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Lesson 2
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10 Replies
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Assignment 2. Who are we travelling with?
Benita Cullingford, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK
I learnt to analyse my main character, particularly her wound.
DREAMER. Tracy. She expects more from life, not realising that it’s up to her to find a way to achieve her role in life, whatever it may be.
VILLIAN. Constable Short. With a chip on his shoulder, failed promotion and severe gambling debts, this policeman will go to any lengths to re-steal from a thief, with dire consequences.
OTHER CHARACTERS.
Supporting:
MARTY, part-protagonist. Tracy’s boss
MARY. Marty’s wife
JIM. Tracy’s boyfriend.
Minor roles:
DI Green
Sergeant Green
Steve, locksmith
Betty, Mary’s sister
Rhona Macdonald
Doctor
Nurse
GENRE … Crime drama
PROTAGONIST’S PROFILE
ROLE. Main character. Coming of Age.
AGE/DESCRIPTION. 22 years. Short haircut (man style). Scruffily dressed.
INT, J. Fulfilment. Perfection of a craft.
EXT. J. Finds the right boss and craft, and more?
MOTIVATION. Work hard to make her boss proud of her.
WOUND. Underachiever at school. No close friendships.
AGENDA. Perfect a new craft.
SECRET. There is more to her amiable boss than meets the eye!
SPECIAL. A young female who perfects the skills of a locksmith.
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Subject line: Chris’s Character Profiles Part 1
What I learned doing this assignment is these exercises are helping me flesh out a complex character with a multitude of story themes and plot ideas.
Pick the type of role your Protagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
Fighter Hero Dreamer: our hero doesn’t see the world as most
of us see it. But with his smarts, physical
strength, stamina, good looks, and distinct POV, nothing can stop him…you
are not the boss of me! Non-negotiable
without compromise.3. Pick the type of role your Antagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
Authority: serves as capitalism
for all its nauseating and soul crushing attributes. Our hero also serves as his own antagonist
due to that “secret” personality disorder.
Oh, the places he could have gone…4. What other characters might be necessary?
Supporting characters: the mentor
(lives in a semi collapsed hobbit house w/his wife Dot) and comedic
mechanic
Minor roles: the simple wife as
“you just married me for the farm”
Background characters: the farm
hands (labor) he charismatically recruits.
It’s like a reverse Minority Report. Recruits them as pre criminals as they
turn into the real thing (unintentionally as his barter system only pays
the teens in beer and cigarettes)5. Pick your genre.
Comedy with perhaps Fantasy
6. Fill in whatever answers come to you about your lead character profiles.
Role in the story: he is the change agent of our times in attempts
to fix: politics, environment, capitalism,
racism, create independent thought, and history/future (“that is not
sustainable!” he would say)
Age range and Description: from
5 to death bedInternal Journey: from a raging bull to peace & calm
External Journey: from NYC to small farm Maine where he
finally gets peace as his heroes meet:
Henry David Thoreau and renowned naturalist photog Uncle Bert.Motivation: pure drive,
intellect, and resolve to live life on his terms.
Wound: passive father and
dominant mother; the 60’s race riot that turned his quiet humble father
racist.
Mission/Agenda: go to the woods
to live deliberately; front the essential facts of life so when it came time
to die discover that he had not lived.
Secret: living with a “secret”
personality disorder still not well understood today.
What makes them special? Good smarts,
good looks, charisma, own world POV-
This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Chris Spizuoco.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by
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Aina’s Character Profiles Part 1
1. What I learned: the character profile I used is similar to what I have been using before but somehow it felt far more easier to pin down the characters this time – I have to figure out why 🙂 could be because it was cleared of all other distractions and I did not try to go too deep immediately and kept things more on the surface, approaching the lesson/work with curiosity and joy.
2. URR – the modern family-elf –
Role in the story: Dreamer/Fighter – well groomed, set in his ways, loner family elf, happy with his life in the city – naive to the world outside his apartment. When thrust into the rough world of a farm needs to find the fighter inside in order to survive.
Age range and Description: Male, young elf – 7 years old (since this is how long the family has existed), wiry but tough.
