Lesson 2

[Rae Rodgers]

Day 2 – Rae’s Great Hook

What I learned: How the process worked for me and what I learned:

The hook I am adding is a focus on the mother daughter relationship. A mother who has been long forgotten by a daughter who believes she is dead.

This process took lots of brainstorming, but eventually I came up with a hook that changes the entire screenplay. It will be a huge re-write, but I think well worth it. Still hoping I can still keep the script in the “Rom-com” lane.

1. Brainstorm possible major hooks.

Jesi jumps into the male dominated field of commercial real estate to pay off her deceased father’s debt, unaware that her mother is president of “West Coast Capital Investments” and owner of their three offices. A mother who remails anonymous, wielding her power, single women only, through the company’s hard core brokerage manager, Jason.

2. Ask high Concept questions. What haven’t we seen before?

(a) A female owner/entrepreneur makes major breakthroughs in Commercial Real Estate but keeps her gender a secret in this strictly male dominated business. Until her estranged daughter joins the firm, desperately seeking to make the big commissions to pay off her deceased father’s mounting debt.

(b) Sheila Harden heals her substance abuse issues, but then takes on the larger addiction of commercial real estate in disguise.

(c) Sheila Harden, owner of “Coast Capital Investments,” uses office manager, Jason, to hire and manipulate Jesi, her estranged daughter of twenty years. A daughter who has written her off, believing she was dead. But with the recent loss of her father, Jesi is pressured to pay off his mounting debt, has no choice but to tackle commercial real estate where women usually fail and leave defeated.

3. Pick the most interesting:

4. Select One – DO NOT TELL

5. Keep the High Concept to self.

[Karen Christine Angermayer]

Karen Christine´s Great Hook

1) This process worked very well for me. I chose 5 different ideas and brainstormed around them. I found the question “What haven´t we seen?” not easy to be answered quickly. After a while (and especially in times I was not at my computer) new ideas popped up that were kind of interesting, and so I followed them.

I haven´t decided, yet, which story to take, I will do this in the following lessons. Most probably I am going to choose a mystery or horror concept playing around a family in a cabin in the mountains.

I have never written anything like that before, because I was more into family drama, romance and stories for children before.

I am excited to give it a try, and use all the helpful tools from this class!

2) What I learned doing this assignment is that a concept becomes the more fascinating and deeper the more different possibilities you brainstorm, and the more time you spend on layers (though there might be some kind of resistance sometimes to do this).

I discovered that though an idea might sound great at first sight, it appears to be flat or at least not as multi-faceted as it becomes when you allow yourself to create some alternatives, and follow completely different roads.

Furthermore not taking an idea too seriously right from the start helps me to prevent myself from building too strong boundaries, and to stay free to discover what else could be there.