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Lesson 6
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Action Lesson # 3 – Assignment Response
John’s Hero’s Mission Track
What I learned…dig deeper to make the action of the story more interesting while building intrigue and excitement. Hopefully.
1.
A. Evan is a brilliant career engineer, skilled in chemicals and explosives. He’s fearless, capable, resolved, and resourceful.
B. The thugs and smugglers have to be killed and/or put out of business without apparent assistance from law enforcement agencies.
C. Evan has been beaten and robbed of millions in raw diamonds; his partner was killed; two mining sites were destroyed, and no one will hire him. His career taken away, he wants revenge, justice, closure and a restored life. He’s trying to stay alive against heavily armed thugs motivated to kill him.
D. What could happen…? Evan could get killed. He could suffer pain and setbacks in his quest against this conscienceless evildoer. He could meet other people caught up in the events taking place, people willing to join his revenge mission. He could unearth and shut down the entire diamond smuggling operation himself and, with help from newly motivated law enforcement, demolish the mercenaries hired to perpetuate it.
2.
Clear Mission: To recover stolen (rough) diamonds; kill ringleader, Vovk; shut down the smuggling ring.
Motivation: Partner killed, diamonds stolen, job sites ruined, career tarnished
Inciting Incident: Vovk and his thugs raid Even’s mining site in northern Russia, kill Evan’s partner, scare off workers, steal harvested diamonds.
First Action: Evan returns home, then to his next exploration site, only to have the site blown up. Vovk has killed one of Evan’s site workers, and suspects that the same thugs are responsible, and following him.
Obstacle: Evan, slightly injured, is summoned to Head Office to explain the incident, and is summarily fired by the mine property owner. How will he, now, be able to track down the villains with no resources and no help from police.
Escalation: Vovk and his crew quickly gather and haul off the substantial rough diamond booty before Evan can return to the site to search for clues and evidence as to the identity of the perpetrators. Evan gets run off the road into a lake, almost drowns.
Overwhelming Odds: Evan heads to the town nearest the mining property, alone, an unwelcome stranger, to conduct his own investigation, trying to locate anyone who may have knowledge about or come into contact with this band of thugs, and do so without weapons or concern for personal safety.
New Plan: Investigate mine site, ask townspeople for any information about strangers, large vehicles, suspicious activities…helpful clues which will enable him to take subsequent action.
Full Out Attack: with the help of a newfound friend, Evan locates and disables loaded vehicles, ambushes each thug single-handedly, killing them all, one by one, setting a panicked Vovk to vamoose. Evan tracks Vovk down at the international airport, eventually killing him, although he’s injured in the fracas.
Success: Evan is able to save his rough diamond haul, confronts Vovk’s mistress, who’s been helping Vovk all along and awaiting the arrival of her lover at a foreign airport. In no mood for games, he forces the woman to reveal the whereabouts of the diamond smuggling headquarters. He retrieves a large stash of raw and newly cut diamonds.
Action Assignment # 4
John’s Villain Track
What I learned… To invest as much time in creating a superb villain as in creating a superb hero. The smarter the villain, the smarter the hero will have to be to succeed in his/her quest, and the more satisfying the reader’s/audience’s journey.
A. Pre-existing plan: The villain (Vovk) plans a no-holds-barred raid to loot a diamond mining site in northern Russia. The hero is on site, but suspects nothing and is not prepared for any sort of surprise violent encounter.
B. How many ways…
a. Initially, three vehicles with armed thugs show up, storm the remote camp office and mining site killing (hero) Evan’s partner, knocking him unconscious, brutally corralling staff, and destroying the communications tower and equipment.
b. Later on, they use explosives and military-style assault weapons to destroy a second mining site.
c. Evan is summoned to his company’s Head Office, while the villains haul off the treasure of raw diamonds, is fired and framed as unworthy to potential future employers.
d. Even later, he is threatened, run off the road, and forced to hide out/take shelter wherever he can find it.
e. Even later again, he’s shot at and chased through a forest. The ultimate showdown between Evan and Vovk is pretty much hand-to-hand at an airport parking garage.
C. What advantage…
a. A traitor to the mining company provides inside information to Vovk, so Vovk stays one step ahead of Evan…
b. Vovk has a dedicated, trained team of merc’s who know “war” well and who’ll do anything for him.
c. Vovk is well-financed, an excellent strategist and a charismatic field general.
d. The thugs are well-armed to do whatever the job calls for, right down to the last detail.