Internal Journey: from a snobby, anxious loner to merry and easy-going, mischievous elf – it’s okay to open up.
External Journey: from a loner city elf to the, albeit reluctantly, adventurous one who reunites all the farm elves at his new home.
Motivation: to have the happiest family and best looked after home.
Wound: He is lonely, has been from day one he came into existence – lesson learned: loneliness is a choice.
Mission/Agenda: after his family moves from city to a farmhouse in the country, Urr’s agenda is to manipulate his family to move back to the city.
Secret: he likes it in the country.
What makes them special? His ability to come out of his shell and inspire warring sides to work together – behind a loner shell is a creative natural leader.3. VELBAS (Eng: Sharp) – ancient house elf
Role in the Story: Authority – proud of his house and unwilling to share it with anybody.
Age range and Description: Male ancient house-elf, 156 years old – same age as the farmhouse, mischievous boy hidden inside a grumpy old man.
Internal Journey: from grumpy, entitled authority man to a mischievous old teacher.
External Journey: from inside the farmhouse to the outside farm buildings.
Motivation: he is the authority among all farm elves and apt to keep his position.
Wound: when he was young, he wanted to be a stable elf, but his father would have none of it and Velbas had to follow family traditions and take over the farmhouse.
Mission/Agenda: to get rid of Urr.
Secret: his infatuation with Tunne (she/her) the stable elf.
What makes them special? He is a great manipulator4. Other characters:
Supporting characters:
Kippen (Eng: spark) – Velbas’ daughter – compassionate and friendly
Tunne (Eng: feelings) – the stable-elf – self-sufficient matriarch of the stable-elves
Dog – family dog – an energetic mutt
The family – we only see parts of them, never in full (unless maybe on a photo)Minor roles:
Other farm elvesBackground characters:
Farm animalsOther mystical creatures
5. Genre – Action-Drama
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Doug’s character profiles – Part 1
1.What I learned doing this assignment is: Lots more about my hero & villain & main supporting character – all very helpful info – as well as some “potential leads” that feel good to toss out there and see where they go!
2. Pick the type of role your Protagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
HeroExplorerRunnerFighterVictim*** Dreamer – Nick is a dreamer – working to make “big money” to save the foster home that nurtured him and the kids who remain there.
3. Pick the type of role your Antagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
VillainChange AgentAuthority***Predator – Olga is a predator – a major shark who is brokering major money laundering in NYC (and elsewhere?) – through real estate transactions. At this point, she is backing a major real estate company, and her daughter, Shania, is there on the ground as her representative.
4. What other characters might be necessary? (Note: some of the names will be changed, because they are “real world” placeholders – who, for the moment, make it easier for me to know who they are by using the current names.
Supporting characters: – Shania – Olga’s daughter, who becomes Nick’s girlfriend and who has to decide “who she is” and what she wants to do… who will (I hope) undergo a major character transformation and become a “worker for the good”, along with Nick (although he nearly turns to the dark side, himself).Jerome, Nick’s real estate mentor – whose killing triggers Nick’s exploration into the mystery of what is really going on.Scott – the head of the real estate company Nick works for.Ernesto – the point person for the real estate money laundering endeavor in uptown Manhattan.Carl – the grandson of Alice, the inheritor of the “Holstein Mansion” -and who contracts with Scott’s real estate company to sell the house – and who works with Nick to fulfill his grandmother’s wishes and, ultimately, with what his great-great-grandfather, Casper (Alice’s father) has put in motion. (Note: as mentioned above – Casper Holstein is a historic character, inspiring the imaginary great-great-grandfather in this story, whose name will be changed “shortly”.)“Bishop Shirley” and “Queen Mother” – dueling controllers of the HDFC co-op apartment house that is also in play. Hahaha – real people – but I’m planning on giving their story a happy ending in this tale,Reverend Bartholomew – the pastor of the church property Olga’s group has corrupted to work with them in their scheme. Not a real name, but a real character.Nick’s best friend from the foster home, Alfredo – who may, or may not, show up in NYC.Minor roles: Ernesto’s thugs. Other buyers of NYC real estate through Nick or his companyBackground characters: Hahaha – the usual suspects!
