Day 8 Assignments

[Michael Masurkevitch]

Michael’s hopes and fears

What I learned: blocking out the scenes is a monumental excercise, I used to just flow with “creative vision” but its hard to choose the right ones.

Thinking in terms of Hope and Fear really kept all of the scenes in line with the characters’ journey, and helped me generate new ones too based on filling the holes while still keeping the focus on the audience’s roller coaster.

Hopes and Fears

Core Emotional Journey: our 3 thieves are good people underneath, way deep underneath – can they be saved, or is it too late for their souls?

Especially Casey, the furthest gone and also the most dynamic.

Act One

Fear – the three characters are on the run, bullets flying, the helicopter didn’t come.

Hope – they get to the car.

Fear – George takes a bullet.

Hope – they are getting away

Fear – but George is bleeding out

Hope – they see a sign for an Ashram.

Fear – Casey says, No, they will get caught. Keeps driving.

Fear – A deer on the road causes the car to swerve wildly, and they might crash

Fear – they run into a tree

Hope – when they get out, they are at the Ashram, and the Guru says to bring George to the infirmary

Act 2:

Fear – George is dying, Casey wants to leave

Hope – the healer is competent, and starts praying

Fear – Casey and Sarah don’t believe in the power of prayer.

Hope – Sarah mets Anu, and they are drawn to each other

Fear – Casey wants to get the car fixed and leave George

Hope – the car can’t be fixed.

Fear – there is gold in the Ashram and Casey wants to steal it.

Hope – George recovers

Hope – Casey and Sarah hide the plates to come for them later

Fear – Anu sees them hiding the plates but they don’t see Anu.

Fear – Guru gets a call from FBI, they are coming to look around.

Fear – hide the car, get robes for Casey and Sarah

Hope – Guru covers for them.

Fear – when they leave, the others know that they are criminals and distrust them.

Fear – Casey seeing ghost of Fred

Hope – Guru sees Fred too, and reaches out to Casey

Fear – Casey rejects Guru.

Fear – George steals some the healing herbs and smokes them

Hope – the healer walks in to see George sweating and moaning, and goes into a trance

Fear – George is trapped in a dark place in his mind

Hope – the healer helps him out

Hope – George is now all about the Ashram. Wakes up weeping with release, and realizing he was not fully living life.

Hope – Sarah and Anu keep flirting

Fear – Anu doesn’t want to have sex becuase its unholy

Hope – Guru tells Anu to relax and enjoy being alive, and they hook up

Midpoint Turning Point

Hope – Guru reaches out to Casey again

Fear- Casey relives a traumatic experience, and yells at Guru

Fear – Casey is incensed and wants to pull a gun, take the Ashram gold and plates, and go.

Hope – Sarah, fresh with love, and George, fresh with healing, stand up to Casey

Fear – Casey threatens them, and says will take the plates alone, and they have a fight about it.

Fear – Casey finally threatens them, and goes to get the plates

Hope – the plates are gone.

Act 3: Loot is Missing

Fear – Casey is enraged and starts fighting with George and Sarah.

Fear – it looks like they are going to kill each other

Fear – they decide to question the Ashram instead

Fear – they round everyone up with their weapons, to start questionning

Hope – the Guru denies knowledge, and says that everyone is innocent.

Fear – Casey starts to get dark, violent. Anu and Sarah stare at each other, betrayed, and George is upset

Hope – Guru says, “where is it going to go? Lets go to bed” and Casey listens.

Fear – Anu rejects Sarah, and George goes to question his life.

Next day,

Fear – Casey wakes up from traumatic dream, and is angry

Hope – Guru is kind to Casey, and it knocks the wind out of her sails. It almost looks like there will be peace.

Fear – they discover the Guru’s secret cache of loot and guns, and are shocked and horrified.

Hope – Guru reveals that once, she was like them… so there is hope for them as well.

Fear – black SUVs are showing up, its the boss.

Act 4: Save the Ashram from Mob-Boss and his thugs

Hope – George and Sarah use their skills to rig some traps in case things go bad.

Fear – the Boss shows up, asking about the loot, ready to kill everyone there.

Hope – Sarah and George tell Boss what happened, but that he can just not pay them.

Fear – Boss says no – and reveals that Casey called him in.

Hope – Guru offers the Ashram’s gold instead of the plates

Fear – Boss says, he will take that too after killing them all. And then recognizes Guru.

Fear – Boss’s goons start fighting.

Hope – Sarah and George’s traps kick in, and the fight is evened.

Fear – Casey takes boss’s side. Guru is at gunpoint, Sarah and George are held by thugs, the spiritualists watch with fear.

Fear – Boss finally decides to kill Guru

Hope/Fear – Casey dives to save Guru

Hope – Guru says “No” and we rewind time, change an event on the mountain, fast forward, and bird poop hits the Boss’s face, causing him to miss, and Casey is unharmed.

Fear – Boss is livid,prepares to attack.

Hope – Guru says “enough” and boss is showered in bird poop.

Fear – Boss lifts gun to kill Guru as Guru walks towards Boss

Hope – Guru fights Boss and disarms and incapacitates. Anu sees the moment and takes out Sarah’s captor, she helps take him down. George kisses his captor, who recoils, and Healer puts medicine under his nose to conk him out.

Resolution

Hope – badguys incapacitated

Hope – FBI shows up to collect them.

Fear – Sarah, George and Casey are ready to go quietly

Hope – FBI agent reveals they knew all along, but let them go when Guru gave FBI the plates back.

