Lesson 11

[Bob Zaslow]

Day 11

Bob’s Living Metaphors

What I learned doing this assignment is– looking at the Old Ways of what characters did in the past thinking it will work in the future, is a smart way to glue various elements of the story together in a more cohesive whole than I had originally planned. Also, I’ve never thought about some of the key events in my story as ‘living metaphors.’ Just knowing these scenes stand for something greater than themselves is a key learning. And now that I’m not simply vaguely aware of it, I think I can use these metaphors in a way that can help me strengthen my story.

The ‘Should Work but Doesn’t’ Challenges:

An Old Way that worked for Malvolio before, was to use his authority as steward of the manor to order around and heap abuse upon servants under him. But when he expects success threatening the servant, Maria, with dismissal, she devises a plan to humiliate him in front of his mistress, Lady Olivia. He is, in fact, humiliated (which is when he plans his revenge).

An Old Way that worked for Sir Toby was to scrounge off his wealthy niece, Lady Olivia, and give back nothing in return. He expected to get away with it forever, but when she learned the truth of how he humiliated her steward, Malvolio, she cut him off from the dole. Toby was forced to make an honest man of himself and support his new wife, Maria.

The Old Way that worked for Lady Olivia was to put everyone at arm’s length, especially suitors, because she suspected all men of having the ulterior motive of grabbing hold of her wealth. But when she met Viola’s twin, Sebastian, she felt a real love which dissolved her skepticism.

The Old Way that worked for Sir Andrew was to not think for himself and simply ‘follow the leader’ like Sir Toby, and so drifted about without a plan. But when he was tricked by Malvolio into investing in a bogus scheme, he realized what a fool he’d been and ultimately became a wiser man for the loss.

The Old Way that worked for Fabian was to harbor grudges against Malvolio for all his slights and put-downs. So, he was happy to join the cabal that humiliated and kidnapped him. But he soon realized his delight was very short lived. He felt guilty and secretly released Malvolio. In an ironic twist, Malvolio’s mild practical joke of retaliation against Fabian accidentally burned down his mill. Which led directly to…

…The Old Way that worked for Malvolio was to pay back double and triple the revenge on his enemies, but when he finally eased up on the last one, Fabian, his nearly harmless prank wound up burning his mill and preventing him from providing bread to his family and the town. Malvolio realized he had gone too far and then, one by one, came clean with each member of Toby’s group, even paying to restore Fabian’s mill and bakery.

Living Metaphors challenges.

The most important living metaphor is the burning of Fabian’s mill and bakery. Malvolio sees clearly how his mindless revenge led to hurting so many. He realized that he always has wanted to lead a life of service, but getting back at his offenders blinded him to his purpose. He then does his best to make good.

Another living metaphor is the forged letter Maria writes, pretending to come from Lady Olivia, who ‘reveals’ her love for Malvolio. When he reads it, he is swirled away in flights of fantastical fancies and dresses and behaves exactly as ‘she’ alludes to in the letter, making a fool of himself. It is a turning point, because his secret dream was always to be a man of stature and power, and his marriage to Lady Olivia would make him just that. But the bubble bursts a scene later.

A third living metaphor is the train-wreck of an idea to kidnap Malvolio in the first place, and keep him literally in the dark. Rather than change his ways, as the group of five had hoped, it did the opposite, making Malvolio blind with rage and vowing revenge. Lesson: you can’t change people unless they are willing to change.

A fourth living metaphor is Malvolio’s preening and posing before everyone he deems of lower status. His behavior, rather than raise others’ esteem for him, only makes them despise him. Although he may pretend it means nothing to him, it must touch him.

The fifth living metaphor is Fabian’s releasing Malvolio from his ‘prison.’ It represents any person of ethical behavior, who after some soul-searching, does the right thing.

[Joan Butler]

What I learned: I found this assignment very challenging. I had trouble with the metaphors in particular. I am beginning to understand how the audience needs these bread crumbs to guide them to the New Way.