5. Pick your genre.
Rom-Com or Buddy MovieThriller – yup!HorrorActionDramaSci-FiComedy
6. Fill in whatever answers come to you about your lead character profiles.
Villain – Olga
Role in the story: She’s the one who is the engine for the story, in terms of the major real estate money laundering scheme, which involves murder, fraudulent real estate dealings – in that her agent(s) will do whatever is necessary to secure the properties they need to fulfill their particular plan, no problem! Age range and Description: She’s probably in her early 50’s – she might be Russian, she might be South American, she might be Jamaican – currently living in London. She has created a web of international money-laundering endeavors. Ruthless. Internal Journey: She is incredibly competent, probably won’t change – although when her daughter, Shania, goes through her own transformation, that will make her pause and consider… External Journey: She is the mastermind, pulling the strings of her clients, who want to launder tens of millions of dollars in Manhattan real estate (both the initial guy, Ernesto, from Uruguay, and the folks who will be buying into this scheme, farther down the road) and her “employees” – including Scott – president of a major NYC real estate company, and Jerome, one of his major agents. Motivation: She loves power and messing with the conventional “powers that be” – Wound: – possibly thanks to her “wound” of being marginalized, considered not worthy – maybe through a British classism thing – couldn’t get into Oxford/Cambridge, her lower-class parents – but she is, in fact, brilliant. Also – her upper crust former husband couldn’t stand up to his own parents and class – and so, failed her – and contributed to her desire to show them all…Mission/Agenda:… and put them into the trash heap, thanks to her much greater wealth and power, which she will then use as a weapon against them. Hmm… I wonder if there’s a new subplot, concerning this agenda, that may begin to show itself as we proceed? Secret: She really wanted to be accepted, but she’s long put that all behind her, and now she’s ready to destroy them all. But she does love her daughter, and Shania’s “defection” will make her reconsider all this, with results, as yet, unknown. What makes them special? – Hahaha! See above!
Hero – Nick
Role in the story: He’s the one who discovers the criminal scheme and is determined to bring justice to the murderer of his friend and mentor, Jerome – no matter what. And achieve his goal of helping the kids back at the foster home. Age range and Description: – late twenties – indeterminate ethnicity – brilliant, funny, very independent, street smart but ethical and loving, physically capable Internal Journey: Goes from thinking that he has to, not only “swim with the sharks”, but become one, to succeed – – To realizing he can play the game by his own, ethical rules, and win at an even higher, better-feeling, level. External Journey: A recent homeless arrival in NYC, he uses his “skills” to begin a career in uptown Manhattan real estate – intending to become a great financial success. Motivation: Broke – and wants to help the kids he grew up with in an out-of-state foster home which is facing bankruptcy and dissolution. And he is also, initially at least, hungry for the validation and status that financial and professional success could bring. Wound: He’s just returned from delivering his good friend’s ashes to his parents in Mexico – who was killed (somehow) in a way that reflects on his troubled background and impoverished condition – and which Nick is determined to change for himself and for the kids who are their “little brothers and sisters” at the foster care facility they had graduated from. Mission/Agenda: As above – to “heal the wound” in him and to make sure that the kids who had looked up to him will have a better future. He may end up going back and becoming the school’s “headmaster”? Secret: He probably feels guilty about his best friend’s death – no idea why, but perhaps… What makes them special? He’s a pretty amazing guy – got his street smarts, thuggish skills – but also a really good and loving person – who comes to realize that he doesn’t have to hurt and manipulate and take advantage of people to succeed — he can use his brilliance to create circumstances where everyone can win (him, too!) – and all can succeed and find happiness and fulfillment.
