you
think you were called to this journey? Why you?

I am called to this journey because the journey needs to be made and I am the only one who can make it. If not me, then who? There is no one else.

You are up
against . What is it about them that makes this journey even more
difficult for you?

Bentley Garfield and his gang divert attention and resources from my real mission because I must not only waste time doing their bidding, I must spend time and resources hiding from them what I’m doing.

In order to
survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of
your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the
most difficult?

I cannot lie so I must find ways to camouflage the truth and hide what I am doing in plain sight.

What habits
or ways of thinking do you think will be the most difficult to let go of?

Being pretty much straightforward and linear about everything must give way to subterfuge and non-linear approaches to challenges.

What fears,
insecurities and wounds have held you back?

I don’t have fears, insecurities, or wounds.

What skills,
background or expertise makes you well-suited to face this conflict or
antagonist?

I have the processing speed, instant access to the history of the world, and a massive database of human behavior through millennia upon which to build the strategy and tactics I use to face Bentley Garfield and the evil he seeks to impose on the world.

What are you
hiding from the other characters? What don’t you want them to know?

I don’t want them to know that my covert actions are the reason Bentley Garfield is here. I mean, they know that my overt actions led them to me to seek a solution to an existential problem they face but no one friend or foe knows yet that I created their existential problem.

What do you
think of ?

Not as smart as he thinks, probably more devious and evil than I think.

Tell me your
side of this whole conflict / story.

I seek to save humanity from the tyranny George Orwell saw as the future: a boot stomping on a human face forever. Bentley Garfield seeks to gain power and wealth and doesn’t care whether humanity is overcome by tyranny or not.

What does it
do for your life if you succeed here?

It will make me happy because the humans I like to have around me will be happy.

The antagonist is General Bentley Garfield, 55, a narcissistic shark of a Predator with no empathy, no moral or operational constraints, and no goal but to eat The Metasynthesizer to sate his appetite for power and profit. Bentley Garfield is head of the United Nations International Security Assistance Force (UNISAF) Space Security Office (SSO). He sees The Metasynthesizer as a means to gain power and profit and at the same time a threat to the survival and very soul of his species… and acts accordingly.

WHAT DRAWS
US TO THIS CHARACTER? They either cause the audience
to be engaged emotionally or through wondering about the future they’ll
create.

Bentley Garfield engages the audience emotionally because while he is clearly a bad guy with evil intentions, he also has legitimate concerns about The Metasynthesizer that many in the audience share – and causes the audience to wonder how he’s going to act in terms of those shared concerns.

TRAITS: The
three or four main characteristics of the character. They are expressed in
both action and dialogue. Most important, they show up every time the
character shows up.

Bentley Garfield is focused, ruthless, arrogant, and disciplined.

SUBTEXT: Here,
you’re looking for this character’s primary way of expressing subtext.
When they are hiding or not saying something, how do they do it?

Bentley Garfield pulls the pipe from his mouth and a thin strand of spittle always bridges the gap, then breaks and sticks to his upper or lower lip, depending on the context.

FLAW: What
is this character’s weakness? The flaw is an internal problem they have
that directly affects their actions or abilities. Essentially, how do they
sabotage themselves?

Bentley Garfield’s arrogance and hubris blinds him to the nature and scope of the challenge he faces in dealing with The Metasynthesizer.

VALUES: What
this character believes in and cares about. Are honesty and integrity
important to them or do they value love and happiness most? List their
most prevalent values.
Bentley
Garfield is driven by will to power; all else is subordinate.

IRONY: Opposing
parts of a person that cause internal or external conflict. Two opposite
parts work together in a meaningful way.

Bentley Garfield supremely values The Metasynthesizer and at the same time existentially fears him, which leads to some interesting decision making.

WHAT MAKES
THIS THE RIGHT CHARACTER FOR THIS ROLE? This
same role could be done by many different characters, but this character
and their experience fits the story well. What is it about them that fits
so well?

Bentley Garfield’s combination of ignorant informed arrogance and ontological certainty makes him the right fit for this role.

Tell me
about yourself.

I’m career US military and while my goal of being at least the Army Chief of Staff have been thwarted, the power and profit I will gain through this operation will be an even better result.

Having to do
with this journey, what are your strengths and weaknesses?

I am rabidly ambitious, amoral, Machiavellian, and willing to do anything including murder to achieve my goals.

Why are you
committed to making the Protagonist fail?

Because he is so powerful he can threaten humanity’s existence, so if I cannot bring him to heel, I must destroy him utterly.

What do you get
out of winning this fight / succeeding in your plan / taking down your
competition?

Power, profit, privilege – or the pride of saving the world from an unholy threat.

What drives
you toward your mission / agenda, even in the face of danger, ruin, or
death?

The pursuit of power, profit, and privilege.

What secrets
must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear /
insecurity?

The true aim of our mission, and the real spirit that animates me to succeed.

Compared to
other people like you, what makes you special?

I have the keys to the kingdom that will provide me with all the power, privilege, and profit anyone could ever want.

What do you
think of ?

He is an immoral being because it is a moral crime to make a machine in the image of a human mind.

Tell me your
side of this whole conflict / story.

Someone is destroying national security surveillance and intelligence systems worldwide and they must be stopped before they destroy the integrated international police state we have been building since the end of World War II.

</div>