Before this course, I had everything go wrong for Selma at the end of ACT 2. Then I sprung her New Way on the audience and started ACT 3.

SHOULD WORK BUT DOESN’T

1. Old Way

Selma never asks for help.

Challenge

At the close of Act 1 Selma asks Elizabeth for 3 wishes that Selma will explore during counseling. On day 4 of counseling, Selma completes the wishes. Selma expects this will improve their adversarial relationship. However, Elizabeth decides counseling is finished.

2. Old Way

Selma is a private person who never talks about her private life unless she is under duress.

Challenge

Selma has a grueling session where she tries to convince Elizabeth that Mark is an abuser. At the end, Elizabeth challenges Selma.

Elizabeth: And what about you? Have you ever risked everything for the person you love?

Selma: This isn’t about me!

The session is lost when Elizabeth walks away leaving both women angry.

3. Old Way

Elizabeth believes Mark is a good man.

Challenge

Selma thinks if she places one argument after another in front of Elizabeth, she will understand that Mark is an abuser. Just when Elizabeth appears to be ‘getting it’, she becomes angry and leaves.

4. Old Way

Elizabeth believes she controls Mark.

Challenge

In the previous session, Selma convinced Elizabeth that Mark’s put downs have become true for her. Selma now thinks that she can convince Elizabeth that Mark uses specific tactics to control her. Elizabeth does not believe her.

LIVING METAPHORS

1. Old Way

Selma never talks about her private life unless she is under duress.

Challenge Metaphor

sunglasses

Elizabeth: And what about you? Have you ever risked everything for the person you love?

Selma puts on sunglasses and hides behind them.

Selma: This isn’t about me!

2. Old Way

Selma never talks about her private life unless she is under duress.

Challenge Metaphor

Closed calathea plants

Gaia: Your anger tells me you’re either hurt or frightened… If things aren’t working with Elizabeth, what change do you need to make?

Later, Selma speaks to the calathea:

You’ve all been closed too long. It’s time you opened up.

3. Old Way

Elizabeth believes she controls Mark.

Challenge metaphor

the sun

Selma: Then who’s in control?

Elizabeth is blinded by the sun.

Elizabeth: I am.

3. Old Way

Elizabeth believes Mark is a good man.

Challenge metaphor

Elizabeth chooses her phone to represent Mark. She chooses a shell to represent her.

Selma asks Elizabeth about the relationship between the phone and the shell.

5. Old Way

Selma never asks for help.

Challenge metaphor

Five heavy dictionaries.

When Selma tries to pick them up, some fall.

Elizabeth: Are you so weighed down with words, you can’t ask for help?

[Marilynne Hebert]

I really liked your metaphors, particularly the one about sunglasses. Wonder how many people use them to hide behind?

[Joan Butler]

Thanks. I like that one too.

[Ashley Sarikaya]

Ashley’s Living Metaphors

I learned that there are many ways that I can improve my outline to create more depth. This exercise was very revealing, and I was especially excited about the interesting metaphors that emerged.

5 SHOULD WORK, BUT DOESN’T

Trying to fit in by hiding her gift doesn’t lead to friends or family. She is still seen as a foreigner or outsider.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: What’s the worst thing that can happen? You are already all alone.
How it plays out in the story: Itzamna (the Change Agent)’s sister doesn’t accept Malinche.

Hiding her gift doesn’t lead to a role or job within the community.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: How does playing “small” serve yourself, your son, and the world?
How it plays out in the story: Hernando doesn’t want Malinche’s help on the ship, as he already has two translators.

Hiding her gift keeps her safe and ensures her survival.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: Who do you want to become? You are the sum of the people you’re around.
How it plays out in the story: She attracts jealous types who live “small” and act from fear, such as Jeronimo.

Playing “small” leads to not being seen as valuable.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: Is an un-lived life better than death?
How it plays out in the story: She cleans up the vomit on the ship, as they can’t find another job for her.