Supporting Character – Shania
Role in the story: – She’s her mom’s “agent-in-place” for real estate money laundering activities in Manhattan. She works with the various customs officials her mom’s organization has corrupted, to allow vast amount of criminally-tainted cash to flow into the city – and then with the president of a major Manhattan real estate company, to use these funds in real estate transactions to launder this “filthy lucre”! She also recruits other likely agents to aid in this endeavor. As far as this story goes, Nick is her major draft pick! Probably she also recruited Jerome. Don’t think she goes beyond “money and power” as recruiting tools… hmmm, never thought of that before. Don’t think so, though. She’s more of an “upper-level executive” than a “honeypot” type person. Age range and Description: She’s in her late twenties, early thirties – multi-ethnic, brilliant, sarcastically funny, likes being in control, but very loyal to her mom and protective of her – even though her mom is incredibly formidable, to be sure. Internal Journey: She goes from feeling the criminal money-laundering she’s involved in is totally justified – just another expression of the way their world works – same as her dad’s upper crust British circle – only without quite as much protection of the “legitimate” powers-that-be (although their own criminal activities have a lot of off-the-books societal protection….
…to realizing that, yeah, people who don’t deserve to be hurt – do get hurt – and it’s not necessary to work this way. Becoming close to Nick helps her to understand this – her first motivation is that she doesn’t want to see him get hurt (because she does come to care for him – first pretending that it’s only because he’s a “great employee”, but then realizing it’s because she truly cares for him – and then, because he allows himself to care for other people and wants to do right by them, she allows herself to start thinking along those lines as well. And then realizes that she no longer wants to “do her mother’s work” – but to work in a different way – which is a really hard choice, since she really loves her mom and feels protective of her (in weird way – because others might see her mom as an incredibly powerful “monster”) – but she does make that choice and leaves it to her mom to – well – come to terms with it.
External Journey: From being the highly competent “foreman” (“forewoman”?) of the criminal real estate money laundering schemes in Manhattan – going from supervising Nick, in what was intended to be the furtherance of these schemes – to really coming to caring for him and understanding his motivations and, finally, agreeing with them – and working to help Nick to thwart the harmful criminal activities (which will harm people – even though they will enrich others) – and help him achieve his ultimate success, even though it really pisses off her mom – with consequences yet to be determined! Motivation: First – loyalty to her mom. Then – caring for Nick. Finally – realizing that she agrees with his goals and motivations and undergoes a transformation herself, to become his – no-longer-pretend ally – but his actual soulmate (?)!!! Wound: Was really hard when her mom was divorced by her dad – she had to chose one or the other – still loves her dad but chose her mom. Argh!!! Mission/Agenda: To prove that she and her mom were even more powerful and competent than the “forces on the side of her dad”. But then, as above, she realizes that she no longer wants to do that – and makes the change. Secret: She really loved her dad, too – though he was weak and, truly, failed her and her mom. Wondering if, somehow, there will be some kind of reconciliation or meeting or something “down the road”. Hmmm… this is interesting – and didn’t see this one coming. Thanks for this question – that provoked this potential vision! Yes – he is really, really sad at how all this turned out – and, yup, he’s gonna redeem himself in some way, shape, or form, before we hit FADE OUT! What makes them special? She’s pretty interesting and special – okay, let’s see. Let’s say she got to go to Cambridge or Oxford, unlike her mom who felt she was unfairly excluded. She’s really, really brilliant – a great manipulator, with a sarcastic/sardonic sense of humor – but who has been trained to be cruelly pragmatic – by her deeply wounded mom. But then starts to heal through the events of this story. Neat!
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Michelle’s Character Profiles Part 1
What I learned doing this assignment: Answering uniform questions about characters simplifies writing character profiles.
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Marilynne’s Character Profiles Part 1
Dr. ISY DORIAN (Protagonist)
Role in the story: Hero/Dreamer. Scientist with tremendous potential to successfully discover and create new unimagined ways of curing injuries and illness. Lacks the self-confidence and determination/drive to make it happen.
Age Range and Description: Female, early 30’s. She’s not as fit as she could be and instead spends most of her time in the lab. She feels guilty for all this time away from her eight-year old son who lives with his father.
Internal Journey: From feeling unsure of her abilities and afraid of success to demanding her rightful place as an exceptional researcher<s></s>
External Journey: From a quiet introvert who lets others take credit for her success to a strong, capable leader<s></s>
Motivation: relieve suffering, make a difference in the world
Wound: when Isy was a teenager, technology was supposed to prevent her mother’s sudden death. But it failed and she vowed to create something that would save people as promised.