Fear – as FBI leaves, Casey is filled with rage and turns to Guru

Hope – Guru shrugs and says, it was that or prison, and Casey laughs and lets it go.

Epilogue

Fear – The ghost of Fred returns

Hope – Guru does ritual with them, and ghost leaves.

Fear – Sarah is leaving, but hates to leave Anu

Hope – Anu is going with her.

Hope – George is going to go find his daughter and reconnect.

Fear – what next for Casey? Who even is he now?

Hope – Guru offers Casey to stay, and Casey agrees.

[Madeleine Vessel]

Madeleine Vessel Writes Great Hope/Fear!

What I learned doing this assignment is how hope/fear works to create emotional engagements in my story. More and more my story is coming together. Yay!

4-Act structure of my story.

· Concept:

When a defenseless young woman is taken hostage by a mentally unstable man, she must rely on a police officer struggling with PTSD to negotiate her release. (27)

· Main Conflict

The hostage situation is the main conflict.

Act 1:

Opening. Introduce Dory and Tristan. <div>

FEAR, ANGER, DEPRESSION. Dory sees her fiancé kissing another woman on nationwide TV.

FEAR: Tristan wonders the streets of the campus. He’s off his medication and becoming paranoid.

HOPE: Dory, depressed after seeing her fiancé kissing another woman on nationwide TV, arrives at the campus Activity Center the next morning, where she manages the swimming pool, hoping for a distraction.

HOPE: Tristan, who has missed taking his medication, wonders about looking for someone to help him. He sees Dory in the Activity Center, thinks she’s a lifeguard, and asks her to help him.

The Inciting Incident is a Threat: Tristan approaches Dory, telling her he’s missed taking his medication. He’s afraid he might hurt someone.

FEAR: Dory asks Tristan how she can help him. Does he family? Increasingly anxious, Tristan refuses to let Dory call a family member.

HOPE: With Tristan’s permission, she calls 911 and asks for the fire department.

THREAT: Fire-fighter, Con, recognizes Tristan and knows him to be a paranoid schizophrenic. He encourages Tristan to go with him to the hospital, but Tristan doesn’t trust him and refuses.

Turning Point & FEAR: Tristan takes Dory hostage.

Act 2:

New plan. HOPE: Con calls campus police. </div><div>
</div><div>

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>FEAR: Duncan, on desk duty because he is struggling with PTSD flashbacks, is the only available officer when Con’s call comes in. It’s an emergency, so he’s forced to respond.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>HOPE: Con’s relieved to know that Duncan is on his way.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”><b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>FEAR: Driving to the hostage scene, Duncan starts to experience PTSD symptoms. He starts perspiring heavily. He has difficulty catching his breath.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Midpoint Turning Point. <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>FEAR. Tristan sees the police unit arrive and Duncan get out and talk to Con. The sight terrifies him. He uses Dory as a shield.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>FEAR. Seeing Tristan using Dory as a shield triggers a PTSD flashback in Duncan. He’s useless until Con snaps him out of it.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>HOPE: Dory coaxes out of Tristan that his mother and sister live in a nearby neighborhood. She conveys this information to Duncan, who now has a grip on himself.

Act 3:

Rethink everything. HOPE: Duncan sends for Tristan’s family members.</div><div>

New plan. HOPE: Only the daughter, Lilith, arrives on the scene. Duncan explains the situation to her and that he needs her to use her influence to get Tristan to release Dory. She agrees.

THREAT: Lilith tries to talk to Tristan into letting go of Dory. When he refuses, she loses her temper. All her anger over dealing with her mentally ill brother comes to the surface. The situation escalates.

THREAT: Lilith screams that she hopes the cops kill him.<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>FEAR: Tristan panics. He puts Dory in a strangle hold. Blood flows from a scratch at Dory’s throat. Tristan panics more. He hasn’t meant to hurt Dory. To Lilith: “Look what you made me do.” To Dory: “I’m so sorry.

Turning Point: HOPE: Duncan drags Lilith away.</div>

<div>

Act 4:

Final plan. HOPE: Duncan realizes that Tristan doesn’t want to hurt Dory or anyone else. He also realizes that Dory is empathetic toward Tristan. Duncan tells Dory that saving both of them is his mission.</div>

HOPE: Dory suggests to Tristan that he let Duncan take him to the hospital for medication.

FEAR: Tristan trusts Dory, but he doesn’t trust Duncan.

HOPE: Duncan suggests Dory accompany Tristan to the hospital in the police unit. As long as Dory goes with him, Tristan likes the idea. Dory agrees to the plan.

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict. HOPE: Dory takes Tristan by the hand and leads him to the backseat of the police unit. Duncan persuades Tristan to get into the backseat of the police unit with Dory. She gets inside first and moves over to the seat behind the driver. Tristan follows her inside.

HOPE: Con slams the door behind Tristan. Simultaneously, Duncan opens Dory’s door and pulls her to safety.

FEAR: Tristan is in the cage in the back of the police unit alone.

HOPE: Safe now, Dory hugs Duncan.

HOPE: Duncan drives away with Tristan.

Resolution. HOPE & Acceptance: Con cuts Dory’s engagement ring off.

[Mark Hawk]

Mark Hawk’s Writes Great Hope/Fear!

What I learned doing this assignment is that the construction of Hope/Fear beats is the basis for the story beats! Without setting up the emotional conflict and evolution, there is nothing.

ACT I

Hope

Leo, Reggie, Toni, Brian, and Marta are in the drill room.

Brian operates the controls as Reggie looks over his shoulder.