Playing “small” makes her a “bad mom”.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: What’s the worst thing that can happen? You are already all alone without even your son.
How it plays out in the story: Hiding her gift leads to resentment and jealousy of Martin, who is praised for his ability to communicate with birds.

5 LIVING METAPHORS

Nobody adopts pigeons. There’s nothing special about them.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: What’s the worst thing that can happen? You are already all alone.
How it plays out in the story: Malinche is observing Emperor Montezuma’s zoo. She comments that there must be every exotic bird on the planet here. The Emperor responds that there aren’t any pigeons.

Playing someone else’s song leads to isolation.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: How does playing “small” serve yourself, your son, and the world?
How it plays out in the story: Itzamna explains to Malinche that he can’t drum the same beat over and over and expect the audience to stay. He needs to mix it up with something unique, something that only he can do. Nobody wants to hear him play someone else’s song.

Not “shining your light” keeps you a slave.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: Is an un-lived life better than death?
How it plays out in the story: The peasants aren’t allowed to dress as they want. Even if they have the money, they can’t wear bright colors, feathers, or gemstone jewelry. Beautiful attire is only for the noblemen and royalty. Itzamna points out that it keeps them “small”, controllable, slaves. It doesn’t benefit the peasants. It benefits the noblemen.

Not “shining your light” isn’t good for the collective.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: How does playing “small” serve yourself, your son, and the world?
How it plays out in the story: Malinche indulges the Mexica elders and war chiefs with a Spanish strategy game called Alquerque that she learned during her time with the Spaniards. She explains that each player has a unique role. The King’s role is leadership. The pond’s role is serving the greater good (I’m making up these game pieces/meanings for now). Then she asks, what happens when everyone tries to be a pond or a king? The game stops. There’s no progress. It decays.

Even when you hide your gift, you can still get eaten.

Old Way: Playing “small” keeps you safe.
Challenge: What’s the worst thing that can happen?
How it plays out in the story: Malinche notices a map of New Spain on the table which carves out tribal territories. While the map is nearly accurate, Malinche says that it is a false mirage. Hernando asks her to explain. Malinche explains that there is much underground that the map doesn’t capture. Hernando is intrigued and wants to know about this underground world. Malinche takes a mushroom from her plate. She explains that above ground you have the Triple Alliance of powerful city-states, as she gently touches the top of the mushroom. But “below the surface, you have a web of hidden motivations and grievances.” She explains that once you see below the surface, you have infinite possibilities to conquer your heart’s desires. Hernando asks, “I may not be able to see the mushroom’s roots, but it still doesn’t stop me from eating it.”

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  Ashley Sarikaya.

[Bob Zaslow]

Ashley- I love how often you were able to challenge the Old Way of “playing small keeps you safe.” I also want to like the metaphor of the mushroom, but I wonder if you can trace the mushroom’s roots into the earth and see how it connects with many other mushrooms, a metaphor for the underground world.

[Ashley Sarikaya]

Thanks Bob. I wanted to focus on one Old World for now, as I’m learning this framework and also how to write a feature film, in general. That’s an interesting point about the mushroom’s roots. I will have to research it further.

[Vivien Le]

Vivien’s Living Metaphors

What I learned doing the “Should Work, But Doesn’t” assignment was to understand the process of building the protagonist’s arc by letting the change agent challenge her assumptions or by creating circumstances that make her question her own assumptions.

As for the “Living Metaphors” exercise, I learned how to use subtext to refrain from writing on the nose. This exercise also helped me create gradient change in the transformable character by letting her overcome her own weaknesses using the self-discovery process.

SHOULD WORK, BUT DOESN’T

1. Should work, but doesn’t

When Mother insists to video call Anthony, Alicia pays an actor to portray Anthony’s work colleague in Vietnam to visit Mother. He’s coached to tell Mother that the internship program is excellent and that he and Anthony love their life in Vietnam.

Mother fears that Anthony may love his life in Vietnam too much that he may decide to live there long term. This thought makes her more determined to bring Anthony home.

