Lesson 6

[Leslie A Aguillard]

Leslie A.A.’s Mystery Sequence

What I learned doing this: I need to first grasp this thinking, the end first, reverse engineer, decide what the secrets are and how to hide them and then reveal them. What a red herring is (And I thought both Beth and Catherine did crimes).

I am trying to understand these steps as if they were fill in the blanks, and what is filled in is plot lines/story ideas, but I’m still not coming up with the story ideas. Trying to find a balance between an idea big enough for a movie but intimate enough for an audience to relate to it.

It needs to be personal? Just do the steps. Trust the process…

What’s the Big Secret my villain is hiding? That he/she wants to be the top dog with all the power but wants to make it seem like he/she is a saint or savior and graciously accepts the power thrust upon him/her. He/She wants to be the only one left standing (among his level of power beings).

How many ways can the villain cover this up? By deflecting the blame to others; lying about how things actually happened so it is his word against someone else’s; disguising the true nature of projects that may have some good outcomes for people but mostly fits into his/her big plan; getting others to believe they are being smart when they are just being manipulated into doing what he/she wants; disguising the deaths of his ‘rivals’… who don’t realize they are rivals…they think they are partners.

When all else fails, manipulate the data: what they think the future holds is sabotaged… Martian colonies will never happen until space junk is cleaned up around planet earth and that won’t happen until safeguards are in place in case the satellites do go down (full Kessler syndrome), thus taking doomsday prepping to a new level.

Convince others to take down the current space racers because they are only speeding up the Kessler effect so need to redirect those resources into clean up operations to help ensure lunar bases will be built soon (from which the villain will stage his own Martian colonizing agendas.

The current space racers could be red herrings. They already have the reputation of not caring about the rest of humanity. Their clean up efforts could be seen as their own insurance to escape the planet when all the satellites fail.

The First Mystery that the Hero has no choice but to solve:

Hero is having a phone call with someone very important, someone who needs the Hero’s immediate help and the phone line goes dead… not because of a low battery. Other electronic devices stop… the computer… some vehicles in traffic. Hero’s first thought “EMP and impending nuclear war” but suddenly the computer reboots and traffic begins unsnarling. Some sort of back up generator kicks in. Hero thinks of the 1951 BW film and says ” Klaatu barada nikto ” but the phone still doesn’t work and the special someone still needs help (Hero’s child? Spouse?) But where was that person calling from? No phone, no GPS, no idea where to go to get to the special person. Thinking: damn, we never set up a place to meet in case anything bad happened, just go home, when else would that person be? Try not to panic. If this is happening to me, it is likely happening to others. Is there a news report? How wide spread is the problem? Where is the special someone?

What might the situation be? An active shooter at a mall or school? A handicapped spouse in an electric vehicle stranded somewhere strange? I don’t know yet.

It feels like before I can make a mystery change I need to know the story details. These are yet to dawn on me.

[James Thompson]

Subject Line: Jim Thompson’s Mystery Sequence

“What I learned is…?” —

Bottom Line – I have already learned a great deal that will help make my book salable but I am already having problems implementing what I am learning. From the descriptions of the next two lessons, I can see that this will become even harder and something which will take longer to both understand and implement. However, I am getting more from the course than expected with more than half the class still left.

As I worked on creating the mystery sequence, I wrote more narrative than needed rather than focusing on the the ‘big secret’. I went back then tried to write more lists than narrative but left what I had earlier written.

Working on the Secret/Cover-up also challenged me. I again wrote a longer narrative then went back to break them down by lists. I’m not sure whether I’m on the right track with this or not which is why I only broke out Mystery 1, 2 and 5.

Sequencing the mysteries and the mystery chain were more difficult than I’d realized and I’m again not sure that I am doing it correctly. The lesson explanation was excellent with good examples from ‘Basic Instinct’ helped even though I had trouble implementing.

Last, I have gone back to watch both ‘Basic Instinct’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ again to get a better feel for stack of suspense and the mystery sequence.

Create your mystery sequence. Give us the answer to these questions.

What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?

Mystery 1: Who attacked and killed all of lawyers in ND?

Mystery 2: Who is the Lakota man, Everett Dixon?

Mystery 3: Who is the ISIS terrorist, Mohamed Abazaida?

Mystery 4: Is ISIS working with a Native American movement?

Mystery 5: Who is Scott Miller?

Mystery 6: Is Scott Miller the perpetrator of the ND attack?

