Lesson 5

[Lonnie Nichols]

Lonnie’s three Gradients

What I learned from doing this assignment: I learned a much deeper and complex emotional journey for my transformational character. Very helpful in making this character unique, as well as drawing in the audience….seducing them into the character’s journey.

1. What is the Emotional Gradient
   you’ll use?

Forced Change Gradient

Title: “Rubytown” Sci-fi/drama Feature

Logline: A teenage track star turned “drug user” is abducted by friendly ET’s and returns with super powers. She must overcome strong resistance from everyone as she begins shutting down the drug lords in her small, “clickish” town.

2. For each emotion of that
   gradient, tell us the following: A. Emotion: B. Action: C. Challenge / Weakness: A. Emotion:
   B. Action: C. Challenge / Weakness: A. Emotion: B. Action: C. Challenge /
   Weakness: Etc..

Action challenge/weakness

DENIAL denies her addiction

c: deal with cause of the drug use

w: drugs are easier than dealing with dad’s death

ANGER hates people trying to help her

c: keeping her friends/not pushing them away

w: drugs keep her trapped

BARGAINING tries to “monitor” drug Use/remain connected to friends/family

c: they want her off drugs/see her attitude/life disintegrating

w: can’t bargain well with a diluted mind from drugs

DEPRESSION drugs bring her down, but she doesn’t realize it

c: how to get out of it when she doesn’t know how/won’t listen to friends

w: can’t deal with the reality of her life

ACCEPTANCE she must accept her loss

c: can she accept help from the outside, are “Ets real?

w: facing all the realities of her life, and moving forward

• This reply was modified 6 months, 2 weeks ago by  Lonnie Nichols.

[Mark Roeder]

Mark’s Three Gradients

What I learned doing this assignment is to take Rosemary through the forced change stages, like the depression stage, which forced me to come up with new ideas, which is good. I think this helps the movie to feel more grounded.

1. Forced change

2.

A. Emotion: Denial

B. Action: Rosemary doesn’t believe that she gave birth to a panda. It’s impossible. It doesn’t make sense. She accuses people of messing with her head, playing a dirty trick on her, stealing her real baby and replacing it with a panda. There’s no way it could be hers.

C. Challenge: She gave birth to a panda
Weakness: She’s suspicious

A. Emotion: Anger

B. Action: She attempts to kill her baby panda.

C. Challenge: She gave birth to a creature she thinks is an abomination.
Weakness: Reluctant. Can’t go through with it.

A. Emotion: Bargaining.

B. Action: She pleads that she wasn’t going to do it. Swears to her panda son she won’t do that again even if he is a panda. Bargains with Blaze to let her go.

C. Challenge: Giant pandas pounce on her, and she’s rescued/kidnapped by Blaze, who takes her panda also. He says her panda is an alien creation, that he’s the promised panda who’s the key to stopping an invasion and she needs to protect him.
Weakness: Judgmental against pandas, scientific in a cold, heartless way, can’t come to grips with love she feels for her son and if it’s really hers if it’s an alien creation.

A. Emotion: Depression

B. Action: Has nightmares about pandas, can’t sleep, watches stuff about pandas, like Blaze’s doc that showed her get experimented on by aliens. Maybe locks up her panda son. Won’t let him out of cage. Studies him. Maybe takes him on road trip away from others. Maybe decides to kill herself and her son, run car off road.

C. Challenge: Discovers her panda was created to trigger the alien panda invasion, not stop it.
Weakness: gives up.

A. Emotion: Acceptance

B. Action: She decides to be as good a mother as she can, and fight for her baby panda, no matter what. She teams up with him, and realizes he has free will, to make his own choice to fight the aliens or join them.

C. Challenge: The alien pandas attack.
Weakness: Has to learn she can’t control her panda.

[margo meck]

Margo’s Three Gradients

What I learned doing this assignment is…?
I found that combining aspects of the Forced Change Emotional Gradient and the Desired Change Gradient worked best for this story. Trying to force the story into one type of emotional gradient didn’t serve the story.

