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Day 7 Assignments
Reply to post your assignments.
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9 Replies
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Lesley’s Life Threatening Sequence
What I learned:
To continuously add plot twists & to layer-in life-threatening sequences leading up to the final life-threatening confrontation between the hero & villain.
– To ask myself 3 questions for every scene:
1. How
does the Villain’s plan put the Hero in danger?2. What
will the Villain do to protect the mystery?3. How
do the Hero’s actions raise the stakes and increase the danger to him or
her?*What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
Christian intends to get his hands on his target’s inheritance – even if he has to kill to accomplish it.
*What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
Loss of career
Surveillance
Physical danger
Danger to someone they know
Betrayal from someone they know
Other parties want the villain dead.
*From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
Sequence those dangers in order and make a list.
(ACT ONE)
– Sam’s magazine assigns her to interview Christian who went to prison for murdering his wife
– There’s tension between editor and Sam. Why?
– Christian needs to elevate the public’s perception of him.
– Sam researches Christian — He was released on a technicality.
– Christian researches Sam, discovers that she’s from a very rich family
– Christian, with Tracy, his attorney present, is interviewed by Sam in a beautiful home that Christian says belongs to a friend who owes him a favor. Who is this friend? What kind of favor?
– Christian was sleeping with Tracy during the trial.
– Christian starts following Sam; studying her.
– Christian warns Tracy to leave him alone & keep her mouth shut — or she’ll regret it.
– Christian ‘accidently’ runs into Sam at her favorite director’s movie.
– Christian and Sam start sharing late-night calls; he manipulates her by mirroring her values, insecurities, desires.
– Christian seduces Sam.
– Kelsey, Sam’s daughter, thinks Christian killed his wife and accuses Sam of being desperate to choose him.
– Christian tries to win over Kelsey; he gets hostile when he fails.
– Sam gets an anonymous letter warning her to stay away from Christian.
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Ann-Marie Brennan – Create your Life Threatening Sequence.
What I learned is :
that the way to make a Thriller thrilling is to put the Hero in escalating levels of danger as the story progresses. I also learned that danger comes from many different sources (Hal’s list of sources is great) and creating danger in many forms and from various sources – these different sources builds layers into the story and also into the character. I also learned that previous to starting this course, I did not have enough mystery in my story, nor did I have enough danger. With this exercise, I discovered my Hero was on medication for schizophrenia and that Sadie lived in an apartment block with dangerous drug dealer neighbours. Thank you.
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>The villain’s plan is to frame her husband for murders she commits, to murder his mistress and to keep him (she will act as his Attorney after he is jailed) until his death they do part.</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>How this puts the Hero in danger – </font>
Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>
</font><font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>1. He is on medication for diagnosed schizophrenia. He hasn’t had an episode in over four years. </font>Alison changes his prescription to a different drug (placebo) This spirals into a series of dangerous situations for the Hero –
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>Off his medication – </font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>a. he starts to have episodes which frighten him as he looses control -</font>
b. he drives crazily, almost killing a pedestrian and himself
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>c. he starts doubting his innocence, maybe he did murder those women?</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>d. he begins to believe he is a danger to Sadie, maybe even to his daughter ?
</font>e. he feels he could murder Alison<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>
</font><font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>f. he contemplates suicide as he feels he no longer has control over himself.</font>
What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>g. He attracts unwanted attention from a group of drug-dealers who live in the apartment building that Sadie lives in – because they threaten Sadie and he does something that they retaliate with -a threat, or a near miss attack</font>
From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>Threats – from drug dealers living in the same apartment block as Sadie</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>Physical Danger – when Alison switches his medication, his driving is erratic, he almost kills a person and himself</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>Closeness to the villain- he doesn’t realise he is living with the murderer</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>He is trapped by her plan</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>Danger to someone he knows – he starts to doubt himself and believes he could be a danger to Sadie</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>Danger to himself- with his medication altered, he starts to experience schizophrenic episodes – this scares him as he is losing control</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>He starts to doubt himself, doubt his innocence.</font>
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>This leads him to believe he could be a danger to Sadie, even</font> to his daughter Nelly?