Old Way:

We’ll come up with a new story as needed. We can’t predict what Mother wants so we can’t make a long-term plan. Alicia doesn’t look beneath the surface to understand why Mother keeps on rejecting her solutions.

Challenge:

Mother is extremely protective of her only son, who’s also the baby in the house. She does not want him to live away from the family. Nothing the family says matters. She’s made up her mind.

2. Should work, but doesn’t

We’ll say that Anthony does his internship in an area in the Far South of Vietnam instead of in Saigon, where the family has relatives. Mother would not be able to chase the story. With this in mind, Alicia doctors some pictures of Anthony living in a village in the far South Vietnam.

Mother recognises that the village in the picture is her birth village. She contacts her relatives in Saigon to chase after the relatives who may still live in that village.

Old Way:

Mother is technologically averse. She doesn’t use the Internet and won’t be able to trace the story (medical internship in the village for overseas students).

Challenge:

Mother can trace the story using her contacts in Vietnam.

3. Should work, but doesn’t

Alicia and Amanda want to keep Mother’s mind off Anthony. They convince her to make Vietnamese desserts and sell them at Vietnamese grocery. Mother is delighted. She becomes extremely busy and rarely talks about Anthony.

But after a week, Mother wants to take a break from selling deserts. She says she’s made enough money to buy a ticket to Vietnam to visit Anthony.

4. Should work, but doesn’t

We must keep Anthony’s spirit alive for Mother. The best way is to introduce her to Anthony’s organ recipients. She’ll feel Anthony’s presence through them.

Anthony’s organs recipients have not done well with the transplants. One has died from the adverse reaction from the transplant. The other has not seen her health improved and is waiting for a new donor.

Old Way:

Look for solution from external factors.

Challenge:

One has no control over external factors.

5. Should work, but doesn’t

We’ll have a secret memorial ceremony for Anthony at the Buddhist Temple to put his ashes to rest. We’ll have Mother’s best friend take her out all day that day.

Mother shows up at the temple without warning. She almost runs into the ceremony. Chaos ensues. Father hides under a table. The Abbott, who leads the ceremony, feels offended for having to lie to Mother against his will. Mother gets annoyed because Alicia pushes her to go home and does not give her enough time to properly pray for her family.

Old Way:

We must control the situation.

Challenge:

You can’t control other people’s action. Mother is strong minded. She does what she wants. Nobody can tell her what to do. Mother is deeply religious. She needs to go to the temple to pray for Grandma’s wellbeing. She cut short her day out with her best friend.

LIVNG METAPHORS

1. Living Metaphor

Alicia and Father are cleaning up the back yard. There was a strong wind the night before. A couple of plants collapsed. They are older plants with a stiff body. One young plant remains intact. Father says that it sustains the wind because its body is flexible and bends with the wind instead of resisting it.

Old Way:

Stubborn. Inflexible. Close minded.

Challenge:

It’s more effective to work in harmony with others than to fight with them.

2. Living Metaphor

Father and Alicia watch a program on television about planet earth. Father says that there were people who once believed that the earth was flat. It took centuries for the world to accept that the earth is a sphere.

Old Way:

We must let go of outdated traditions.

Challenge:

People hang on to their traditions because they are familiar with them and they find comfort in them.

3. Living Metaphor

Defining Right and Wrong.

Alicia talks to her cousin who’s a young veterinarian. The cousin feels distressed because her clinic asked her to put a dog to sleep. She’s a devout Buddhist and is against killing. Alicia asks her if she has another option that would allow the dog to live without pain or suffering. The cousin calms down when she can see that she’ll be helping the animal and not harming it.

Old Way:

There is a right way to do things.

Challenge:

The concept of right and wrong is subjective. What is right for someone can be wrong for someone else. But when one asks if one’s action helps or harms the person involved, one is likely to see the clear answer.

4. Living Metaphor

Go with the flow.