What is the Emotional Gradient you’ll use?
I used a combination of the Forced Change and Desired Change Gradients:
EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: Denial
ACTION GRADIENT: Through DNA test she finds out her parents were brother and sister. She believes the test results are wrong.
CHALLENGE/WEAKNESS GRADIENT: Her fiancé cancels the wedding/Marriage and family was her dream. No other options.

EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: Anger
ACTION GRADIENT: Hatred over what her mother did, she leaves her mom’s house and goes out on her own.
CHALLENGE/WEAKNESS GRADIENT: Must find a job/no skills

EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: Bargaining
ACTION GRADIENT: Parachutes from plane hoping it will kill her but finds it exhilarating. CHALLENGE/WEAKNESS GRADIENT: Courage/despair

EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: Hope
ACTION GRADIENT: She gives parasurfing a try and loves it.
CHALLENGE/WEAKNESS GRADIENT: Learn new skill/no athletic training before in her life

EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: Discouragement
ACTION GRADIENT: Believes she isn’t good enough to compete in parasurfing but her coach enters her in competition anyway. She loses.
CHALLENGE/WEAKNESS GRADIENT: Competes with accomplished athletes/doubts her skill level

EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: Courage
ACTION GRADIENT: Her primary competitor at top level competition threatens to release the nature of her parents to the press if she doesn’t withdraw from competition.
CHALLENGE/WEAKNESS GRADIENT: She must decide to walk away or face the shame/Need to protect her mother’s name as much as her own.

EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: Acceptance/Triumph
ACTION GRADIENT: She is who she is, not what her parents did. She stays in the competition and wins.
CHALLENGE/WEAKNESS GRADIENT: International professional competition/First time competing at this level. Can she make the cut?

[Paul Penley]

Paul P’s Three Gradients.
What I learned. I tried both gradients. originally I thought the Forced Gradient would work the best. But it seems to fall a little short. I tried the Desired and found the same result. However, If I combined them It could serve my needs.

I’m going to list my DESIRED results for this assignment…

Excitement: Greed, Billy is excited to get the gold and isn’t worried about a Cursed Mission.
Challenge: He now faces his problems without ammo in his gun.
Weakness: Ignorance, He finds himself in trouble and chooses to use shoot his opponent with his own gun.

Doubt: Ego, Billy will have to fight for his life. the Angels are real and they are in Hell.
Challenge: Make it through the night without fighting, dying or selling their souls.
Weakness: They don’t understand the rules. The group is beginning to splinter.

Hope: The Outlaws hear of a way to escape. Billy has seen enough, they abandon the gold.
Challenge: They must find the tunnels without being discovered.
Weakness: THey fell for a trap. The Outlaws are split up and lost inside the cave system.

Discouragement: Fear, Billy is captured. Confusion His captor isn’t what he seems and gives BIlly a choice. Die or join him against the Angels.
Challenge: There’s no way they can defeat the Angels and their hordes of demons.
Weakness: Billy doesn’t believe, but he chooses to help. He must die first.

COURAGE: Billy wakes with healed wounds.The Hopi indian has a plan.
Challenge: He joins the fight and challenges his brother to a death match to save one of his outlaws.
Challenge: Keep himself and his outlaw gang alive till morning.
Weakness: Two of his gang memebers are already dead. One has turned to the dark side and there are more Demons than originally mentioned.

Triumph: All is going in Billy’s favor.
Challenge: Fight Through the demons to get to the Angels without dying. Billy must summon his Shape shifting animal.
Weakness: He doesn’t know how to kill the Angels. His brother dies in front of him.

[Linda Anderson]

Linda Anderson’s Three Gradients

What I learned doing this assignment is I have no idea where this story is going in relation to a profound truth. Needs a lot of work.

EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: Desired Change

EXCITEMENT EMOTION–Samantha is excited to discover that her new rescue dog, Mellow, can “read people.”
Action—She takes Mellow to the office on Bring Your Dog to Work Day. Has first experience with him being able to communicate people’s true intentions to her.
Challenge/Weakness—She’s overly ambitious. When Mellow communicates with her, she experiments by using him to get something she wants that will advance her career.
DOUBT EMOTION—Samantha doubts this communication could really be happening.
Action—She introduces Mellow to her bestie, Ellie, and asks her to help prove or disprove Mellow’s psychic abilitites.
Challenge/Weakness—Because Samantha tends to be dismissive, after Mellow tells her about Ellie’s secret crush at work, Ellie denies it. Samantha believes Ellie instead of Mellow.
HOPE EMOTION—Samantha hopes Mellow could help her read what their boss wants and win his favor for a promotion.
Action—She makes sure Mellow can hear her boss talk about something he wants Samantha to do for him. Then brings the boss the completed assignment before he’s even asked for it. This delights and surprises him.
Challenge/Weakness—Samantha’s tendency to be manipulative is reinforced by successfully using Mellow to achieve the outcome she wants at work.
DISCOURAGEMENT EMOTION—Samantha concludes that Mellow likes Dan more than her.
Action—Samantha invites Dan for dinner & sees him give Mellow yummy treats she’s never heard of. Mellow goes nuts over them. She writes down the name of the treat & where to find them.
Challenge/Weakness—She misses the big picture. It’s not about the treats. It’s about Samantha’s ambition overriding everything in her life, including giving real love and attention to Mellow.

COURAGE EMOTION—Even though dogs weren’t invited, Samantha brings Mellow on a company picnic to find out more about what she must do to get the promotion
Action—She uses Mellow’s favorite treat to entice him to spy on her boss. But Dan also gives them to Mellow and overeating makes the dog sick. He throws up on the boss. And Dan
Challenge/Weakness—She’s been dismissive and ignored Mellow’s discomfort to focus on plowing ahead with her power-grabbing strategy.

TRIUMPH EMOTION—Samantha gets the promotion she’s always wanted.
Action—She realizes Mellow’s health and friendship mean more to her than using this gifted dog to get ahead at work or for dating Dan.
Challenge/Weakness—Her insecurity dissolves as she decides to turn down the promotion. Instead, she goes for more personal satisfaction doing animal communication full-time.

[Margaret]

Margaret’s Three Gradients

What I learned: The use of the Gradients has helped me focus and develop the story. The tool is so useful I not only used it for the lead character but the Change Agent, Betrayer, and Supporting Character as well.

The Emotional Gradient Used: The “Desired” Change

Emotional Gradient for Margot Dufour
Excitement: Margot meets Helene and is recruited as a spy.
C=Taking risks
W=Ignorance of spy duties

Doubt: Margo struggles to learn complex instructions for designing dolls to relay a message.
C=Creativity needed to incorporate design elements so they look natural.
W=Margot is a perfectionist and time is limited.

Hope: First doll is delivered successfully and a large raid is thwarted.
C=Margot must lie to Nazi officers
W=Margot’s definition of moral courage doesn’t include lying. (Changed with Rahab story)

Discouragement: Spy is sewing circle. Nazi’s raid the toy shop. Helene imprisoned, Marie-Claude is shot.
C=Nazi’s search for the Margot, the doll-maker
W=Fear of dying

Courage: Margot must decide to stay and save network or flee.
C=Brought in for questioning.
W=Remain strong in the face of death.

Triumph: Margot opens a business mending. Uses mended shirts to transmit messages.
C=Under scrutiny by Nazi’s
TRANSFORMED INTO A COURAGEOUS SPY

Emotional Gradient for Helene Schmidt
Excitement: Helene finds a vehicle for transporting messages (rag dolls).
C=Create a spy network.
W=Guilt -using her Nazi son to gather information.

Doubt: Helene worries she chose rashly, selecting a seamstress who can’t learn the codes.
C=Meet deadline for message to be sent.
W= Uses emotional manipulation to gain control.

Hope: Message Received and large raid thwarted.
C= Calming team as Nazi’s fill the toy shop during transfer of the message (rag doll)
W= Over confident.