Leo reviews his clipboard as Reggie calls out depth numbers.

Marta stands next to the drill pipe with one hand on it as it rotates.

Triggering each other

Leo becomes increasingly annoyed by Reggie looking over his shoulder as he knows how far down to drill.

Reggie argues that Leo doesn’t want her to know what he’s doing with the drill.

Hope

Leo tells everyone to follow the established procedures and stop complaining.

Toni walks into the drill room and reminds Leo that a drone carrying ecotourists will be landing in an hour.

What is Leo afraid of?

Leo groans that he forgot they were scheduled to arrive today and really doesn’t want to deal with them. The problem is that he needs to accommodate them to keep the funding of the project flowing.

Hope

Carol, Jeffery, and Simone land in a self-flying drone on the landing pad near a second drone.

They are met by Toni and escorted in.

Clash of Personas

Jeffery presents himself as leader of the group, but Carol calmly reminds him that there are no leaders on this trip and that they are there simply to observe.

Jeffery tells Carol to mind her own business and orders Toni to take them inside.

Hope

Toni gives the group a quick tour of the facility and walks them into the drill room.

Threat

Drill makes ominous sounds. Marta yells that there are massive vibrations on the drill pipe. Brian stops the drill and begins raising it.

Hope

The atmosphere in the drill room changes to relaxation as core

ACT I: Death

The drill rigging stalls and lurches trying to raise the last coring pipe. Brian and Marta switch places and the ground starts to rumble. Brian forces the coring pipe away from the shaft but the drill pipe slams into Brian and pins him into the coring shaft.

Brian dies when the coring bit skewers him.

ACT II

Hope: New Plan

An investigation into the accident changes all plans.

Threat

All communications are lost with the outside world just before an unknown substance is discovered in the ice core pipe that impaled Brian.

Hope

Two mysteries are now being investigated. One is why Brian was killed and the other is what the mystery substance is.

Opposing Needs/Desires

With Leo and Marta focused on their separate investigations, Jeffery starts hatching a plan to take control of the unknown substance.

Hope

Leo believes that the unknown substance is organic in nature but has no clue what it is.

Dangerous

Power fluctuations and faults impact all the support systems, including heating. Marta is forces to focus on correcting the issues and starts to hear buzzing anytime she is near the unknown substance. No one else hears the buzzing.

Hope

Carol stays close to Marta to make sure she isn’t becoming unstable because of the death of her boss.

Opposing Needs/Desires

Jeffery promises Reggie an obscene amount of money to steal the unknown substance. Jeffery steals the unknown substance during an argument between Leo and Reggie.

ACT II: Midpoint Turning Point: Death

Jeffery silently leaves the station and boards the drone transport.

Reggie realizes what is happening and rushes out to get onto the transport just as it begins to take off.

The drone suddenly flips over and slams into the ground.

Jeffery and Reggie are dead.

ACT III

Hope

The ground stops rumbling, but Carol and Leo start to argue on what should be done with the sample.

Horror

The bodies of Jeffery and Reggie are recovered and stored with the body of Brian outside of the station. Simone witnesses Toni finding the unknown substance and hiding it in a pocket.

Hope

Everyone returns inside the station.

Warning

Toni tells everyone that an automated weather warning message was received about an impending storm approaching but all other communications are still down – even satellite communications.

Hope

Everyone starts securing the station for the storm, and Marta wonders if the weather communications receiver can be reprogrammed to transmit a message.

Trapped

Everyone is getting on everyone else’s nerves, but no one wants to go into the drill room.

Everything goes black as the electricity fails, which should not be possible.

Danger

Marta and Toni go into the equipment room to see if they can troubleshoot the electrical issues and discover that everything should work. Marta sends Toni to the drill room for some equipment.

Hope

Toni is taking too long with the equipment. Marta finds Toni packing gear like she is leaving. Marta’s voice draws everyone else to the drill room.

Out Of Control

Toni is taking too long with the equipment. Marta finds Toni packing gear like she is leaving. Marta’s voice draws everyone else to the drill room.

ACT III: TP: Huge failure/Major shift: Threat

Toni says she is leaving. Simone asks if she’s taking the sample. Toni claims ignorance, but Simone says it’s in her pocket. Toni finally pulls the sample out of her pocket with one hand and a gun in the other. She says that she’s leaving no matter what. When she tries to leave by backing through a doorway outside, the sample in her pocket expands rapidly into a long spear, piercing Toni up through the head.

Toni drops to the ground dead as the sample quickly contracts.

ACT IV

Hope: Final Plan

Carol and Leo get into an argument on what should be done next. Carol finally convinces him that it should be removed and closely studied in one of her facilities. Simone asks who’s going to retrieve the unknown sample.

Marta explains that the sample behaves more like a machine than something organic based on her experience. She finally admits that she has a PhD in Applied Physics that floors Leo. Marta suggests that the sample may be trying to return where it was taken from, and volunteers to be the one to do it.

Everyone reluctantly agrees.

Impending Doom

Marta walks into the drill room and approaches Toni’s body.

The ground begins to rumble as she removes the sample from Toni’s pocket

Hope

The rumbling stops as she stands and looks at the sample and hears the humming from it.

Threat

The ground begins to shake and starts to move.

Hope

Marta slowly walks to the drill hole and the ground movement seems to subside. She takes another look at the sample.

Danger

The ground violently moves and the rumbling increases.

Hope

Marta drops the sample into the drill hole.

The rumbling and ground movement immediately stops.

Electricity comes back on, and communications have been restored.