<font color=”#343434″ face=”Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif”>His hatred for Alison scares him. Could he be capable of murdering her?</font>
He contemplates suicide
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sorry – I have no idea why this <font > stuff appears in my post.
It is not in the text that I copy and paste into this reply. It just appears once published.
It might be handy to be able to delete posts and repost them? I’m embarassed by the ugliness of the posts with all that programming stuff in it – dont know why it has started to appear for my posts, it didn’t before now. Sorry about that!
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Mary Emmick’s Life Threatening Sequence
What I learned is how much of a thriller consists of life-threatening situations. The Hero faces danger at every step. The job is to get the audience’s heart beating and put them on the edge of their seats. Primarily, danger comes from the Villain’s plan.
1. What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
The ruthless cabal includes Igor Stepanov, Aaron Stench, Gordon Grimes as well as international members of the billionaire class which includes corporate CEOs, oil magnates, and members of the New World Order Party. They have lower-level associates around the world who are hired to protect them and assassinate their critics.
The plan is a kleptocracy. They want to control all media and ultimately control the world.
Katie Green is in danger because she is a threat to the power players. She works for the Justice Party and for social justice causes. Her husband Jack Green is also threatened because of the security work he does for his company, UnisoftNW. Her friend Natasha Petrov is in danger as well because she is the sister of Antony Petrov, an imprisoned critic of President Igor Stepanov of Tajerkistan and is working to get him out of prison.
2. What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the villain?
· Multiple death threats listed in the Villain’s Great Plan
· Threat to her husband
· Threat to her friend Natasha and Natasha’s brother Antony who is languishing in a Tajerkistani prison
· Katie and Jack’s house is burgled
· Surveillance/Katie is being watched
· People around Katie are injured. Natasha’s leg is injured when a car crashes into them at an outdoor café.
· Hired professionals threaten to hurt Katie
· Demands that Katie, Jack and Natasha top pursuing the mystery
· Betrayal from Allison Hanover, a new member in her garden club
· Betrayal from Olga Novikov and her assistant Victor Ivanova
· CIA want the villains stopped as well
3. From the list of potential dangers choose the ones that work for this story.
(see question #2 above)
4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
1. Film opens with a man, Antony Petrov, being thrown into a bleak Tajerkistani prison cell.
2. Unwitting housewife and social justice activist Katie Green is with her husband at home and they lose their internet connection while Jack is working on a security attack one night while working at home late. He must rush into the office. Someone is following him and a chase ensues. The police pull the other vehicle over.
3. Katie and Natasha are at an outdoor café and a car at high-speed barrels towards them. Natasha falls and her leg is injured. An ambulance is called.
4. Katie is at the car wash and as she drives away the carwash explodes.
5. Katie and Jack’s house is burgled. Police call and accuse her of copying over her 80’s children’s VHS movies that her children watched years ago.
6. Katie is at a hair salon. A different stylist shows up and tries to stab her with scissors in the neck but she turns around in time and kicks her assailant and flees the salon. A car chase ensues and Katie escapes by luck when a large group of local political protester cross the street when the light turns red.
7. Allison Hanover has connections to a garden on Lake Washington and the garden club visits the Lake Washington mansion and garden.
8. At the Moldova charity luncheon Katie sees that Natasha’s glass has been tampered with. Katie has Natasha distract Olga and deftly switches Olga’s glass with Natasha’s. Katie tells Natasha to act like she is dizzy after a few sips to make Olga think the poison is taking effect. Moments later Olga falls into her lunch plate. An ambulance is called. She later dies.
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What I learned is that there’s a lot happening behind the scenes of a thriller! And also that I have an interesting tension emerging in the way I’m writing the story—Skye is such a sweet, buffoonish character, and it’s hard to keep that suspense alive and tight if the voice in his POV chapters is more humorous, comical, etc. Not sure if I’m writing a proper thriller/mystery, or Knives Out. (Would that I could write Knives Out!) It’s something I need to think on.