Discouragement: Nazi’s becomes aware that the toy shop is being used to transfer messages.
C=Keep her son finding out the truth about her involvement.
W=Trusts her son’s love for her will cover her betrayal of the Nazi’s

Courage: Stands up to the Nazi’s and does not betray Marie-Claude or Margot
C= Nazi interrogation
W= Age – chest pains with Nazi abuse

Triumph/Defeat: Imprisonment
C= Nazi’s arrest her for espionage

TRANSFORMED INTO A WOMAN OF ACTION – NOT JUST ONE WHO FEELS GUILTY ABOUT HER COUNTRY’S SUPPORT OF THE NAZI REGIME

Emotional Gradient for Marie-Claude Benoit
Excitement: Finds a code that can be used to transmit messages to the resistance.
C= Teaching code to Margot, translating it into sewing requirements
W= Is not creative, does not sew.

Doubt: Difficulty with teaching Margot how to use code.
C= Must translate code to unfamiliar sewing terms.
W= Her brilliance.

Hope: Message delivered, major raid avoided.
C= Getting code translation to appropriate hands without getting caught.
W= Need to cover her brilliance (acts like a forgetful, bumbling grandmother).

Discouragement: Nazi’s discover network hub.
C= To keep her control while Helene is interrogated/arrested.
W= Pride.

Courage: Stands up to Nazi’s.
C= To keep from being killed.
W= Survivor guilt from avoiding last raid at the school.

Triumph/Defeat: Killed by the Nazi’s
C= Nazi abuse.

TRANSFORMED INTO A COURAGEOUS WOMAN WHO REFUSES TO USE SUBTERFUGE TO AVOID NAZI WRATH AND SAVE THE NETWORK FROM A WOMAN WHO ESCAPED FIRST RAID PRETENDING SENILITY.

Emotional Gradient for Elisabeth “Lise” Weber
Excitement: Use of Toy Shop as Resistance Network Hub as Revenge for Husband’s torture/death.
C= Set up contacts without discovery.
W= Gregarious nature, not a secret keeper.

Doubt: After setting up network, delivery of the dolls is delayed.
C= Getting the rag dolls in time for delivery to the messenger.
W= Grief over husband makes her impatient for the realization of the revenge.

Hope: Message delivered, major raid thwarted.
C= Getting dolls into right hands with Nazi wanting the specific doll for messenger.
W= Hate of Nazi’s (needs to benefit them for plan to succeed).

Discouragement: Nazi’s realize that Toy Shop is a Network Hub.
C= Nazi interrogation.
W= Fear of Torture.

Betrayal: Turns Helene in to keep from being tortured.
C= Must benefit the Nazi agenda to save herself.
W= Lack of courage.

Triumph/Defeat: Network Hub disrupted.
C= Dealing with Nazi’s.

TRANSFORMED INTO A CHAMPION FOR THE RESISTANCE TO A BETRAYER OF THE CAUSE BECAUSE OF HER FEAR OF TORTURE.

[Jennifer Quintenz-Berry]

Jenn’s Three Gradients

What I learned doing this assignment is: this is an incredible tool for building a story over the course of the second act in particular. I knew roughly what I wanted to include, but doing this assignment helped me see how things flow from one thing into the next. It’s a process, and I know it will get more refined going forward, but I’m excited with the progress so far.

I’m using the “Desired Change” Emotional Gradient.

Emotional Gradient:
Excitement
Action Gradient:
Taylor meets Carrie – her first real friend post-accident.
Dr. Strove introduces Taylor to world-renowned brain-specialist Riaz who believes he can help her.
Challenge / Weakness Gradient:
C: Starting the diagnosis process over from the beginning with a new doctor.
W: Taylor is attracted to Riaz.

Emotional Gradient:
Doubt
Action Gradient:
Riaz starts very methodological process of diagnosis.
Determine that lapses are triggered by strong emotions in the present.
(At first, Riaz doesn’t think the “memory” is relevant).
Taylor has another lapse that almost kills her – brought back by defibrillator.
Challenge / Weakness Gradient:
C: Trying to figure out what’s causing the lapses, suffering all manner of tests.
W: They’re looking for a scientific explanation.