ACT IV: Resolution

Marta, Carol, Leo, and Simone board an emergency drone that has just arrived and leave the site.

[Micah Delhauer]

MICAH WRITES GREAT HOPE/FEAR!

What I learned doing this assignment is that looking for the constant hope/fear ping-pong is an amazing why to find all the mini-adventures between the major plot points.

Act 1:

OPENING: Selena is entertaining a high profile client in her and her husband’s summer cabin. She calls her pimp and tells him she can’t go through with it, but he tells her this is her last job.

Hope: Selena doesn’t want to cheat on her husband.

Personal Compromise: Pimp convinces her to do it one last time.

INCITING INCIDENT: Selena’s client, high on cocaine, trips down the stairs and plunges to his death.

Hope: Client falls down the stairs.

Emergency: He’s been seriously injured.

Hope: Selena calls the police.

Danger: Client might be dead; if the police show up, Richard will found out about her hooking.

Hope: Selena contacts a friend who is also a nurse and together they try to resuscitate the client.

Worst Case Scenario: He’s dead.

Hope: Selena starts to clean up the house to make everything look normal.

Inhibited: Selena suffers a cocaine crash and can barely move.

TURNING POINT: Selena gets a call from her husband Richard, who is coming home a night early. She has to get rid of the body NOW.

Hope: Selena tells Richard she’s feeling sick and asks if he’ll stop to pick something up for her.

Act 2:

Hope: Selena calls friend for help.

Loss: Friend suggests Selena find herself an alibi, but otherwise can’t get involved any further and hangs up.

Hope: Selena cleans up house, talking out her story for the police as she goes.

Pressure: Pimp calls asking about the client and wanting to know if he’s paid yet. Selena has to pretend she’s still entertaining the client.

Complication: The client is naked, which means he couldn’t be an intruder.

Hope: Selena redresses client.

Danger: She becomes trapped under the body. While there, she gets a phone call from Richard. While on the phone with him, a neighbor comes knocking on the door.

New Complication: Selena convinces Richard to pick something else up for her, then makes it to the door. The neighbor asks about the client’s car parked some ways from the house, which he doesn’t recognize.

Hope: Selena has the idea to claim she’s heard someone prowling around outside, planting the idea that there’s an intruder nearby.

Matters Worse: The talkative neighbor offers to stay with Selena so she doesn’t feel safe. She eventually convinces him to go back home to make sure that his wife is okay.

Hope: Selena plans to mace the client so it looks like she defended herself when he attacked her, then call the police.

Quick Scare: When she maces him, he wakes up!

Hope: The client is alive! Selena is going to call him an ambulance.

Worse Than Before: Seeing his own blood, the client believes that Selena has tried to kill him. He goes into a frenzy and attacks her, and Selena is forced to defend herself, killing him in the process.

MIDPOINT TURNING POINT: Now the client is truly dead, and Selena is culpable for his death.

Act 3:

RETHINK EVERYTHING: Now that she has murdered the man, Selena can no longer get the police involved.

NEW PLAN: Dispose of the body.

Pressure: Richard calls again and says he can’t find [the thing Selena asked for]. She insists that it’s important.

Hope: Richard asks her if her sickness and cravings mean that she’s pregnant. She lies and says that she is. He agrees to get what she’s asking for.

Hope: Selena snorts up some cocaine for courage and loads the body up into her car.

Thwarted: She immediately crashes the car (‘cause she’s high, you see).

More Pressure: The pimp calls, demanding to talk to the client. Selena confesses that he’s dead. Pimp hangs up the phone—he’s on his way!

Hope: Selena goes to the neighbors’ to steal a shovel.

Tension: The neighbors hear Selena and come to investigate.

Hope: Selena manages to escape and starts digging a grave.

Threat: She hears someone in the woods around her. It’s the neighbor. How does she explain what she’s doing?

Hope: She tells him she’s “dig-xercising.” He buys it. She gets a phone call and is able to pull away from the conversation.

Ticking Clock: It’s Richard on the phone. He got what she asked for and is on his way home.

TURNING POINT: The pimp arrives at Selena’s home.

Act 4:

Hope: Pimp says he’s dealt with this kind of thing before and he can get the body taken care of.

Threat: Pimp blackmails Selena. He wants money, and he wants her to keep hooking for him.

Hope: Selena calls Richard and leaves a voicemail confessing to everything that’s happened, freeing her from the blackmail of the pimp. Then she tries calling the police.

Fight: The Pimp chases Selena. They fight for the phone, she trying to dial the police the whole time. Eventually, he manages to get her phone and destroy it.

Hope: Neighbor shows back up again.

Threat: Pimp tells Selena to get rid of him or he will kill him. When she answers the door, neighbor confesses that he’s in love with Selena.

Hope: Selena kisses neighbor, and surreptitiously retrieves his phone. They fall to the ground and she calls the police while they’re making out. She’s able to give the police her address.

Threat: Pimp catches wise and smashes the phone. Neighbor gets shot (non-fatally).

Greater Threat: Enraged, the Pimp tries to kill Selena.

Hope: Selena disarms Pimp and locks herself in the house.

Inhibited: Once again, Selena begins to crash from the cocaine.

Hope: Police are heard approaching.

Danger: Pimp breaks inside.

CLIMAX: Selena grabs her mace and rushes up the stairs. Just as the Pimp gets to her, she maces him and he falls down the stairs to his death.

RESOLUTION: The police arrive and Selena tells them that the pimp killed the client, and that she in turn killed the pimp in self-defense. Richard arrives home, having not heard the voicemail, and Selena deletes it.

