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Lesson 3 Assignments
Post your Day 3 Assignments here.
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8 Replies
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Beth Bonness’ Right Characters!
What I learned doing this assignment: listen to your intution & use the examples as references to work through your hook & characters. I find myself picking fresh combinations then think how do I have the perspective to write that character? But list them anyway!
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Update: thought we were to keep the detail of assignment private like with our concepts. Then reread instructions – still not clear if we’re to expose our concepts yet, so took the assignment literal: “think” doesn’t mean share, except for last 2 questions. I know it’ll all come out by the end of the class regardless.
Tell us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?
Assumed-to-be-Blind Psychic:
-Everyone thinks she’s blind & can write notes & gesture undetected.
-She curates different types of thoughts and teaches people how their thoughts affect them so when others have issues, she coaches them on how to get what they want.
-She’s lonely and wants new people with new thoughts to manipulate.
-She enjoys puzzles & drinking games & uses them to pass the time gathering intel on everyone.
-She comes from a long line of psychics.
Transgender Engaged Couple:
-Man hasn’t told his parents.
-Woman hasn’t told her ex-fiancée.
-Man is worried about her drinking.
-Woman is worried about his shoe fetish.
-He’s a magician & good at slight of hand.
-She’s a professional poker player & a good bluffer.
Bi-Racial Sisters:
-Sister #1 is a black, vegan, atheist who believes in quantum psychology & that all white people are racist.
-Sister #2 is a white christian, private chef who grows organic chickens & herbs for local restaurants & believes other-sexuality is wrong.
-Sister #1 knew her parents were polyamorous, but not that she had sibs.
Alzheimer’s Couple:
He’s a retired psychologist – specializing in Jung; knows about thought influences.
-She’s a retired software engineer – specializing in AI & gaming; knows about game psychology.
What I learned doing this assignment: listen to your intution & use the examples as references to work through your hook & characters. I find myself picking fresh combinations then think <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>how do I have the perspective to write that character? But list them anyway 🙂
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Paige’s Right Characters!
What I’ve learned is I’ve had to start fleshing out the layers on what makes these characters tick, and what brings them to this point. I’m getting into the details that will add to the conflict, and why these characters are unique for this story and hook.
Tell us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?
Navigator Evers:
– Identical twin sister, who committed suicide, was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
– Only family left is her twin sister’s children, thus she is doing this 3rd mission for them, even though they don’t really know each other, they’re the only family she has left, and she wants to matter.
– As a young child, she was bright and intelligent but struggled with her schoolwork due to dyslexia. After getting expelled from school, she self-taught herself a systems approach on how to deal and work around the dyslexia. That started her fascination with charting out a course of action.
– She was imaginative and rebellious as child, but the required Ritalin hyper-injections, which made them all better students, also stripped them of their childhoods. She skipped those injections when she could, so the effects were disjointed. She alternates between childhood silliness and a flat affect.
– Her family grew up in a low-income, overcrowded urban area. She would give up her own food for those still less fortunate than herself. She’s a rescuer by trait. She only had one pet once, a rat. A very smart rat that she loved very much. Until it was poisoned.
– For a Rorschach inkblot test, she was handed a blank card. She turned it around, handed it back and defiantly said, “It’s upside down.” Her last pre-space psych eval was marked “not suitable for long-duration flight.” But the fact she’s been out twice before, her engineering background and the need for manpower, the command rubber-stamped her approval to go out again.
– Space seemed to offer opportunity…and space. She thought maybe she could make a difference out there.
– Schizophrenia traits often don’t show up until later for women, often in their late-20’s. She looks early 30’s in Earth years but is much, much older due to the fact that she has been in suspended stasis 5 times already.
Fluid: (ship’s AI)
– This supercomputer is a new generation designed to tap into the human subjects it maintains and to grow and evolve emotionally with them.
– Like a supercomputer, it’s a “know-it-all,” so Fluid knows Navigator Evers background and history.
– However, the first inkling that Fluid is fallible is when Fluid awakens to Navigator Evers to verify her calculations regarding a space anomaly that is interfering with their destination, so they have to go around it.
– This supercomputer can fluctuate and mimic other people’s voices. Because of its vast database, it can emulate and talk about feelings and past experiences.