D. Fitting end…
a. Vovk’s team has been annihilated.
b. Diamonds in all forms recovered.
c. The smuggling ring is vanquished.
d. Vovk ultimately dies in the airport parking garage — the result of a hand-to-hand fight with Evan, which is how Vovk “introduced” himself to Evan all those weeks ago. Evan’s nowhere near Vovk’s equal in combat, but he’s smarter and more resourceful.
e. Vovk’s inside “traitor” gets found out and dealt with.
f. Evan gets back to work. Life becomes normal again.
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Mary’s Action Structure!
What I learned doing this assignment: How the Action genre figures into the 3-Act structure. Adding twists/reversals along the way makes a more engaging story. Haven’t quite figured out my opening question that is key to the story, or more rather how to answer it. I think that will have to be layered throughout, showing flashbacks from Skye’s life in Israel.
1. Opening:
A lead character in an action scene: Intercut scenes of Skye in pursuit of a criminal (on motorcycle, doing parkour, etc.) with scenes of her in gymnastic competition
A challenging situation that creates conflict: catching a bad guy for the CIA
Gives us an insight into the character: Shows her as a determined, disciplined athlete with extraordinary skills,
Opens a question that is key to the story: How did an Israeli gymnast end up a CIA agent?
2. Inciting Incident: kidnapping of Skye’s sister
3. First Turning Point at end of Act 1: Skye discovers who is behind the kidnapping
4. Mid-Point: Skye discovers what Andros wants in return for her sister – now it’s not just her sister’s life at stake, but the security of the country as well
5. Second Turning Point at end of Act 2: Sky discovers a lead on her sister’s location and follows it, only to be pursued in a high-speed car/motorcycle chase by Andros’ henchmen. She overcomes her pursuers, but it turns out the lead was false. Skye discovers the co-worker and supposed close friend that gave her the false lead, actually betrayed her.
6. Crisis: Skye encounters dangerous situations and using her cunning and skills, eventually rescues her sister. But…Andros discovers the location of Sky’s safe house (where she has taken her sister after she rescues her) and orders an ambush. Sky and her sister successfully fight off their assailants only to find they’ve been lead into a trap where they are caught and brought to Andros.
7. Climax: Here Andros interrogates Skye. Enraged that he has not gotten what he wants, he decides to administer a rufie-like drug which will slowly kill Skye while her sister watches.
8. Resolution: But Sky’s sister manages to get free and help Sky. Together they overcome Andros and use the drug on him. He stumbles, overcome by the drug, and falls to his death.
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In hindsight, I realize I have some plot holes to work out. Might post a new version later in the weekend.
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TIM’S ACTION STRUCTURE
What I learned from doing this assignment is that doing this lesson informed a lot of the previous lessons. Enough so, that I am going back to revisit lessons 2-5.
1. The 3-Act Structure
Opening: On the road toward the town, a lone hitchhiker leads three ruffian bikers off the road and into a trap where he dispatches them easily and takes their sunglasses and a weapon or two and gets back on the road to join the thickening traffic toward a small diner on the outskirts of town where local authorities have set up a roadblock.
Inciting incident: The loner enters a diner packed with various riff-raff watching the small television – on it, the news reporter, a typical local mid market blonde is standing outside near the barricade, she interviews a state trooper and cuts to Sylvia’s dark web broadcast which got into the mainstream. The loner exits, but not before he sees a woman he recognizes. She sees him, smiles and disappears before he can make his way toward her.
First Turning Point at end of Act 1: The loner tries to get through the barricade, but is turned away, he follows some others who wind their way on the back side of the small town toward the country home, including Tango & Cash, Mickey, Mallory & Maude, and The Bear.
On the other sides of town, and in the forest, the other main villains pick their way through people and obstacles toward the house.
Mid-Point: Emily and Thomas run into each other in the tunnels, at first we are led to believe they are at odds with each other, but they hug and decide to hurry as they share who they’ve seen so far.
Second Turning Point at end of Act 2: The kids reach the house intending on saving their mother, who chews them out and tells them that this is all a set up and introduces them to the heads of the agencies who are working in her dining room over dinner.