1. What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
Lorna needs to silence Skye at all costs. The fact that he’s got a global platform and is a (sort of) celebrity both helps and hurts her cause—it means the whole world is watching, and if he suddenly disappears, people will notice. But it also means he’s got farther to fall. If she can discredit him, expose him, maybe even get him kicked off the Flik platform, then she can potentially undermine anything he finds in his amateur “investigation.” Lorna is hoping his fall from grace will be all she needs. Of course, that’s not what happens; all her tampering with his pubic persona only makes people thirstier. They actually pay MORE attention to the Skye shit show the more she works to undermine him. Which means she has to ramp up her tactics to shut him up for good.
2. What other potential dangers could your Hero experience &
3. Choose the ones that work for this story (in bold).
Potential dangers for Skye:
✴A flower pot crashes from an upper balcony (a cat? someone else?)
✴He sees a shadow—or someone’s been in his room?
✴Someone’s been on his BALCONY, covered one of his clothespins… or something else that belongs to him… maybe his murder map… in blood?
✴A threatening note
✴What can Lorna use that a British mum would have? Tries to kill him with a Benadryl overdose, maybe? haha
✴He will be… knocked over the head? Disfigured? Since his looks are his claim to fame… (bewitching curly brown hair and bright blue eyes)
✴He will be abducted, imprisoned, left to die
✴Could I have a chase scene? Through a disco, maybe? But not the brutal disco stabbing scene of Killing Eve. I think maybe it’s not actually the villain. Just a crazed fan
✴Maybe his cop friend gets injured. Or Franco?
✴Some sort of creepy child’s toy or something… some touristy object… or even, like, scalding water in the shower!! That could work. It’s so fucking Italy. Lorna somehow tweaks the plumbing. Skye: “I swear it wasn’t like this before.” He goes to his cop friend and they laugh at him. “Pussy American.” He learns the Italian word for wimp.
Other threats:
✴she’ll try to discredit/cancel him on social media
✴she’ll try to accuse HIM of the murder—so desperate to get likes that he killed an old lady (bevy of new hashtags: #WillKillForLikes, #Skiller)
✴pictures of him go up online? pictures of him in his Airbnb room? or at a disco (could backfire, people could love him even more) so we know someone’s been in his room
✴she’ll threaten his sister? (Terra: “just got a very scary email, Skye”)
✴DOES SKYE HAVE HIS OWN SECRET?! (I would like to do this but I don’t know how. his high school girlfriend got an abortion, maybe? tying together the threads?)
✴loss of his collabs/funding. Kicked off the Flik platform, maybe?
✴other parties who need to solve the mystery (police? not very thrilling)
4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list.
✴tries to get him cancelled/Flik feeding frenzy
✴succeeds in getting him kicked off Flik—and a petition starts to reinstate his account
✴leaves a note
✴scalding shower
✴breaks into his apartment, blood, etc. (maybe changes little things earlier> Things aren’t where he left them, etc?)
✴chase scene/crazed fan
✴exposes his secret?
✴accuses him of murder?
✴injures cop friend (or Franco?)
✴abducted/imprisoned
✴attempted murder
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ASSIGNMENT 7<div>
Patricia Galbraith’s Life-Threatening Sequence
What I learned in this class: How to think about the way things are phrase to get a mystery, Intrique and coverups.
Life Threatening
Sequence.
1. What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the
Hero in danger? The villain will want to keep all his secrets. If the Hero
gets to close, he could be killed.
2. What other potential dangers could your Hero experience
as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
3. From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones
that workThreats
· Talking about the danger
· Physical danger
· Surveillance / watched
· Chased
· Lured into a dangerous situation
· Closeness to the villain
· Trapped / Abducted / Arrested
· Danger to someone they know
· People around them die or are injured.
· Stalked
· Thugs or professionals hired to hurt them.
· Presence of weapons or thugs
· The unknown
· Etc.
But the danger could also come
from other areas:
Something that damages their reputation..
4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like
the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
Sequence of threatening
situations.