Alicia and Father chat with the Abbot at the temple. He said that he almost die at sea last summer. It was a scorching day. On the way home, he took a dip in the ocean. As he swam out, a swift current pulled him farther from the shore. In panic, he tried frantically to swim back, in vain. Exhausted, he let himself float then when the current died down he swam back to shore.

Old Way:

If you want to win people over, you must fight for your opinion.

Challenge:

People resist when someone forces their opinion on them. It’s more effective to let go of one’s opinion and go with the flow of discussion. A good solution will come out of it.

5. Living Metaphor

Good timing is crucial to success.

After dinner, the family have mangoes for dessert. Mother chooses one with a rich yellow skin. Alicia chooses one with a pale-yellow skin. Mother’s mango tastes sweet. Alicia’s tastes sour. Mother says that Alicia picks the fruit a bit too early. It needs time to ripe.

Old Way:

The truth doesn’t change with time, why bother waiting?

Challenge:

Had we not given ourselves time we would not have met Cindy, the mother of Anthony’s unborn child. The baby will help Mother heal.

[Hope McPherson]

Hope’s Living Metaphors

What I learned: I’m stumped with the metaphor challenges. I’m finding the don’t-work challenges more natural, so only have two of the former.

Should-work-but-don’t challenges:

Old way: Make a million before age 25 through savvy business skills

· Charlie should be able to call/meet with developers in the area to buy the farm but none are interested.

Old way: Refusing to share personal details to avoid getting hurt

· Lois (her mom and former B-actress) should have been able to get some gig from her agent, but couldn’t – so ends up at the farm.

· Charlie should be able to scare off Jed once she tells him about her newly diagnosed illness, but he’s not intimidated by it.

Old way: Afraid of animals, so will find them new homes

· Charlie contacts other area farmers and 4-Hers, but none will take the castoff donkey and goat.

Old way: self-reliant

· Charlie asks her mom and her mom’s viewers for help saving the farm.

Living metaphor challenges

Old way: Refusing to share personal details to avoid getting hurt and Old way: Make a million before age 25 through savvy business skills

· She discovers her great aunt’s journal and sees some of her current journey in it.

Old way: Afraid of animals, so will find them new homes

· Charlie finds an unexpected connection with the donkey and goat, even bringing in another rescue donkey.

[Bob Zaslow]

Hope- Regarding finding metaphors for your play, I think there’s one in the idea of a character’s fear of animals. That could represent any fear of taking a step she’s never taken before. A step into the unknown.

[Marilynne Hebert]

Marilynne’s Living Metaphors

What I learned doing this assignment is…I found it difficult to come up with “Living Metaphors” to the challenges and will continue to think about them as I press on to the next assignment

Old Way Should Work, But Doesn’t

1. Old way: Chloe is confident in her project plans and expects people to follow along

Challenge: Chloe meets an equally confident person who questions everything she suggests

Plays out in the story: At a community meeting Chloe describes how the program will roll-out, but is stopped at every turn by someone in the audience who strongly suggests she consider other possibilities

2. Old way: Chloe only considers health care treatments that have been proven with science

Challenge: People in the village successfully use locally made remedies that have been passed down for hundreds of years

Plays out in the story: Chloe witnesses the use of locally grown herbs to reduce a fever. She can’t find any published evidence for why the herbs should work, but they do.

3. Old way: Chloe controls her environment, including ordering supplies well in advance of when she will need them for a procedure.

Challenge: Supplies are not always readily available meaning flexibility and ingenuity are sometimes more important than having the planned for supplies at hand.

Plays out in the story: They run out of gauze to stop the bleeding during a procedure and one of the nurses quickly uses a small pillow that is handy.

4. Old way: Chloe typically ignores warnings about potential dangers in her life and is certain she can handle any experience

Challenge: Chloe goes on a week-end Safari in the Serengeti to celebrate the first successful phase of their project. She is warned to stay in the jeep at all times

Plays out in the story: Chloe convinces the driver to get out of the jeep and take her photo when they are parked beside an apparently empty pond, creating a near death defying experience with a hungry crocodile.