Crisis: The killers advance on the house, taking out the soldiers, agents, troopers and others surrounding the house.
Climax: It’s a battle royale in the house on all floors with weapons and anything not nailed down as the heavyweight killers band together to assault the house. The battle ebbs and flows with guns, knives, frying pans, lamps, awards, belts, anything.
Resolution: Sylvia and the kids turn over the still alive assassins to the heads of the law enforcement departments. After they leave, Dupre exits the shadows with his message.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Timothy Barley.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
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Dave’s Action Structure!
What I learned doing this assignment:
This story could easily end up in the fantasy genre. Think “Babe.” Could it be an action movie with a whimsical fantasy setting? Why not? I’m still painting with broad strokes.
Opening – The hero runs a delivery service essential to his small town.
Inciting Incident – The villain with robots and drones promises to undercut the hero and force him out of business.
> The hero’s ex is now dating the villain.
End of Act 1 – Realizing that the town isn’t big enough for the both of them, the hero accepts the villain’s challenge to a delivery competition, winner take all.
> The villain spies on the hero and learns of a secret shortcut to the final destination.
Midpoint – The villain waylays the hero’s deliverymen one after another. The hero is now alone against the villain’s overwhelming forces.
> A robot observes the villain bribing a public official and admitting to other treachery. Think “Hal.”
End of Act 2 – The hero’s scooter has been sabotaged. He must search his garage and revive an old microcar.
> The villain announces his engagement to the hero’s ex. The hero can’t talk her out of it.
Crisis – As the hero races to deliver his last parcel, the villain’s men have wrecked a bridge along his secret shortcut which the villain learned of by spying.
> The hero revs up his feisty microcar and launches over a culvert to get away. Think Steve McQueen ala “The Great Escape.”
Climax – The hero and the villain fight hand-to-hand until the villain falls to his death from the Nakatomi Tower, or something like that.
Resolution – The hero has won the contest. The villain has been flown out of town by his drones. The robots have found gainful employment rebuilding things that were destroyed during the competition. And the hero is reunited with his true love.
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Raz Ray Action Structure.
What I learned from doing this assignment? I knew that I needed more resolve and structure for my story. I must put certain things in place that escalate my story with more action. With too many things happening simultaneously, it’s hard to get to the heart of the story.
1. Look through your three tracks (Mission, Villain, and Action) and find the points that could work for this structure.
- Opening: In the opening scene of my story, we have the six Neo-Sapient death squad members introduced and engaged in action. We see that the timeline is the future, and they are fighting armed security personnel or robots. The team infiltrates a hovering corporation. The main character is a young girl with a pet King Cobra snake wrapped around her. Her face is painted in chalk white and red lipstick. As she introduces herself, she talks with disdain about each member of her death squad team. She does mention that she’s the only one not fighting or killing anybody as she moves with her team to the penthouse suite of the world’s wealthiest man. Question: Who is she, and why isn’t she fighting or killing?
- Inciting Incident: After the villain reveals himself to be a demonic monster, the rest of the team tries to kill him, but they are unsuccessful. The Villain turns his attention towards the hero with the cobra snake. The hero is trained to assassinate the villain, but she’s too afraid to use violence. The Villain delivers a blow, knocking the hero unconscious. In her sleep, one of the team members goes into her conscience to find out why she is afraid of using violence.
- First Turning Point at the end of Act 1: We go back into her childhood to when she was an orphaned kid living in a special Okyia house training to be the next Geisha. The night she is going to be sold, a wealthy Baron with a bad reputation is looking for a particular child. The Baron outbids the Monk at the Geisha ceremony and purchases the young Geisha. That night, the Young Geisha is kidnapped by the Monk, who tells her that he is her father and that she must travel to the future to liberate humanity with a unique spirit animal weapon that can manifest through her. This information gets back to the Baron, who is enraged. He gathers the soldiers and sets off after them. He finds the girl’s Mentor and tortures her to death, trying to find her whereabouts. He finally finds out where she is and sets off after the girl. The girl Manifests a King Cobra snake and gains new powers and abilities of a warrior. The Baron breaks into the monastery with his soldiers, and a fight happens between the soldiers and the monks while the girl escapes into a futuristic pod. Once she’s inside the Pod, she and the snake vanish. The Villain is furious and feels his soldiers to look for clues.