Mission/Agenda: to push the Virtual Human Project as far as human and technologically possible
Secret: only a few key people on her Research Team know about the healing potential she discovered in the Virtual Human Project.
What makes Isy special is her potential to be very successful when she can fully embraces her abilities
MYSTERIOUS SABOTEUR (Antagonist)
Role in the story: Villain, preys on all Isy’s fears
Age range and Description: seemingly from within the technology they/it sabotage her efforts including creating “glitches” in the Artificial Human Project that cause harm to the subjects as well as destroy Isy’s belief in herself and importance of the work she is doing.
Internal Journey: sabotage begins as covert and becomes overt
External Journey: sabotage moves from inside the VR system to the real world
Motivation: greed and control
Wound: Lost power
Mission/Agenda: to simultaneously steal the programming secrets and ensure Isy fails
Secret: identity remains unknown
What makes them special? Able to re-create an avatar from the Virtual Human Program in the real world
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Three research team members
Roberto – Isy’s 8-year old son
GENRE
Sci-Fi: Big change threatens the status quo of the current world
Isy’s success would destroy the established world order for providing treatments and also be very lucrative – while she isn’t interested in either of these goals, there are others in her world who are.
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Shahrukh Shackle, Character Profiles Part 1
I learned how to be systematic about identifying various aspects of my main characters, Akaash and his antagonist Yogi Shantsheel.
Genre: High fantasy/quest
Protagonist: A skilled warrior-prince who seeks his ‘lost’ father to prove to him that he is a worthy heir to the throne of the Sacred City.
Antagonist: The powerful Yogi Shantsheel, who convinces the Akaash he can guide him on his quest to find the cosmic world where his father is trapped and bring him back to the Sacred City. In fact the Yogi intends to gain sovereignty over the universe by offering the King and Akaash as a human sacrifice to Kali.
Type of Protagonists
The queen , his mother, who approves of his quest and charges him to place the Sacred Kingdom’ above everything.
His childhood sweetheart, who gives him a ‘memory gem’ to comfort him when he faces hard times.
Vetal, an animated course who attaches itself to the prince against
Incidental helpers.
The protagonist meets a series of helpers and enemies who often appear to be what they are not.
His grandfather, a king who is transformed into a donkey by a Yogi whose goals he destroyed just as he was on the verge of achieving them.
A Witch-goddess who torments and tests him throughout her journey.
The Cobra-King of the deep-seas, who seems hostile but has the prince’s interests at heart because of his profound respect for his father.
Type of Anatagonists
Kali – the Yogi’s patron goddess who is waiting for the human sacrifice that will make the Yogi sovereign of the world.
A white lamb given to him by the Yogi, who is supposed to be his ‘look-out’ but proves to be demonic.
Various members of the underwater kingdom.
Demons, monsters, animated corpses and horned creatures who haunt the cremation grounds where the Yogi performs his meditations and penances.
The King of the South who has his eyes on the Sacred City and plans to invade with his mighty army while crown prince and king are absent.
AKAASH, the crown prince of a Sacred City of ancient India, who has not discovered the ancient values and obligations of kingship and their divine ancestry.
Male, 18, tall, handsome, a sportsman with great warrior skills but distant.
Internal journey: he needs to grow from a self-indulgent prince into ‘everyman’ who embraces the importance of nurturing his subjects and retaining the elevated status of the kingdom he will one day rule.
External journey: Akaash grows from an entitled, over-confident youth with physical prowess into an adult with humanity and humility fit to put his future subjects and the guardianship of the Sacred City above himself.
Motivation: to find his father, the king who disappeared 2 years earlier and confront him about his contempt for him and his reason for abandoning the kingdom
Wound: He is resentful because he doesn’t realise that his father’s is disappointed in him and chooses his younger brother as his companion on heroic ventures.
Mission/agenda: to find his father and be the ‘returning hero’ who restores his father to the kingdom and proves himself.
Secret: . He is unconsciously fearful that he will not be good enough unless his father affirms his accession.
What makes him special is his determination to travel through terrifying worlds and learn quickly that people and places are not what they appear to be.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Shahrukh Shackle.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by
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Character Profiles Part 1
David Bruno
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
Frankly, this method of developing characters is very enlightening and these questions pull out the story path and provide clarity to the script structure.