[Mark Lynch]

What I learned from doing this assignment: The hope and fear method keeps constant tension and total involvement in the story.

Hopes and Fears

Marc Lynch Writes Great Hopes and Fears

Concept: After their hot air balloon crashed during a test run, a self-destructive teenager searches the New Mexico Wilderness for medical assistance for her father, while a vicious mountain lion terrorizes everyone who enters the mountainside.

Main Conflict: The mountain lion, “El Lion,” terrorizes and kills anyone who enters the mountainside.

Act 1: Introduce the characters and set up a conflict

Opening: Three youthful mountain hikers are killed by a vicious mountain lion: “El Leon.”ca

HOPE: The three hikers can have a pleasant hike overlooking the mountain valley.(Unpredictability/Not sure what or who the real threat is)
FEAR: The hikers see a dead, half-eaten animal on the hiking trail. But they keep walking. How was the animal killed and will the hikers run into the same fate. (Dangerous Environment)

Helen is fist fighting the school bully in the schoolyard. The principal breaks up the fight and takes Helen to his office.

HOPE: I hope Helen survives the fight and wins. (Unpredictability/Out of control situation)
FEAR: What kind of punishment will Helen get from the principal. (Increasing Tension/What’s the worst that can happen)

Inciting Indecent: Their hot air balloon, with Helen and her father, the pilot, crashes in the New Mexico Wilderness.

HOPE: After her father passes out in the balloon. Helen gets instructions from the crew chief on how to fly and navigate the balloon. (Unpredictability/ Person on the edge)
FEAR: What if Helen loses control and can’t fly the balloon. (Increasing Tension/What’s the worst that can happen.)

Turning Point 1: Helen meets Little Joe Begay, a Navajo Indian. Little Joe is a spiritual shapeshifter. He gives her food and water. He warns her to beware of “El Leon.” He removes his facial bandana and shows her the facial scars give to him by “El Leon.” He tells Helen to find Fatu and she can help her with medical assistance for her father.

Finally, Little Joe Begay gives Helen “an herb” to help her cope with the desert wilderness. She falls asleep. When she wakes Little Joe has disappeared. Helen walks into the desert wilderness searching for Fatu.

HOPE: After the balloon crashes, she sees hikers and asks them for help. (Isolation/Alone)
Fear: Helen is alone in the wilderness with nowhere to turn for help.Until Little Joe Begay arrives and advises her to find Fatu. (Increasing Tension/Ticking Clock)

Act 2: Challenge the reality of the characters

New Plan: Helen walks into the desert wilderness. Crows fly overhead up in the sky. Helen follows them into the desert.

HOPE: Increasing Tension/What’s the worst that can happen.

FEAR: (Unpredictability/ Could attack at any moment) El Leon.

Plan of Action: As Helen walks into the desert, she meets several hikers coming down the mountain. They warn Helen of the destructive force of “El Leon,” and advise her to turn around and not go any further. Helen asks each group of hikers she meets to help her but each group refuses.

HOPE: Incompatibility/Forced to deal with each other.
FEAR: Incompatibility/ Opposing Needs and Desires

Midpoint turning Point: The herb that Little Joe Begay gave Helen starts to have an effect on her and the tone of the story changes in the desert from realism to magical realism. Birds, animals, trees, plants, talk to Helen and she walks through the desert mountainside. This is designed to express Helen’s insecurities and explore her internal conflict.
Exhausted. Helen drinks water from a mountain stream. A snake appears and talks to her in the form of her mother. It bites Helen in the face and swims off.

Fatu appears standing over Helen. She sucks the poison from Helen’s face and carries her out of the desert.

Hope: Can Helen overcome her internal conflicts. (Isolation/Psychological Issues)
FEAR: Increasing Tension/What is the character afraid of.

Act 3: With Mid-Point change, everything must change

Rethink everything: Helen has finally found Fatu. She pleads her case to help with medical assistance. Fatu agrees due to her own conflict with “El Leon.” He kills her favorite dog and bit off part of her hand while trying to save her dog.

She now wants her own revenge on “El Leon.”

HOPE: Incompatibility/Forced to deal with each other

FEAR: Incompatibility/ Opposing Needs and desires.

New Plan: Fatu and Helen practice using weapons to fight El Leon. They also go over strategies on the best approach to win the fight. They sleep on it and go out the next day.

HOPE: Will Helen and Fatu’s new plan work. (Increasing Tension/How many things could go wrong.

FEAR: Incompatibility/Triggering each other.

Major shift: Fatu and Helen come face to face with El Leon. El Leon defeats and kills Fatu. El Leon runs off after the kill. Helen is left alone again in the wilderness.

HOPE: Can Helen now get inspiration from Fatu’s death to continue to look for help. (Isolation/Loss of Companion)
FEAR: Where is El Leon hiding. (Unpredictability/Danger/Could attach at any moment)

Act 4: Test the change in the character

Final Plan: Take off parts of Fatu’s bloody clothes. Walk in the wilderness and leave Fatu’s scent to a location when El Leon will follow and be vulnerable to an attack and final battle

HOPE: Unpredictability/ Person on the edge
Fear: Increasing Tension/ Impending Doom

Climax: Final battle between Helen and El Leon.

HOPE: What method will Helen use to defeat El Leon. (Unpredictability/Out of control situation)
FEAR: Danger/Threat/Attack

Resolution: A helicopter Search and Rescue team, which has been looking for Helen all through the story, has finally found her. The leader puts Helen in the helicopter to take her home.