Emotional Gradient:
Hope
Action Gradient:
Discussing that lapses are Sydney’s “what if” moments, they realize something critical about the lapses.
Riaz changes treatment method – helping Taylor confront and work through the traumatic events she’s revisiting.
Taylor shares the story of her sister’s death, starting from the day she got engagemed to Christopher.
Challenge / Weakness Gradient:
C: Taylor must address her unresolved trauma, which seems responsible for the lapses.
W: Taylor blames herself for Sydney’s death.

Emotional Gradient:
Discouragement
Action Gradient:
Taylor has another lapse and is brought back twice after flatlining.
In her lapse, Taylor avoids the childhood accident that burned her arm and scarred her—she changed her past.
Taylor returns to the present and tries to explain what happened, but Riaz thinks she’s delusional.
Riaz wants to medicate Taylor to neutralize her emotions so she cannot lapse again.
Taylor convinces him to give her more time before taking drastic measures. Reluctantly he agrees.
Challenge / Weakness Gradient:
C: If she can go back to the right moment, Taylor might be able to save her sister’s life.
W: But… one more lapse will likely kill her.

Emotional Gradient:
Courage
Action Gradient:
Taylor decides to try one final lapse to save Sydney, even if it means risking her own life.
Taylor and Carrie (who believes her) work together to try to find a pattern so they can plot the best time for Taylor to lapse.
They realize Taylor’s lapses fit a pattern, cycling every 84 days… but then Carrie dies of the cancer that’s been killing her.
Strove sees Riaz comforting Taylor and it’s clear they both have feelings for each other.
Riaz is immediately removed as her doctor and Strove prepares to dose Taylor with the emotion-suppressing medication.
Challenge / Weakness Gradient:
C: Taylor wills herself into a lapse, but she has to find a way to reach Sydney and change the past before she runs out of time.
W: Taylor’s body is dying.

Emotional Gradient:
Triumph
Action Gradient:
In the lapse, Taylor convinces Aaron to call Sydney before she collapses.
Taylor comes to in the hospital—thinking she has failed—then sees Aaron and Sydney waiting for her.
Sydney broke up with Christopher, which means there will be no car crash, which means Taylor’s walking into a new future.
Taylor reaches out to Carrie, who becomes her roommate and gets screened for cancer early enough that it’s caught and treated.
Carrie and Taylor become roommates, and Taylor takes all the opportunities she previously passed on…
But she’s still pining for Riaz, who’s somewhere in London, having never come to America to treat her.
She’s just about given up on love, when she runs into Riaz at a conference for medical innovators (she’s the graphic designer for a medtech startup) – and they hit it off, and now they’re free to pursue a relationship without crossing ethical boundries.
Challenge / Weakness Gradient:
C: Taylor “dies” – just as she’s changed Sydney’s fate, resetting her own past in the process.
W: Taylor’s past is reset, but she’s lost her love interest in Riaz.

~ end

[Kristina Zill]

KZs Three Gradients

What I learned doing this assignment is: It takes some time, but listing out all of the steps of the Gradient of Change helps build a strong outline and will make the writing so much easier.

1. The Emotional Gradient is: Forced Change

RY HARPER

A. Emotion: DENIAL
Ry refuses to believe he is hypnotized, dismissing the possibility that he has hidden empathic tendencies.
B. Action: He obsessively doubles down on enforcing rules, trying to maintain control.
C. Challenge: Confronting a situation where his logical approach backfires, leaving him humiliated and exposed
D. Weakness: His fear of emotional vulnerability and his need for control make it hard to acknowledge his deeper feelings.

A. Emotion: ANGER. Frustrated by his inability to break free from hypnosis, he lashes out at Elena for not staying professional.
B. Action: He isolates himself, attempting to solve the crisis alone to avoid dependence on others.
C. Challenge: Realizing that his isolation makes him ineffective, especially as the town’s chaos grows.
D. Weakness: His mistrust of others prevents him from accepting help.