1.Opens with the brother of one
of the victims having a drink in a bar. (He just heard the news his
brother is missing).
2. The detectives meet the main suspect – John George. He is belligerent with the detective.
3. Neighbors around the area give John George a bad name.
4.Mr. Favors offers food to the
searchers.to appear to be a nice guy.
5.Detective finds blood in John
George’s truck.
6.Terry started drinking again.
He has a fight in a bar. Police arrest him.
7.Terry gets angry with one of John
George’s sons.
That night, the son ends up
dead in his car.
8. John George angry about his
son comes to look for Terry.
9.Detective finds out John
George has served time in prison.
10 Terry talks with John George
on the street. A fight breaks
11. Terry answers the phone. Someone threatens to kill him if
he doesn’t get off the case.
12. The detective and Terry are run off the road by a black
sedan.
13.John George is shot and
almost killed.
14. Terry gets a tip that the ATVS may be in Mr. Favors
storage shed and is almost killed when he comes across Favors near there.
15. Mr. Favors loses his battle as he makes a mistake. The
ATVS are found in his storage building.
16. The ending brings closure to the family as Mr. Favors is
hauled off to jail.
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<div>What I learned is Suspense and Danger are really important components to Thrillers. There needs to be something at stake and danger for the characters in every scene – in order to keep the story taut and exciting. I still have more work to do on this aspect of my story but this is a start. </div><div>
1. What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
The Villain’s plan is that Jack and his father, The Judge, need 11 pure souls to enact the Angel of Fire plan from the Book of Azariah. This plan puts Keith in danger because he is either being used by Jack to carry out the murders, he will be framed for the murders, or he will be killed himself to keep the plan a secret. This puts Keith’s sister Heather in danger because she is about as pure of a soul as they come and she is close with Jack, without knowing his plan.</div>
2. What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
Keith is threatened by his father, by Laura, and by Jack.
Keith talks about the danger. First with Gabe, then with Jack and then with his mom and sister Heather.
Keith is in physical danger from his father. Keith is in danger because many people think he’s the murderer and he’s at risk of their revenge. Keith is in physical danger from Gabe and Jack. Later Keith is in danger when he gets to close to the Judge’s plan with The Company.
Keith is asked by Jack to surveil and stalk people, yet he is also be surveilled and stalked as well.
Keith is chased by the men with The Company.
Keith is lured into a dangerous situation by Jack who is using him to advance his murderous plan.
Keith is very close to Jack, he looks at him as a father figure that his dad never was, making things that much more difficult for him to understand and figure out.
Keith is trapped mentally by Jack and physically by his father. Keith is ultimately arrested for the murders of the townspeople and his family.
There is danger to people Keith knows – primarily his mother, father and sister, but there is also danger to his extended family – aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.
The people around Keith that die are all of the murder victims, as well as his own family.
Keith is used by Jack to stalk and beat up his accuser, but then Keith is also stalked and threatened by a masked man (Gabe)
Jack and The Judge have a literal artillery of weapons at their compound – every weapon you can imagine, just short of a tank. Jack trains boys in The Program how to use weapons, so that they will do his bidding.
Keith is afraid of the unknown – he’s afraid of angering his father, but he’s even more afraid of losing Jack’s love and protection – the only real father figure he’s ever really known.
The Danger can also come from these areas:
Keith’s reputation is damaged because the town thinks he’s a psychotic, drug addicted murderer.
There is the chance that Keith’s relationship with his family or with Jack or both could end if he doesn’t play his cards right.
Keith feels threatened that the secret of his male sex abuse could get out, ruining his reputation and publicly humiliating him in small town like Black Maple, Arkansas.
Jack tells Keith many times to just stay loyal to him and everything will be ok, but it is hard for Keith to believe him since he’s making him do unspeakable things.
Keith will be asked to betray his mother, father and worst, his sister Heather.
Keith is betrayed by Jack and Gabe, as well as The Judge.
Gabe, Jack, The Judge and Laura are all operating covertly around Keith, causing him to lose his grip on reality.