- Mid-Point: We are taken into the 400 years into the future. The Bugeisha with the Snake land in a junk pile and are met with the rest of the Neo-Sapient Death Squad. They are in danger. The villain from the Strat of the movie is searching for them in a hovering Corporation. He sends his attack drones to fight. The heroes fight back, except for the Bugeisha, who is still too scared to use violence to kill. In addition, a team member gets kidnapped, and the rest of the team does not believe in her warrior skills.
- The second Turning Point at the end of Act 2: The Death Squad team introduces themselves as she reunites with her father. The team trains vigorously on how to become an assassin and why they kill people. The team teaches her about warfare and how it’s political and that it ties into everything. She meets her love interest again, who is a freedom fighter. He tells her that they have to fight for everything they have, and people on both sides die. They march onto the battlefront, but Bugeisha is still not ready to become a killer. She’s scared that if she goes down this path, she will not be able to return. Missing Point: I must fill this scene with destruction and hopelessness through action. I also must show how she’s scared of violence.
- Crisis: The Hero wakes up, and our story restarts from there. The hero and the Villain discuss how they can resolve their differences without war and death. The Villain makes promises to her that she wants to hear. All is lost because the Hero wants to forget everything and go back home where she can lead a simple life. The Death Squad team feels defeated. <font face=”inherit”>Missing Point: How to escalate the crisis so that the hero feels defeated. Why she can’t win? Also, I need the Villain to release the Creatures of Genocide to up the ante and cause action </font>and<font face=”inherit”> destruction. </font>
- Climax: The creatures of Genocide enter the corporation, ready to kill everything but the Hero and the Villain. The Hero cannot stand to see the bloodshed around the Corp, but she does not know why she must kill. The Villain tells her that he has been alive for 400 years and that in his past life, he was responsible for killing her family. She snaps, and in that moment, she realizes why she has to kill. A fight breaks out, and she uses the snake to strike the villain, taking his life. Missing Point: How do I make the hero and the Villain see eye to eye to resolve in any other way than violence?
- Resolution: The Hero is devastated that she had to kill someone. The rest of the Death Squad fight the rest of the creatures and applaud her actions. She reunites with her love interest, and the War of riches is over. Missing Point: I had to reshape my structure to determine what the hero wants and how she will get it. Also, how to defeat the villain with more action involved.
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Kevin Lobo’s Creating Your Action Structure!
What I learned…Creating the structure forced me to think the exact ups and downs, the twist and the deepening mystery, the action – placing them exactly where they should happen.
1. Look through your three tracks (Mission, Villain, and Action) and find the points that could work for this structure.
- Opening:
The hero and his reluctant, arguing wife throw a birthday party for the hero’s younger brother. She hates it. He says he owes it to him. Their house is swarmed and attacked by a gang that abduct his brother.
- Inciting
Incident:
The hero goes searching, is blindfolded and is confronted by a secret gang lord who knows all about his background. The hero, a cyber specialist must take down a rival gang if he wants his brother back or else the brother will be tortured and killed or exposed to the government for his gang activities, and face a long prison sentence.
- First Turning
Point at end of Act 1
The hero goes against his wife, takes on a task that completely negates all he has stood for. He decides to become a cyber criminal himself to take down the rival gang and save his brother.
- Mid-Point
The over confident hero fails to break through and is quickly tracked down by the authorities and the rival gang.
- Second Turning
Point at end of Act 2
The hero’s wife abandons him for another rich man who the hero quickly discovers is an implant of the controlling gang. He must now save both his brother and his wife and fight back physically as well.
- Crisis
The hero must now infiltrate his own government and simulate an attack originating from a foreign power, potentially risking a life sentence or an execution if caught.
- Climax
The hero quickly gets into the rival gang and realizes that it is a front face for a secret government network set up to trap his controlling gang. If he gives into the rival/secret government gang, his wife and brother will be both killed. He must now operate alone and set out to physically rescue them as well.
- Resolution
The hero exposes the secret government gang, forcing them off the attack, he takes down his controlling gang, thus exposing the secret gang lord as a high government official and in preventing the gang lord’s escape to a foreign power, rescues his wife and brother being used as human shields.