A. Emotion: BARGAINING. Ry tries to reason his way out of hypnosis, promising himself he’ll fix everything if he just sticks to his rules.
B. Action: He obsessively organizes a plan to defeat Deke, avoiding personal reflection.
C. Challenge: His rigid plan falls apart, forcing him to improvise.
D. Weakness: His reliance on structure blinds him to the necessity of adapting emotionally.

A. Emotion: DEPRESSION. Ry feels powerless after witnessing the chaos his control failed to prevent.
B. Action: He opens up to Elena about his failed marriage and fears of inadequacy, starting to connect emotionally.
C. Challenge: His vulnerability leaves him feeling exposed and weak.
D. Weakness: He is at the mercy of his empathy, seeing the POV of all the crooks.

A. Emotion: ACCEPTANCE Ry acknowledges his shadow self—his fear of chaos and failure—and embraces empathy and trust.
B. Action: He works with Elena to defeat Deke, using intuition and teamwork rather than rigid logic.
C. Challenge: Confronting a situation where his logical approach backfires, leaving him humiliated and exposed
D. Weakness: Fully letting go of his control-oriented mindset and trusting others.

ELENA CRUZ

A. Emotion: DENIAL. Elena dismisses her hypnotic behavior as unimportant, refusing to acknowledge how it reveals her repressed desires.
B. Action: She focuses on her investigation into Ry, deflecting attention from herself.
C: Challenge: She loses control during a hypnotic episode, creating embarrassment and self-doubt.
D: Weakness: Her cynicism prevents her from confronting her emotions.

A. Emotion: ANGER She becomes furious at Deke for exploiting her vulnerabilities and at Ry for “messing up” her case.
B. Action: She confronts Deke aggressively, demanding answers but refusing to examine her own behavior.
C: Challenge: Deke manipulates her into questioning her own motivations, deepening her frustration.
D: Weakness: Her mistrust of others keeps her defensive.

A. Emotion: BARGAINING Elena tries to negotiate her way out of hypnosis, offering to abandon the investigation if she can regain control.
B. Action: She attempts to suppress her emotions, trying to force herself back into her professional persona.
C: Challenge: Suppression leads to an explosive emotional outburst, further jeopardizing her mission.
D: Weakness: Her fear of appearing weak makes it hard for her to reconcile her passionate side.

A. Emotion: DEPRESSION She feels overwhelmed by the chaos, believing she’s lost her professional edge and personal integrity.
B. Action: She confides in Ry, revealing her past betrayal and the pain of her unresolved family issues.
C: Challenge: Opening up feels like a betrayal of her hardened, independent identity.
D: Weakness: Her loneliness makes her fear that vulnerability will lead to rejection.

A. Emotion: ACCEPTANCE Elena embraces her passionate side, using it as a strength rather than a weakness.
B. Action: She acts on instinct and emotion during the final confrontation, saving Ry and exposing Deke’s plan.
C: Challenge: Trusting herself and Ry fully, despite her fear of failure or rejection.
D: Weakness: Letting go of control and allowing herself to trust her intuition.

[Brent KINETZ]

Lesson 5 – Brent’s Three Gradients

What I learned from this lesson is: I learned how much my story as I’d outlined it (and my transformable character) already follows the different stages of grief depicted in the emotional gradient. But while this is generally true, each step along the way can be deepened and sharpened by asking the question, “But, what’s beneath that?”…. which is great! And then to more lateral to see the actions that bring the emotional gradient to life, and each step’s challenge and weakness in Lionel, my transformable character, led me to a place where I much better understand how he becomes changed.

1. My story uses the Forced Change Gradient.

2. My story’s three gradients:

==DENIAL==

ACTION: Lionel just acts happy around his family, denying the tension created by Martha’s restrictions.

CHALLENGE: The stress from Billy not being able to go with Bode threatens to ruin their weekend.

WEAKNESS: Lionel allows Billy to stay at a neighborhood friend’s for the weekend to avoid the tension.