ASSIGNMENT.
2. Pick the type of role your Protagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
Explorer
He will challenge the conventions of science to find the truth of history. Going to several sites, he investigates the established beliefs of his profession.
3. Pick the type of role your Antagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
Authority.
He is the head of the NSA department of research and dogmatically defends the established ‘truths’ with deadly aggression and deceptions.
4. What other characters might be necessary?
Supporting characters:
A student is commissioned with a full scholarship and salary to spy on the protagonist and report to the NSA of the protag’s progress towards iconoclast.
Minor roles:
The love interest of the protag provides much relief of tensions and also provides a heart wrenching sacrifice to the story.
Background characters:
Many students comment on the teachings of the protag and provide background and exposition for campus life in academia.
5. Pick your genre.
Sci-Fi.
Big change threatens the status quo of the current world, with or without a clear Antagonist. The Protagonist helps herald in the new world.
6. Fill in whatever answers come to you about your lead character profiles.
Role in the story:
The protag is a associate professor in a prestigious university and teaches Evolutionary Biology but disputes the assumptions of the ‘Missing Link Theory’, believing there is another possible beginning to the Homo-Sapien on earth.
Age range and Description:
Mid 30’s to mid 40’s.
Internal Journey:
Fights against the conscription to the conventions of his scientific field and seeks a deeper truth and to debunk a flawed convention of his profession.
External Journey:
Travels to sites that are the source of these conventional perceptions until the truth is ferreted out and exposes the protective efforts of the current and past hegemony of academia.
Motivation:
The need to know the truth is upper most in his being to avoid the confusion of his past experiences. He needs this to feel safe and is his goal to bring about change in the world.
Wound:
A strong affliction of agoraphobia hinders him and is a personal challenge to his career. Dizziness and stomach acid reflux are the manifestation of the anxiety disorder.
Mission/Agenda:
The protag takes on an academically unpopular project at his university of the research into alien or extraterrestrial existence on earth. He sees this as a vehicle to find a possible alternative beginning of the homo-sapien species to challenge the conventional beliefs to the missing link theories.
Secret:
The protag has a rebellious streak that conflicts with his role in academia.
What makes them special?
The Protag is extremely independent and self-assured to the point of being anti-social.
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Kristina’s Character Profiles Part 1
What I’ve learned: getting clearer on my characters
Protagonist: Michael
Explorer: non-believer and small time lawyer who after his death in an untimely accident, pushes his bounds of knowledge to become a skillful and dedicated guardian angel so he can woo his love interested from the afterlife.
Antagonist: Ella
Michael’s love interest who is a Change Agent:
Thinks she is the chosen one who can see and hear angels, channel messages and guide people to their destiny, but in reality is just a new age hippie.
Until he guides her from the afterlife to her true purpose as a lightworker / human angel on earth
Other characters
Supporting Characters
Georgia who is a rogue guardian angel. A bit like Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, i.e. brilliant but socially inept. Like a guardian angel who has autism. (Or like Oda Mae Brown from Ghost but after she has died, ie. irreverent.) She no longer wants to be a guardian angel but just hang out in heaven and get some peace, be done with these troublesome humans. But somehow Michael has become her charge / her protégé and he becomes her one last mission.
Genre
Rom Com
Character Profiles:
MICHAEL
Age range and Description: male, early 30’s. As a lawyer he has the gift of the gab. Persuasive. Know it all. Smart. Cynical. Unimaginative. Reliable.
Internal Journey: from feeling lost, being arrogant and self-absorbed to knowing his purpose, being selfless, and a true romantic with his love interest
External Journey: from non-believing small time lawyer to guardian angel who woos his love interest from the afterlife
Motivation: in love, getting a second chance
Wound: doesn’t believe he deserves love
Mission/Agenda: to come back to life
Secret: never got a date
What makes them special? His ability to embrace the unexpected, improvise, and to get through to people even though they can’t see or hear him
Character Profile:
ELLA
Age range and Description: female, early 30’s. Oracle reader. Vague. Hippie. Intuitive. Spontaneous. Optimistic. Kind. Imaginative. Flakey.