While in the helicopter, Helen has a vision and asks the pilot to go to Fatu’s house. A cloud of crows circles Fatu’s house overhead. Helen sees her father at the doorstep of Fatu’s house.

[Monica Arisman]

Subject: Monica Writes Great Hope/Fear!

What I learned doing this assignment is the categories of where you can plant hope/fear – it was a good refresher for my memory.

1. Pull out the 4-Act structure of your story.

2. Using the list of Infinite Possibilities above, brainstorm 5 or more Hope/Fear moments that can occur in each Act.

Act 1:

Opening: A mother and daughter
visit the Vatican. The mother has old friends there.
Inciting Incident: The mother
tells the new Pope the daughter is his daughter.
Turning Point: The daughter
performs a miracle to save the Pope’s life.

Hope: Going to have a nice vacation in Rome and meet some of mom’s friends from when she was a nun.

Threat: They meet the Pope but he is rude and condescending. He’s too busy to talk to them and yells at them to leave.

Hope: Makes an appointment to see the Pope.

Fear: The Pope denies he is the father of any child. Threatens the mother with dire consequences if she makes anything public.

Hope: The mother takes a hair sample from the Pope when he is distracted on the phone.

Danger: The Pope’s DNA comes back a match and the mother confronts him again. He backhands her just as the daughter enters the room.

Hope: The daughter bends down and places her hand on her mother’s cheek to heal her.

Fear: The Pope calls the daughter a demon.

Hope: The daughter tells him he’s wrong that she is the next Christ.

Act 2:

New plan: The Pope can’t have
this woman being the Christ.
Plan in action: The daughter must die.
Midpoint Turning Point: A news
story breaks that implicates the Catholic Church and brings the Pope and
all the institution stands for into question.

Hope: The daughter goes to see the Pope alone. He’s supposed to be the representative of God – he should see reason.

Fear: The Pope warns her not to discuss the ridiculous notion that she is the second coming of Christ OR ELSE.

Hope: She agrees but she wants access to the Secret Archives.

Fear: The first attempt on her life in the secret archives but she survives.

Hope: The Pope wants to sit down for an interview to determine if she’s telling the truth.

Mind-Game: The daughter knows that something is up but she trained to determine the truth….

Secret: She’s an ex-CIA trained interrogator.

Hope: She can get the truth from him about her mother.

Fear: The Vatican disconnects all internet services and goes into lockdown mode. She can’t get out and has no contact with the outside world.

Act 2 Mid-point: The daughter sneaks out of the Vatican to access the internet and discovers another disturbing story about the Catholic Church.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Daughter
decides to investigate the truth behind the story.
New plan: She breaks into the secret archives and
finds documents to collaborate the story.
Turning Point: Huge failure /
Major shift: The daughter confronts the Pope for his role in the story
when he was just a new priest. In the dead of night the Pope decides to
shred the evidence only to find the evidence gone.

Hope: She starts to investigate the news reports.

Fear: Breaks back into the secret archives while everyone is distracted. Is almost caught.

Hope: She’s taken pictures of all the documents on her cellphone.

Fear: When she attempts to leave the Vatican through the secret tunnel she finds it guarded – she must get to the outside to upload the evidence to the cloud.

Hope: She remembers she has a second cellphone. She retrieves it and sets it up down one of the hallways. She takes up her position near the tunnel and calls the second cellphone. The guard leaves the tunnel to investigate.

Fear: The door to the tunnel is locked.

Hope: She quietly follows the guard and knocks him out. She takes his keys.

Fear: How is she going to get back in?

Turning Point: The Pope goes to the secret archives to retrieve the evidence only to find the evidence is gone.

Act 4:

Final plan: An attempt on the
daughter’s life.
Climax/Ultimate expression of
the conflict: The daughter stands in St. Peter’s square and starts to
bring down the physical structure of the Vatican.
Resolution: With the Vatican in
rubble the daughter shows a new way to have a relationship with God.

Hope: With the evidence uploaded into the cloud the daughter walks into the Vatican through the front door.

Fear: She is seized and brought to the Pope’s office. There is a glass of water on the Pope’s desk he wants her to drink.

Hope: She tells the Pope she knows it’s poisoned and if she dies the evidence of the Catholic Church’s crimes will hit a newsstand near you.

Fear: The Pope picks up the glass and throws it at her.

Hope: She’s the Christ so she performs the miracle of the disappearing glass.

Fear: The Pope and his two guards attack her physically.

Hope: But she’s trained CIA so she neutralizes them both.

Solution: She calls her news source and tells them to print the evidence. Makes the Pope do a video apologizing for what happened.

Climax: The daughter stands in St. Peter’s square and starts to bring down the physical structure of the Vatican while her mom films it.

[Hope McPherson]

Hope writes great hope/fear

What I learned: I loved this assignment, and ping-ponging from emotion to emotion is a great way to ramp up the tensions. Still far, far to go, but it’s taking shape!

Concept: A princess/college student is abducted and held for $5 million ransom, but the kidnappers become trapped when a snow storm shuts down the city.

Main conflict: The princess is an imposter and if the kidnappers discover she’s a hacker/foster kid, she becomes expendable and will be killed.

Act 1

Hope: Princess Rowena Louisa Victoria of the Elsterborn Isles talks to the university president via phone, assuring him that she’ll be just fine – even though she’s not flying to Europe to be with the royal family over Christmas break.

Threat: A radio report warns of a major snowstorm heading for the city.