– Each human occupant has an implant behind their left ear where Fluid is tapped into their thoughts and emotions.
– Fluid is designed to challenge her occupants when they are awake to keep them stimulated and on their toes.
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Margaret’s Right Characters!
<font face=”inherit”>What I learned – how useful it is to work specifically from the hook to find the right characters.</font>
<font face=”inherit”>What makes these characters the right ones for this story? Everything about him challenges her beliefs and the decisions she’s made, and everything about her and the situation she’s put them in challenges his wound and what he’s become because of it.</font>
<font face=”inherit”> </font>
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Ron’s Right Characters!
What I learned doing this assignment is create conflict and the characters will follow.
The Concept Hook and Contained Setting.
An undercover state cop must uncover a prison inmate, an unknown serial killer, who is killing neo nazis in prison and threatening a race war
Main characters
Jake Foster, a clausterphobic state police man who goes undercover in prison to find the serial killer. He is clever and manipulative and works his way toward the truth
George Fisher- prison warden who worries about losing his job if the killer is not found
Tarzan Kluger, head of Aryan Nation in prison. Believes the killer is Black and vows a race war in prison
Jake Morris: a prison guard and secret neo Nazi
Jamal King, head of the prison gang, the Black Brotherhood, Tarzan’s biggest enemy in prison. He must convince Tarzan his gang is not killing his fellow neo Nazis to avoid a race war he knows he will lose
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Gayle’s Right Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is…characters are how the story makes sense to the audience. If the plot is driven by a character totally unincorporated to the plot the logic is lost. An idea may be what pulls in a reader, but an engrossing character is what keeps a reader reading.
Main Characters
Ghost hunting couple in a haunted house
They are uniquely qualified to exorcise the demons because they are believers already.
Husband – Full of bluster who always has an answer for everything and gets it wrong. He may believe in spirits, but they are not afraid of him.
Wife – Living in a haunted house and more proficient in ghost hunting, but she is more interested in her living family so the shenanigans of the house are annoying
Ghost – Loves romantic novel. Seeing the bickering couple brings out her desire to be a matchmaker through the means she has available which is haunting to attract ghost busters.
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Guil’s Right Characters!
What I learned doing this assignment is that by focusing on the hook and brainstorming character traits that best fit the hook, I’ll have a better chance of coming up with a more engaging story.
I ended up brainstorming for two of the five ideas and discovered some intriguing character ideas. At the same time, I realized I have some gaps to fill in. Still fleshing things out…
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LESSON 3 Finding the Right Characters for This Story
Deanne’s Right Characters!
What I learned = traits that make a character “right” for a concept include those that will help them meet the challenges at hand, even if they need to draw on inner strengths they’ve never used much before.
These characters are the right ones for the story because:
1. Protagonist: her natural traits and personality make the plan she comes up with an odd fit, which creates clumsiness-induced conflict and opportunities for humor. But she has the perseverance to follow through and find her way to success.
Antagonist: her surface appearance contrasts starkly with who she really is. That creates layers, subtext, intrigue. The close relationship between protagonist and antagonist adds the dimension of family dynamics to the conflict.
2. Protagonist: her life situation sets her up as ripe for Rom Com. Her profession makes her credible as a person who could take charge of the situation. She knows how to cut through the crap. She also has a compelling reason to pursue her goal. But things really get going when her sense of social justice calls for action.
Antagonist: This person who at first seems like an unworthy interloper who has shown up to overturn the apple cart is slowly revealed as a sympathetic character who can join forces with the protagonist after the real villain is revealed.
3. Protagonist: he has surprising skills, experience, and resources from a career in a different field, along with the creativity to employ those skills to solve the problem in this situation.
Antagonist: resources and strengths are largely unknown in the beginning, making it easy to imagine an overwhelming force.
4. Protagonist: her central identity can make it difficult to work with strangers, but now she’s called upon as the only one who can help several strangers out of dire circumstances.
Antagonist: remains largely faceless for most of the story, but is revealed as the human apex of inhuman greed.
5. Protagonist: a man who knows he needs to change something about his personality before life swallows him up completely. This crucible is the oven that bakes the hard shell he needs.
Antagonist: mystery surrounds those who seem to be a potential enemy. But the protagonist’s real enemy isn’t even there.
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