Living Metaphor Challenges (one thing represents another)

1. Old way: Chloe has been told her whole life how smart she is and sometimes her arrogance gets in the way of her being a decent human being

Living Metaphor Challenge: Intelligence, smartness, being clever is a “pass go card” for mean and hurtful behavior

Plays out in the story: A small group of 7-8 year old children play outside as Chloe waits to go into her classroom. She overhears their conversation about what being smart means. One child says something mean about another child’s scruffy clothing and is told to apologize. He replies that he is smarter than everyone there and can say whatever he likes. Then the fighting starts, and Chloe reluctantly steps in to break it up. She does her best to explain how you are born with smartness but you choose to behave with kindness.

2. Old way: Chloe lets other people strongly influence her decisions and life choices, then perpetually being unhappy with the results

Living Metaphor Challenge: Under the guise of being in her best interest, her family and friends strongly urge her to come home. Their concern is yet another way to control her life choices.

Plays out in the story: The position she was passed over for at the university has suddenly become available again because the person hired didn’t work out. Rosemarie suggests if Chloe goes along with what her family and old employer want, this scenario is another déjà vu where the past just keeps repeating itself.

[Brenda Boddy]

BRENDA BODDY – LIVING METAPHORS

What I learned in this assignment: These are ways to layer in the journey from old ways to new ways without being on the nose.

SHOULD WORK BUT DOESN’T:

Karma stops men transporting kidnapped women in a truck. Kit has to help her, because she doesn’t believe in her powers.

Karma enters a house being robbed. Kit stops a masked man from choking Karma out.

Karma tries to stop an old man from being beaten up. Kit must help. Karma bargains. She wants to carry a stick to change into a weapon, because she doesn’t think she inherited Zeus’s powers.

Karma fights Thamia. She needs Zeus to help her.

Karma goes after Zeus’s Godstone. She should be able to deal with Kerberos, but she gets beat up.

Karma tries to save Samantha and gets captured.

LIVING METAPHOR CHALLENGES:

Karma refers to Thamia as chaos, a metaphor in this script as anything evil or criminal.

Zeus takes over training Karma. She can’t beat him because she believes she can’t and ends up on her back on the ground, no matter what type of fighting they do…until he tells her to pretend that he’s trying to hurt her nana.

When Karma, Sobin, and Zeus go after Thamia, Zeus tells her–

“This fight…here…now…is more important than any battle this country has gone through. The world wars? They don’t compare. The one who obtains these Godstones determines whether life as you know it continues…or if creation becomes another version of hell.”

[JD Angle]

JD’s Living Metaphors

What I learned doing this assignment is… how the gradients and clues are challenges to the old ways that need to be emphasized and reinforced throughout the story. For the ending to be more dramatic and profound, the challenges need to keep chiseling away at the old ways until the new way makes sense.

Should Work, But Doesn’t Work Challenges:

Jake tries to get the treasure on his own – but is forced to work with Calisto and the scuba diving trainer.

Jake tries to bully his way through an awkward situation – but it doesn’t end well for Jake.

Jake tries to buy the affections of Lana, because it worked on previous women – but she is not impressed and laughs at him.

Jake thinks he is so special that everyone can wait on him – but his sponsor hires another treasure hunter to take his place.

Jake tries to steal the treasure – but is attacked by the Sirens, only to be saved by Lana.

Living Metaphor Challenges:

Sunset = routine and comfort. Sunset has always been Jake’s cue to get to work. In Act 2, every attempt to steal the treasure at sunset has failed. In Act 3, he executes his new plan – to not steal the treasure – at sunrise.

Scuba gear = metaphor for trusting the right people. Jake fears losing control and drowning. He blames the gear. He’s paranoid of the scuba trainer. He doesn’t realize that trusting the trainer will get him that much closer to the treasure.