Keith’s mom Barbara and sister Heather need to solve the mystery first. The Sheriff is trying to solve the mystery first until he is abruptly killed.
Only Laura really wants Jack or The Judge dead, because their plan of manipulation and fooling everyone has worked so well. The only people who are suspicious of Jack and The Judge are Barbara, The Sheriff and the Assistant Reverend.
4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list.
– The movie starts with Jack, Heath and Gabe driving out to the woods. There, they are involved in the killing of several deer and the murder of three boys. Jack tells the boys they’re all bound by blood now, smearing some on each of their faces.
– Keith goes home. He’s acting weird and covered in blood. His sister is suspicious of what he’s been doing, but Keith doesn’t tell her anything. Keith drips blood on the rug and his father brutally slaps him and tells him to change. Keith looks to Heather. She is concerned but says nothing.
– Later, Heather is looking at the deer tags – they are yellow. She mentions this to her mother. Her mother says so what? Heather says, where they were supposed to be the tags are blue.
– When the murders of the “Boys in the Woods” comes out, Heather is VERY suspicious of Keith. When she tries to talk to him about it he shuts her out and says he has to go to Jack. Heather follows Keith and he actually goes to see Laura.
– After his encounter with Laura, Keith has a very public confrontation with The Sheriff. The Sheriff asks him where he was during the murders, etc and Keith loses it, nearly getting beaten and arrested – except that he’s saved by his father, who later beats him anyways.
– Keith and Gabe, along with several other boys are trained on a battery of weapons at The Judge’s compound. After their weapons training they participate in a ritual with drinking, drugs and a woman (Laura).
– As the murders continue, Keith is losing his grip on his sanity. He is drinking and drugging and hanging out with bad people. Keith is a prime suspect for the murders but there is no hard evidence against him.
– Heather spends time with Jack alone, she is oblivious to how dangerous this is to her. She thinks Jack is a wonderful man and her protector.
– Keith and Gabe go snooping around The Company’s airstrip where they see huge caches of guns, drugs and money. They are spotted and chased, and shot at, barely escaping with their lives.
– Keith and Gabe are asked to surveil and stalk Jack’s accuser. Jack tells them to light him and his family on fire, to burn alive, but they can’t do it. They tell the boy to leave the town and never come back.
– Jack uses Gabe to kill more people, sometimes Keith is used as a lookout, sometimes he is left behind.. When he is left behind, Keith surveils them and sees them kill The Sheriff.
– Even though Jack has used and abused Keith, the grooming is so deep he loves him more than his own father. Keith’s father is outwardly abusive to Keith. Keith is trapped mentally by Jack and physically by his father. His allegiances to his family or Jack is torn and Keith is afraid of the unknown. When Heather asks him what’s going on, he just tells her she wouldn’t understand.
– Keith is stalked by Gabe, he knows he’s being tracked, but Keith never learns that it is his friend that is stalking him.
– Keith is afraid of his abuse by Jack and with the other boys – getting out and humiliating him.
– The murders and rituals are all building to a climax of the BIG ritual, where Keith’s mother and sister will confront Jack and they will be silenced by Gabe, and then made to participate in the ritual.
– Gabe kills Keith’s family. The boys and we the audience think Jack has been burned alive.
– Keith takes the fall for his family and the other murders, including the Sheriff.
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Budinscak’s Life Threatening Sequence – Day 7
What I learned Doing This Assignment:
o Put your hero in danger at least by page 10.
o Keep your hero’s life in danger and constantly ratchet it up.
o The sequences form great components of an outline.
1. What is the villain’s plan and how does that put the hero in danger?’
The villain was brought in specifically to shut this operation down and make it disappear. Anyone who gets in the way of the villain or his mission will disappear as well. They will be eliminated.
2. What other potential dangers could your hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the villain?
The hero will chased by drones, terrorized by mechanical ‘animals’, tracked by mercenaries, be lost in a maze of underground tunnels and an old mine.