Hope: The university president tells Princess Rowena to call him if she needs anything, anything at all. He assures her that food services will have one of the head cooks prepare her meals each day, and he’ll check in on her every evening.

Danger: Two low-level thugs, Hugh and Clash, decide to freelance and make some easy money; they plan to abduct the princess, get her back to their hideout, and give her royal family 48 hours to come up with $2 million for her release. They park near her dorm. The snowstorm has begun.

Hope: Roger, a longtime university custodian, is cleaning up after his retirement party. He sees the thugs’ van and knows it doesn’t belong. He watches it until his boss radios him to tell him to leave the rest due to the worsening storm.

Hope: Clash argues they should call off the abduction because of the weather. Hugh insists they go forward with it. It’s not a sporting event that gets called due to weather, he says.

Danger: Hugh and Clash enter the dorm, find the princess, and nab her. They put a bag over her head and warn her that if she screams, they’ll kill her.

Hope: Roger braves the snowstorm and checks out the van. It’s empty, but he sees ropes and blanket in the back.

Trapped: Under blizzard conditions, Hugh and Clash carry the princess to the van, but the van is snowed in. They argue about staying with the van until it stops or returning to the dorm.

Hope: Roger realizes what’s happening. He tries to call out on his radio, but just static!

Trapped: The kidnappers take the princess back inside. The snow rages and – suddenly! – no power, no lights, no heat.

Act 2

Hope: Princess Rowena reasons with the kidnappers; Clash is sympathetic.

Unpredictability: Hugh lashes out. He and Clash fight; Hugh wins and they stick with the plan.

Isolation: They leave Princess Rowena tied up and alone as they try to dig out the van.

Hope: Princess Rowena gets herself loose. She runs deeper into the dark dorm.

Trapped: All the other dorm rooms are locked.

Impending doom: Hugh and Clash return, unsuccessful. They’re mad and desperate when they realize she’s gone.

Hope: She hides in a cleaning supplies closet, but cold and scared.

Impending doom: She hears footsteps outside the closet door. She knows someone’s there. The footsteps stop, the doorknob turns.

Hope: Roger opens the door! He motions her to be quiet and together they sneak out – just before Clash and Hugh reach that hallway.

Act 3

Hope: Roger and Princess Rowena leave the building.

Dangerous: Outside, the snowstorm is deadly! Whiteout conditions as they struggle toward the campus library. Princess Rowena and Roger get separated and must find each other quickly.

Impending doom: Hugh and Clash realize the princess is no longer inside. They race to the exit.

Hope: Together again, Roger and the princess reach the library. Roger has a card key that unlocks the door. They stumble inside. The snow has stopped.

Unpredictability: Roger wants to call the police from his cell phone, but the princess won’t let him. She doesn’t want the police or campus security called.

Hope: The power returns. The inside of the library begins to warm up and there’s a low level of light to see by.

Incompatibility: Clash wants to cut his losses and leave. But Hugh is adamant: He wants a $2 million ransom!

Impending doom: Hugh grabs a tire iron from the van. He and Clash follow the footsteps of the princess and Roger through the snow. They see she’s not alone.

Hope: The princess tells Roger she wants to get to the high-tech computer equipment in the library basement. They race for the stairway – as

Attack: Hugh swings the tire iron at the window and the kidnappers smash their way inside. They run downstairs and catch the princess and Roger!

Increasing tension: Clash points a gun at the princess and Roger. Hugh screams that they want $2 million from the princess’ family and they should kill Roger here and now for interfering.

Unpredictability: The princess jumps between Hugh and Roger. Hugh orders her aside, but Princess Rowena confesses her real name is Ruby Doe. She has no inheritance. She’s a hacker/ former foster kid who aged out of the system. She’s been impersonating a princess.

Unpredictability: The kidnappers don’t believe her! They shove her aside and again aim the gun at Roger.

Mind game: Rowena/Ruby challenges them to listen to her accent – now the same as theirs. Even her persona has morphed from royalty to tough kid.

Unpredictable: Hugh aims the gun at her again. He’s done playing the game. He’s cutting his losses!

Act 4

Conspiracy: Ruby tells them they are thinking too low with $2 million. With her hacker skills, she can get them $4 million in a few hours – double what they planned.

Psychological: Roger’s radio cackles to life. His boss knows he never left campus. Asks him to check in on Princess Rowena to make sure she’s OK given the snow storm. Roger says he’s with the princess now and she’s all right. Roger’s boss says the college president wants him to

Hope: Hugh and Clash give her two hours.

Conflict: Roger pleads with Ruby not to do this; he’s angry that she lied to him – to the whole college – since arriving in the fall. Ruby tells Roger to shut up and let her work.

Theft: Ruby explains that she’s got a script that can make micro deductions (i.e., less than a dollar) from millions of compromised bank accounts. The account holders won’t notice or care. Hugh and Clash finally believe her. She gets to work.

Double-cross: Ruby convinces Hugh and Clash to give her their bank account numbers. She explains she will put less than $10,000 into their accounts to keep the IRS from being tipped off. Then – after they release Roger – she’ll put the rest into off shore accounts for them.

Ticking clock: Roger’s boss radios again that he’s 4-wheel driving in with the college president, who wants to check on the princess himself, because she’s not answering her mobile phone.

Conspiracy: Hugh and Clash see $9,000+ hit their bank accounts! Ruby assures them the rest will be in their new accounts once Roger is freed.

Hope: Ruby asks Roger to trust her, even though she’s not given him a reason to. She promises to make everything right.