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Lesson 6
Jean Action Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is: It’s hard for there to be any real action/adventure when everybody is healing immediately from any onslaught, so maybe this isn’t that genre exactly, but it’s helping me get a structure in place for the story I want to tell, at least.
Create the 3-Act structure for your story.
1. Look through your three tracks (Mission, Villain, and Action) and find the points that could work for this structure.
- Opening
Establish motivation by showing friendship of the heroine and her friend, have them discuss upcoming vacation to Hawaii and drop her off at the airport.
- Inciting Incident
The text from her usually skeptical, practical friend saying she is healed from polio and spontaneous healing is real. Then her attempts to call her back and being unable to reach her.
- First Turning Point at end of Act
1
She wants to investigate her friend’s claim and write a story but is being discouraged by her boss. She has vacation time, so takes it to pursue it on her own and find her friend.
- Mid-Point
Once on the island next to the one her friend went to and was cured, she finds her friend’s room has all of her things in it, but no one has seen her. She finds a native of that island who had been gone for several months being treated for MS and enlists his help as an interpreter. Also no one is being allowed onto the island, and he knows his way around it. The only way to have access to the island is to go out with a snorkeling tour group.
- Second Turning Point at end of
Act 2
Once she and her interpreter manage to get away from the tour group and get to her interpreter’s home, he is cured. They stay at his house which is more secluded and not a spot where the intruders to the island who are preventing people from coming onto the island and removing many of the islanders have spotted. It is camouflaged so only those who know it is there would access it.
- Crisis
She witnesses the healing of her interpreter, and she discovers certain ailments she had herself have disappeared, no more allergies and she can now see perfectly without glasses or contact lenses which she has worn since high school. She wants to leave the island to tell the story, but has to wait for another snorkeling tour group to join in order to leave. She has the schedule and knows when they will return. She manages to evade capture and leaves with the group, who are world travelers. She chats with them and tells them what happened to her on the island. They join her back at the other island for dinner and she finds many of them have noticed ailments have disappeared as well. They leave the next morning for various destinations. She learns that the people who arrived to take control of the other island claiming to be with federal law enforcement were traveling through a pharmaceutical company account and had no authorization to do what they were doing. She discovers through research who is behind it, and that he has a great deal of clout with governmental agencies who stand aside and let him do this. She reports it to the FBI, but decides she also wants to confront him directly in person via livestream. She makes an appointment to interview him. Flies to New York to his headquarters. In the meantime, she has blogged online about her discoveries on the island because her boss won’t print her story. The story and the virus are both spreading, so that is why the president of the pharmaceutical company granted her interview. She notices her blogs are being attacked by trolls claiming the virus is a hoax. It also says it’s very short-lived and those who stop taking their regular medications will become even sicker than they were before they caught it. She contacts a friend who runs a network of call centers and gets them to fight back against the trolls drowning them out online.
- Climax
She arrives at the pharmaceutical offices, and is taken aside before getting onto the elevator by someone who identifies himself as a scientist. He tells her that the people from the island are being held in the building and are being subjected to torment. He takes her to a communications booth that has video of all the rooms in the building and she sees her friend is in one of the cells watching television. She has been shown brutal footage of attempted torture, that backfires as the person immediately heals from whatever they throw at them. He lets her know the majority of the research scientists are not onboard with creating a vaccine against the healing virus because of the positive impact it’s been having on their own lives and the lives of those around them. He tells her they are going to release all the research subjects while she is in her interview with the president. He will send her a video of them leaving, heading to the airport on busses he has provided. She goes to the president’s office and begins the interview normally, getting background questions, giving them time to get everyone out safely and to the airport. When she gets the signal, she tells the president that his subjects have all been freed and are on planes to various destinations now. The FBI comes in and arrests him for kidnapping and torture.
- Resolution
2. Fill in any missing points and tell us the current version of your structure with a sentence or two for each point.
She and her friend are back in Hawaii on the island, enjoying the people there, and while there, the oldest woman on the island dies. So now they know while the virus prolongs life and makes it more vital and healthy, there is still death. The woman is 112, and the researches disclose that had she caught the virus in her 60s, she may have lived well into her 200s, which is the new norm. She reunites with her interpreter who was a relative of the woman who died. There is a celebration of her life and it includes visiting the monk seals who some believed gifted the islanders because of this woman’s work with them that prevented their extinction.
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