——

The reason for the attack on the court system is revenge for the death of Scott Miller’s wife, Grace. While taking care of an aunt (90+) who had helped raise her, the aunt wanted to visit her sister outside of Fargo, ND. Grace took her aunt on the visit and stayed for two weeks before traveling back to NC. Within days of Grace’s return home, the aunt is taken very ill and rushed to the hospital in Fargo. Scott and Grace travel back to ND but when they arrive, Grace is arrested for murder. The niece taking care of the aunt, has made it look as if Grace has poisoned her aunt.

While Grace beats the murder charge, the niece and her mother sue Grace for money the aunt had given her. The trial is a sham with the group of Fargo native easily persuaded into a finding for the niece against Grace. While Scott pays the money and assures Grace this is not going to be a major issues, Grace is broken and falls into deep depression. She dies a year after the verdict.

Scott starts his preparation for revenge on Grace’s relatives, the jury, and lawyers but he understands that it will take years before he would be ready to carry out his plan. The preparation takes more than 15 years before the attack on Fargo.

His years with the County Sheriff’s department and SWAT team have made him even more cynical about the court system.

How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.

Mystery 1: Who attacked and killed all of lawyers in ND?

Secret: The killing of Grace’s relatives, the jury, and those involved in the trial is the real purpose of the ND attacks.

Cover up: Make the attacks in ND look like a major terrorist incident with nation wide coverage.

Mystery 2: Who is the Lakota man, Everett Dixon?

Secret: Everett Dixon is already dead and has nothing to do with the attacks in ND.

Cover up: Video of the perpetrator and fingerprints lead the FBI and DHS to Everett Dixon. When the attack on the ‘safe house’ where Dixon is located causes massive explosions, the FBI forensics team find Dixon’s DNA at the site.

Mystery 5: Who is Scott Miller?

Secret: Scott Miller is the lone perpetrator of the ND attacks.

Cover up: Scott has an near ‘air tight’ alibi in Atlanta, GA during the times of the ND attacks. While he has some wealth, Miller does not have nearly the resources needed for this size and scope of the ND attacks or the continued attacks around the country.

——

Scott’s preparation for revenge starts with becoming a reserve police officer at their local town then moving up to become a part-time deputy sheriff and part of the SWAT team. Using his contacts, he locates, recons, and attacks a number of drug houses to build up a ‘war chest’.

The attack on Fargo, Bismarck, and Grand Rapids, ND take place more than 15 years after his wife’s death. Scott personally conducts the Fargo attack but killing every member of the jury, Grace’s relatives, and all of the lawyers involved. This is obfuscated by the total destruction of the Federal Courthouse, the Fargo Police Department building, County Courthouse, State Courthouse, and Municipal Courthouse while also killing all of the lawyers and judges in Fargo. The same is done in Bismarck and Grand Rapids but through remote control and the use of pre-placed explosives and Mustard Gas.

Simple revenge on a small number of people becomes the killing of hundreds of lawyers and judges with massive destruction of the courthouses and police departments of three major cities. The killing of two dozen seemingly unrelated civilians become lost in the background noise of the largest terrorist incident on US soil.

By continuing the attacks throughout the Midwest, South, and Southeast, the FBI and DHS are forced by political pressure to look for some large scale and sophisticated domestic terrorist group.

Third, by setting up a number of ‘safe houses’, Scott leads the FBI primary investigator to a location in Sioux City, SD where he has placed a Native American (Lakota) activist who Scott kidnapped and killed literally placing the man ‘on ice’ for the FBI HRT. Using remote controlled automation, Scott has the Lakota ‘defrosted’ before the HRT attack. He has also seeded the house and area to make it very deadly for the HRT even though Scott knows a number of the operators on the team. The Lakota is blown to pieces during the assault but they are still able to recover some evidence, including computer hard drives which lead the investigation down a false path.

This continues for another ‘safe house’ outside of Chicago where an Arab with ties to ISIS has the same fate when the HRT breach the building.

The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.

Two of the Fargo PD homicide investigators, Jorge Robertson and Jeff Peters, along with FBI Special Agent Jennifer Andrews pull the data from the Fargo attack. As they assemble all of the killings, there are a few which are unusual in Walcott, Wahpeton, Fergus Falls, and a few other small towns. The people there are not lawyers and have nothing to do with the court system.

Categorizing the people, Jeff Peters discovers a connection to eight – they are all related. Why were they killed? Is this part of the terrorist attack or something which happened separately?

Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one. Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.