==ANGER==

ACTION: After Lionel tries to create a “carefree weekend” for Martha, but she can’t let go of her worry.

CHALLENGE: Lionel’s sense of self is threatened because he can’t connect to this worry that Martha feels and he’s not “enough” to distract her from it.

WEAKNESS: Lionel isn’t strong enough to talk to her about it, and instead seeks to redirect his pain and hurt her by first walking away, and then sharing that Bode and the whole group are going “offline” and will be unreachable for the weekend.

==BARGAINING==

ACTION: After several social media posts that disturb Martha deeply, Lionel seeks to calm her.

CHALLENGE: He struggles to have any soothing effect with his logic, so he turns to alcohol.

WEAKNESS: He can’t stand up and tell Martha to just let go! Bode is 14! Despite his instincts begging him to do so.

==DEPRESSION==

ACTION: Once Martha identifies the place where Bode is, she heads there directly, and cannot be stopped.

CHALLENGE: Lionel follows along, knowing that nothing good will come of this. Not for Martha, not for Bode, and not for Bode’s friends.

WEAKNESS: Lionel is so beat down, he doesn’t even argue. He has given up.

==ACCEPTANCE==

ACTION: Once they realize Bode is not where Martha thought, Martha breaks down and becomes severely distraught.

CHALLENGE: Lionel finally sees that he must stop coddling and protecting and basically enabling Martha. He must insist on parenting with more trust. And not let Martha hold him back.

WEAKNESS: He is not 100% sure that he is right to make this decision, but realizes it’s better than the alternative.

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by  Brent KINETZ.

[Terrie Cooper Lee]

Terrie’s Three Gradients
What I learned from this assignment. I tried both emotional gradients using chatgpt and decided to use the desired change gradient. This needs much more detail but moving forward.
1. What is the Emotional Gradient you’ll use? Desired change. I put both into Chatgpt and the forced change just was so much worse that I went with Desired almost by default.
2. For each emotion of that gradient:
Excitement
Action: arrives in Marfa to investigate a murder. She works on the case then her superiors tell her the victim is not a citizen and to stop the investigation.
Challenge: No local police support, isolate, no real ME
Weakness: She treats the case as just another case, handle it by the book.
Doubt
Action: She’s attacked on the drive back to her town. She returns to Marfa. Finds ‘Doc’ whose actually a veterinarian. Follows up on his hunch that’s she a citizen (not a vagrant and pregnant).
Challenge: Fights off an attack by two – are they assassins or just criminals?
Weakness: Thinks the victim was accidently mis identified – still believes in the government system.

Hope – this needs to be several scenes.
Action: Returns to her home. Decides to try to solve the case on her own regardless of being told to stand down.
Challenge: She’s told to drop the case but compelled to continue.
Weakness: Trying to do her regular job while investigating this case. As she finds out more about government corruption, she can’t accept that it’s intentional.

Discouragement
Action: Goes to see her old Army buddy Colton. He lives off the grid and is a conspiracy theorist.
Challenge: Her beliefs are challenged by all the evidence Colton provides about the government being corrupt.
Weakness: Insists on following up on her own, she doesn’t trust Colton’s fellow conspiracy nuts. This would be a good time for Doc to betray her.

Courage
Action: She gets final evidence as to who killed the victim. She confronts him. He’s also the head of the ‘panel’ that actually runs the AI but they just put in place what makes them the most money. She has to fight her way to him inner sanctum, requiring her to kill multiple bodyguards. He offers to let her off the hook, she’s a great cop she can keep her job and get more $ because she can’t win against him. She kills him.
Challenge: Accepting how deeply corrupt the government is.
Weakness: Won’t accept help or join in with Colton’s crew.

Triumph
Action: Returns to the off the grid community where Colton lives. They believe her, but the court ruled that her evidence was irrelevant. Become committed to fighting to change the government system.
Challenge: The only solution is fight for the rights of invididuals.
Weakness: Thinks once she exposed the murderer the system would change. Only Colton and his crew believe her.

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by  Terrie Cooper Lee.