Wood carving = the perceived value of treasure. Value is based on perspective. Jake used to carve wood to pass the time. Until the shopkeeper pointed out that one day someone will find one of his woodcarvings and put it in a museum. Jake begins to believe they have value until he has an altercation with a young boy and his mother, and she calls the woodcarving ‘junk’.

Fishing trip = catch only what you need for tonight’s meal – throw the rest back. They are not sportfishing. No trophies will be brought back. Metaphor for taking things from where they belong.

The sunken treasure = metaphor for Jake’s values. He perceives a financial value in the treasure until he learns what it means to Lana.

[Tom Minier]

Tom’s Living Metaphors

What I learned from this assignment was that living metaphors came easy for me and I had five readily available in my story. That said, should work, but doesn’t challenges were far more challenging. The five that I came up with definitely gave me food for thought in terms of building out the scenes where the moments occur.

[Chhimed Drolma]

CHHIMED’S LIVING METAPHORS

What I learned doing this assignment is that there are myriad ways to challenge my protagonist throughout the story that will lead her to a more satisfying ending when things finally do work out for her.

SHOULD WORK, BUT DOESN’T

1. Utilizes services of childhood magical practitioners

Old Way: Do what people say will work

Challenge: Is fresh off the trauma, and also can’t quite trust

How it will work in my story: AV, with little hope, will try all the ceremonies, potions, and techniques to no avail

2. Gives up

Old Way: Do what people think will work

Challenge: Trusts, but doesn’t believe

How it will work in my story: AV once again does what others suggest, but no longer believes anything will help

3. Drinks and has one-night stands

Old Way: She tries to just “have fun” and see if that works

Challenge: She wants to forget

How it will work in my story: AV gives up hope of consciously recovering her nightmares and decides to just “enjoy herself” at every possible turn

4. Tries talking with her crew sensitivity person

Old Way: Doing what she “should” do

Challenge: Still doesn’t quite trust, just checking off boxes

How it will work in my story: AV hires this person for others because she’s given up on herself

5. Tries to find the young girl who looks like her

Old Way: Does what she thinks she should in this case

Challenge: Still doesn’t want to see or believe what may have happened to her

How it will work in my story: AV pursues rescuing this girl at the expense of her professional standing, still with no memory retrieval

LIVING METAPHORS

1. POND gazing with the magical practitioners

Old Way: Doing what others say (because she’s young and has no idea what else to do).

Challenge: Due to her amnesia, she doesn’t remember how anything is done, and it’s also a foreign practice.

How it will work in my story: AV gazes into a murky pond and sees nothing, in fact it seems to get murkier.

2. Martial arts training and WEAPONS, temporarily giving up her search

Old Way: Taking other people’s advice because she doesn’t know what else to do

Challenge: challenge AND gift – the weapons put her in a meditative zone and give her daytime relief from fixating on her nightmares

How it will work in my story: AV moves wholeheartedly into learning weapons and forms, forgets her nightmares in the day and finds some respite though the nightmares continue

3. A burlesque show called HEART – a neon sign with a flickering t.

Old Way: Drowning her sorrows in beautiful women who want her to hear and help them

Challenge: Women want things from her and she can’t even handle herself

How it will work in my story: A montage of dalliances where she is truthful yet leaves women wanting more from her which feels repulsive to her.

4. SPIRAL office design of crew sensitivity person

Old Way: Checking off the box of doing what she’s offering to her crew members so she can seem sensitive although she feels emotionally bereft.

Challenge: Her own fear – AV feels an intense need to flee this setting and practice.

How it will work in my story: AV has a huge aversion to the office design and can barely sit still thought her sensitivity person tells her it’s only a symbol for going inward. She can’t get away fast enough.

5. MIRROR

Old Way: AV pursues the little girl she wants to rescue, an external manifestation of her childhood

Challenge: AV hoping this little girl will be the answer to her problems, but loses her.

How it will work in my story: In pursuit of the girl, AV loses her, and comes face to face with a mirror which she punches