3. From the potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
From the list of potential dangers – threats, lured into a dangerous situation, closeness to the villain, trapped, people around them will be hurt or die, stalked, under surveillance, pursued by thugs, weapons.
4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for the Basic Instinct above.
Opening scene – a bruised, exhausted Vicki collapses at the feet of a robotic dog. (This scene shows up in Act 3).
While driving home, Vicki is momentarily blinded by an intense light from a flying object.
The object spooks a herd of deer, the animals rush into the road. Vicki crashes her jeep avoiding them.
Walking from the accident, Vicki is chased by wolves.
Vicki watches a drone fly into an abandoned mine shaft and she follows. She climbs down a rotted old ladder and it breaks – she barely hangs on.
She is pursued by a security team in the mineshaft’s tunnels. She is able to evade them.
Vicki happens upon captured campers. She’s able to free one before her pursuers appear. Vicki escapes, but the camper is shot and killed.
While escaping, Vicki races down a hill and jumps over a large hole, but she doesn’t make it. She falls and hurts herself.
Bruised and exhausted, Vicki wakes at the feet of a robotic dog. (Opening scene)
Vicki is interrogated by our villain, the Commander. She’s let go by a sympathetic techie. The Commander shoots him on the spot for helping her escape.
While Vicki frees the rest of the campers, security shoots at them.
Vicki stumbles upon a group of caged animals – and she lets them all go. As shots ricochet around her she wraps her body around exotic looking kittens to protect them.
Vicki is shot and seriously wounded. An unexpected source saves her life.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by John Budinscak.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by
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THRILLER ASSIGNMENT DAY 7
Alfred’s Life-Threatening Sequence
What I learned doing this assignment is:
It was quite an eye-opener to see how quickly thoughts can congeal into a workable sequence of events, based on good preparatory work.
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
a. His plan is to keep everyone in the dark.
1. The Hero is thereby exposed to unforeseen dangers
2. If the Hero stumbles onto any of the secretes he might get “bumped off.”
What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
a. As Spencer unravels the evidence, his boss trying to kill him, or —
b. Threat (of losing his job)
c. Physical danger – hazardous work
d. Lured into a dangerous situation
e. Closeness to the Villain
f. People around them die or are injured
g. Stalked
h. The unknown
i. Thugs or professionals hired to hurt him
j. He may be setting himself up to “take the fall”
k. Damaged reputation
l. Betrayal
m. A demand to stop pursuing the mystery
n.
From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
a. Earthquake aftershocks.
b. Working with animals always carries. a certain caveat. Mules are big animals, and Spencer is not a mule skinner.
c. The Villain is just using the Hero to test the security of his plan
Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
a. Reports of dead bodies in the mountains
b. The District Head of Land Management, Russell, conscripts his underling, Spencer, into searching out the rumors so they can put them to rest.
c. They stay at a lodge outside the wilderness and are outfitted.
d. The lodge owner regals them with stories of mythological creatures (she sounds a bit strange).
e. She reports there are four bodies. (How does she know this?)
f. Spencer and his boss, Russell, take four pack-mules into the mountains.
g. They find exactly four bodies, mutilated, and dehydrated, as predicted.
h. They haul them out on the mules (which is dangerous in itself – the mules seem to know and can become dangerous).
i. The lodge owner goes a bit crazy and doesn’t want them anywhere the lodge, as her dogs also become aggressive and need to be penned.
j. The bodies are taken to the morgue.
k. The bodies are identified, and their families are notified (Could they have been attacked by dogs? Perhaps. Mt. lions? Perhaps. Coyotes? Not likely, but maybe after they were already dead).
l. Spencer suspects the lodge owner and her aggressive dogs. But something still doesn’t add up.
m. Spencer begins investigating.
n. He is ordered to cease and desist.
o. That only makes his imagination run wild.
p. He begins with the morgue.
q. The wounds on the four bodies are compatible with animal mutilation.
r. Spencer wonders about the fenced off area. Who was behind that. As a biologist, it doesn’t make good sense to him.
Okay, at this point I haven’t worked out the rest of the story, so I can’t continue to sequence it.
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