Opposing needs/desires: Roger is free to go, but he won’t leave Ruby. Irritated, Ruby seems to do a little more hacker magic. She’s done, she tells Hugh and Clash.

Impending doom: Shouts heard from upstairs in the library as people see the damage and enter.

Left alone: Ruby hands Hugh and Clash a thumb drive, telling them all the info and account numbers for their off-shore accounts is on it. They race out the back of the building.

Double-cross: As they leave, Ruby makes a couple more key strokes.

Trapped: A couple police officers and the university president arrive. Ruby has no where to go and she knows it.

Resolution: Ruby is in handcuffs, arrested for fraud and robbing the banks. The president is offended and angry. Roger has calmed down, since she saved his life.

Ruby explains that no banks were robbed. She reversed the micro withdrawals. The thumb drive won’t get Hugh and Clash anything. She apologizes to the president of the university, explaining that she’d come to this university because it was like coming home: As a child, she had been abandoned there.

Turns out Roger was a young custodian at the time and he found her. He’d always wondered what had become of her.

[Frank Kim]

Assignment

Pull out the 4-Act structure of your story. Using the list of Infinite Possibilities, brainstorm 5 or more Hope/Fear moments that can occur in each Act. Sequence those Hope/Fear moments to fit the emotional journey you want your audience to have.

High Concept: when a 12-step program sponsor can’t keep his sponsees sober through traditional means, he resorts to violently threatening the drug peddlers and bad influences that threaten his sponsee’s sobriety.

Conflicts: the sponsor vs drug dealers, the sponsor vs the addicts he’s supposed to support, the addict vs the drug dealer who tempts him from the path of sobriety, the masked vigilante vs the police officer trying to catch him.

Reason for Containment: the 12-step meeting takes place in a meeting hall. That’s where The Sponsor gets the information he needs to track down the bad influencers. That’s also where he is ambushed later by the cunning Cesar. The other location is the alleyways where The Sponsor beats up his targets.

Characters: Jordan Maan: the 12-step sponsor who has brought his addiction to narcotics under control, but not his addiction to violence. Roy Green: the too-sensitive young man who looks to Maan for guidance, but is also tempted back into a life of getting high. Cesar Machado: the drug dealer who takes sadistic pleasure in seeing people broken down before his will.

Transformational Journey: through embracing his savage side, Jordan becomes more honest about who he is. After facing death and betrayal, he drops his lofty pretenses about being a “servant of humanity” and finds a new and more authentic purpose in life: to fight injustice because he enjoys the physical danger and because he needs an outlet for his violent tendencies.

THE INFINITE POSSIBILITIES OF HOPE/FEAR:

ACT 1:

THREAT: a masked man is going around town beating up innocent bystanders.

HOPE: Austin police officer Susan Espinoza is on the case and will surely keep the city safe by catching him.

UNPREDICTABILITY: the Officer Espinoza seems strangely cold to the beaten-up bystander.

SECRET IDENTITY: the violent masked vigilante is a 12-step sponsor named Jordan Maan, and none of his sponsees are aware of what he’s doing at night!

TURNING POING 1: Roy, the sponsee that Jordan is most concerned about because he reminds Jordan of his deceased little brother, hasn’t shown up to an NA meeting in a couple of weeks. Jordan learns that Roy hasn’t been home in many days and his guardian is worried he’s using again.

ACT 2:

HOPE: the Sponsor goes to Roy’s apartment hoping to find a clue.

WORRY: there are police at Roy’s apartment. He learns from a detective that Roy is officially a missing person and there appears to be foul play involved.

HOPE: after an NA meeting concludes, Roy appears in the meeting hall!

MIDPOINT TURNING POINT: Roy wasn’t kidnapped at all. He went into hiding because a drug dealer named Cesar Machado has been threatening him.

ACT 3:

RETHINK EVERYTHING: the Sponsor realizes he’ll have to stop Cesar once and for all.

NEW PLAN: the Sponsor will need to obtain firearms to stop someone as well-protected as Cesar.

OPPOSING NEEDS/DESIRES: the Sponsor doesn’t have the money to buy an unregistered firearm, so he reluctantly decides to take money from the NA group’s collections pot.

HOPE: he goes to the NA meeting hall to get the money.

TURNING POINT (TRAPPED): Cesar and his goons are waiting for Jordan and they knock him unconscious and tie him up to a chair.

ACT 4:

OUT OF CONTROL SITUATION: Cesar is ready to torture and kill the Sponsor. The Sponsor learns that Roy sold him out and was working for Cesar all along as bait for his trap. Cesar has been looking for the masked vigilante for awhile now. He takes it personally that the Sponsor is dwindling his drug market.

HOPE: another masked vigilante shows up and shoots an arrow that cuts through some of the rope holding Jordan bound.

ATTACK: a fight breaks out as Cesar and his men hunt the archer through the meeting hall. The numbers are on Cesar’s side.

TRANSFORMATION: while the goons are distracted, Jordan channels all of his rage and aggression and busts out of the ropes. He goes on a rampage, killing the goons and beats Cesar to a bloody pulp.

HOPE: the masked archer is revealed to be Officer Espinoza. She’s been looking for him. She offers Jordan membership into a secret organization of Black Lives Matter activists who want to reform society and do so by any means necessary. He accepts.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:

This is a really good and simple way to build in more conflict into the story. Going through this exercise helped me to see how I can create the “emotional rollercoaster” that Hal talks about in the lesson. It’s pretty simple how one can build in the swings of fortune that create constant audience engagement in the story.