Who is the Lakota discovered in Sioux Falls?

Who is the Arab discovered in Chicago?

Is ISIS working with Native American activists?

Because of the weapons and techniques used to attack the power grid, is a militia group involved?

Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.

Mystery 1: Who attacked and killed all of lawyers in ND?

– Video footage and fingerprints identify the Lakota, Dixon, as the perpetrator.

– Dixon has a record with the FBI and DHS as an American Indian activist with criminal and violent tendencies.

– The FBI cannot locate Dixon.

– Due to the scope of the attacks, political pressure is placed on the FBI to find the perpetrators quickly.

– The political pressure builds with the continued attacks on infrastructure and the court systems.

In the Fargo attacks, the police have video footage of the perp which matches what they eventual discover with the Lakota.

However, while the video footage and even some fingerprints match what they eventually learn about the Lakota, they have no DNA evidence.

Who is behind the terrorist attack in North Dakota?

How can there be no DNA evidence at the multiple crime scenes?

Is the same group attacking the infrastructure throughout the Midwest, South, and Southeast?

As Jorge, Jeff, and Jennifer investigate the commonalities between the civilians, they find the old suit against Grace Miller. When they look at Scott, he not only has an alibi for the time of the attacks in ND but it seems impossible for him to have traveled so quickly?

If Scott is involved, is he just part of a group?

If there is a larger group, why did they allow the civilians who were part of the suit to be killed?

Can the FBI break Scott’s alibi?

Can the FBI trace other connections, such as the drug house raids and killings back to Scott?

Is there DNA or other physical evidence linking Scott?

[Peter Feliz]

PETER FELIZ MYSTERY SEQUENCE

What I learned: originally I based my two characters on myself and an estranged friend. I’m going to have to deviate substantially for these two characters to work also for the purpose of the class I’m going to have to simplify my mysteries, intrigues, and suspense. I’m going to have to adhere more closely to Graham Greene ‘s prototype otherwise I’ll just get too bogged down

ASSIGNMENT

Create your mystery sequence. Give us the answer to these questions.

What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?

Cuichi Valenzuela is using money he scammed from Arizona retirees to bankroll a Criminal Enterprise in Sonora

How many ways can they cover that secret?

1. After scamming retirees, (including Lucky Lunes mother) Cuichi Valenzuela goes into hiding in Sonoran village establishing himself as a “Jefe”

2. He wires Lucky Lunes HALF the money he scammed from Lucky’s mother and promise to give Lucky the other half plus interest if Lucky meets him in Sonora

3. To stall extradition surrenders to a Mexican Jail

4. Cuichi pays jail doctor to alter drug tests to appear that he’s a donor match to a major and very corrupt Sonoran official .

5. Cuichi capitalizes on confusion and escapes captivatity.

6. Cuichi lures Lucky to help him get his cache to start a criminal enterprise

7. Cuichi will dispose of Lucky when he’s no longer necessary.

8.

Those become the mysteries.

The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.

Lucky visits Cuichi in the Mexican jail, but an imposter is sent to meet him instead.

Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one.

1. Lucky upon seeing the imposter does not let on about the ruse. Pretends it’s Cuichi and spits on him

2. Lucky fearing his own safety runs into the American Consulate.

3. Lucky learns Cuichi is dead and was even more dangerous criminal than he thinks

4. Lucky is suspected of killing someone associated with Cuichi plan

5. While Lucky evades his hunters he thinks he sees Cuichi.

Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.

Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.

1. While hiding in Sonora with money he scammed from retirees (Including Lucky ‘s mother) Cuichi Valenzuela wires him half the money with the promise of more if Lucky meets him in Sonora.

2. Lucky goes to the meeting place only to be told Cuichi ‘s been arrested but wants Lucky to visit him in jail.

3. Lucky goes to the jail visit only to find a imposter taking Cuichi’s place.

4. Lucky fearing entrapment goes pretends the imposter is Cuichi, spits in his face and leaves

5. Lucky goes to the only place he thinks is safe and tells the official what has happened

6. Lucky is told Cuichi was killed in jail

7. The Mexican Federales want to question Lucky about Cuichi’s criminal activities

8. Lucky hides out in a brothel where he sees Cuichi

9. Federales arrest Lucky as a suspect in the murder of the Jail doctor

10. Lucky is released into the “protective care of a Sonoran political VIP

Answer the question “What I learned is…?” and put it at the top of your assignment.

Post your assignment.

Subject Line: (Your name’s) Mystery Sequence