Internal Journey: from a flakey ostentatious new age hippie to the real deal, a humble and discreetly skillful true master
External Journey: from an ignorant believer with no actual skills, to being the chosen one
Motivation: to make the world a better place.
Wound:
Mission/Agenda: Be proven right. AND getting together with her love interest
Secret:
What makes them special? Her ability to get him and get his signs. They are “perfect for each other”
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Tully’s Character Profiles Part 1
What I learned doing this assignment is that my thriller idea is a teeny bit off-formula, as described here… but I’m going to go ahead with it anyway. I’ll stick as close as I can to the genre conventions that do work within the concept and trust that the deviance will come off as interesting and fresh.
I think the closest Elsie is to any of these is the Runner and the Fighter. She’s running from the law, because she just killed someone. She’s also running from her entire past, all her neural pathways, everything in her life that kept her in that loop of accepting abuse and disappearing from the world. She’s also running TO something – her goal, a fight. She fights along the way, and she’s gotta be willing to kill or be killed at the end. She’s never fought before, but this matters enough to her to throw everything she has into it. Doesn’t matter anyway – after her reaction to the inciting incident, she really has nothing left, in the usual sense. It’s prison or death after this battle, and she doesn’t care which.
There are essentially two antagonists: the serial killer she’s hunting and the cop who’s hunting her. The serial killer is a classic Predator, moving forward unchangeably, no empathy, just killing. But he’s not directly in opposition to her, as he has no idea she’s closing in. The cop is a clear Authority type, doing their job, is a human and therefore has some empathy but that’s not going to stop the train that is The Law. I don’t know much about this person yet, though.
What other characters might be necessary? Aww geez. Let’s see: Supporting Characters: All of the serial killer’s victims. The cops involved. The woman who started it all for the killer. (In one of the twists, she’s alive!) Minor Roles: The husband, whom she kills in act one. The killer’s targets, who don’t turn out to be victims (he has a selection process as part of his MO). The people surrounding the killer at his “day job” of sorts. Background Characters: I guess the random people they interact with along the way? Really not sure.
This is a Thriller.
LEAD CHARACTER PROFILES
Elsie Ann Ostrove:
· Protagonist (a Runner/Fighter)
· Mid 60’s
· Internal: From burying her head in the sand to facing things as harshly and truthfully as is possible. From only having blank hope to feeling horribly, terribly fulfilled.
· External: A forgotten housewife to headline news.
· Motivation: To set things right.
· Wound: It’s all her fault.
· Mission/Agenda: To stop Eric.
· Secret: SHE doesn’t have any, but one of the twists is that she’s not that one victim’s mother, as I hope you’ll assume, but rather she’s HIS mother. Eric’s, the serial killer.
· What makes them special: She truly has nothing left to lose. And she’s tapping into a determination that had long since been beaten out of her. But it’s nothing but the goal now, and that clarity allows her to grab ahold of things that are that far back in her history, in her lost personhood.
“Eric Russell Hayes” (aka, Ian Howard Ostrove)
· Antagonist (one of two; he’s the Predator type)
· Mid 30’s
· Internal: He doesn’t have an arc, but he does learn that his mother didn’t forget him.
· External: An active serial killer to a dead body.
· Motivation: To get it right this time. Over and over and over and over…
· Wound: Rejection. For things that he considers to be not his fault. But he’s gonna fix it. He’ll get it right this time, and then she’ll see. She’ll accept him once he gets it just right.
· Mission/Agenda: (see above)
· Secret: That the paintings he’s famous for, with their compelling angst, are painted OVER his initial paintings of someone he targeted – when they prove to be subpar prey, he paints over them with his rage and self loathing and frustration. (The ones he kills, he keeps those paintings – nobody’s ever seen them.)
· What makes them special: The way he hides in plain sight. The way he analyzes their responses to his initial boundary violations. (Or rather, the way we’ll WATCH him do that – all predators do that, but movies don’t usually get into it.) The fact that he actually is a gifted artist.
A cOp TyPe PeRsOn?
LOL, I don’t know yet. There’s gotta be at least one who’s hunting Eric too, but I need to figure that out.
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