[Dan Evans]

DAN’S 4 ACT STRUCTURE

What I learned doing this assignment was how much I enjoy putting the pieces of the plot structure together and connecting the dots. I also learned to use a four act structure as opposed to a three act structure. It allows more plot elements to breathe.

Concept: A year after the murder of her family, a medium returns to the haunted home they were slaughtered in.

Main conflict: Exorcise the spirits from the property, and stay alive while doing it.

ACT I

Opening: Set up the murders. Set up the trauma. Marsha stands near the graves of her family, but won’t walk over to them.

Inciting Incident: She is invited back to the scene of the murder.

PPI: After attempting to communicate with the spirits, she is locked in.

ACT II:

New Plan: Attempt to reason with whatever has locked her in.

Plan in Action: Holds a séance, calls them, identifies them as her family.

Midpoint: She hallucinates, seeing a dark shadow following the spirit of her child and husband. Something is wrong. They are not her family. Something is masquerading as them.

ACT III:

Rethink Everything: she was not prepared for something so powerful. She tries to settle in and force the malevolent spirit out.

New Plan: She finds a symbol drawn under the bed, realizing this is a demon or maybe even the devil himself. She attempts to draw a new symbol over it and push the devil out.

PPII: Marsha comes face to face with the devil. He climbs inside of her. The only other tenant tries to help her, but is killed by the landlord.

ACT IV:

Climax: Mable (the landlord) is revealed to be a cultist who helped murder her family. They brought her back to finish a ritual and bring the devil into the world. Marsha is incapacitated and taken to the basement.

Climax 2: Marsha wakes in a basement, the devil trying to get out of her. Mable attempts to kill her and unleash the devil. Marsha fights and escapes, killing Mable.

Resolution: Marsha is seen at the grave sites of her family members. She approaches them, putting flowers on their graves and accepting their demise.

[Dan Evans]

DAN’S DELIVERING MULTIPLE LAYERS!

What I learned doing this this
assignment is how much plot and even character can change through
setting up layers! I had one idea for characters, but after exploring
layers I was taken through a little journey that led me to a place
that gets me very excited about the story! The characters have
changed, but in a good way. These new revelations present their own
challenges, but they are challenges I am happy to explore.

Note: I have not discovered the
reveals, yet. I think I’m going to try letting the plot development
reveal those things to me.

CHARACTER

Surface Layer: Marsha is a Medium (like
her parents) & brought in to exorcise the spirits from an
apartment in which a horrific murder/suicide occurred.

Beneath That: Marsha is dead. She is
the last spirit that needs to be exorcised. She’s also the one who
murdered her family and killed herself.

How Revealed:

CHARACTER

Surface Layer: Mable is a lowly
landlord who brings in Marsha to exorcise spirits from the apartment
so she may rent out the space.

Beneath That: Mable is Marsha’s mother
who is trying to get Marsha’s spirit to succumb to the devil.

How Revealed:

PLOT

Surface Layer: Marsha is sent in to
exorcise spirits of people who were murdered in the apartment and
currently haunt it.

Beneath That: Marsha is the spirit that
haunts the place and is tortured by the devil. She killed her family
and herself, and the devil wants her, but she won’t let go.

How Revealed:

LOCATION

Surface Layer: Apartment haunted by
spirits of a family who died there.

Beneath That: The apartment is not
haunted by spirits of the people…it is possessed by the devil. It
is a portal to hell.

How Revealed:

[Dan Evans]

DAN’S CHARACTER JOURNEYS!

What I learned doing this assignment is
how careful I must be in designing character journeys, and how they
all must be as cohesive and intertwining as possible. That way, the
audience can put things together later, almost like playing connect
the dots with the viewers.

III ACT JOURNEY FOR MARSHA

BEGINNING: Traumatized from her
child’s murder. Hearing voices that she thinks are her family trying
to reach her from beyond. Drinking problem. She is asked by Mable, her mother, as a
medium, to spend the night in the apartment Mable rents out to try and communicate
with the spirits that reside there, so they may leave.

TURNING POINT: Spirits are indeed in
the house. However, Marsha sees Mable doing something strange in the
basement when she goes to tell her.

DILEMMA: Does she kill herself to be
with her family in the afterlife? Can she do it, or will fear stop
her?

MIDPOINT: The spirits are in the house,
but they are not her family. They are something malevolent. She is
locked in, and they begin to seriously harm and terrify her. Whatever
this is, it’s something truly evil.

TURNING POINT 2: Marsha learns the
truth about Mable: she is a devil worshiper trying to sacrifice
Marsha to the devil and bring him into the world.

3RD ACT CLIMAX: Mable was one of the
killers who broke into the house and killed Marsha’s family. They
struggle. Marsha kills Mable and the devil takes her, instead.

ENDING: Marsha goes from being a timid
and traumatized victim to being strong enough to let go of her
deceased family.

III ACT JOURNEY FOR MABLE:

BEGINNING: Marsha’s mother. Landlord of
the building; Marsha’s mother, wants Marsha to investigate the
spirits so she can rent out the building.

TURNING POINT: Mable is worshiping
something in the basement. She passes it off as a charm to ward off
trespassing spirits.

MIDPOINT: She wants Marsha to be her
daughter, again. Marsha lets her in a little, and for a while, they
are mother/daughter, again.

TURNING POINT 2: Peter, the only other
tenant, tries to deliver a message to Marsha about what Mable is
actually doing. He is killed for his troubles.

3RD ACT CLIMAX: Mable is one of the
killers in the house. She is also a devil worshiper. She wants the
devil to be her husband and her daughter’s father.

ENDING: She turns into a maniac, trying
to murder Marsha and give her soul to the devil. Marsha escapes and
kills her.

III ACT JOURNEY FOR PETER:

BEGINNING: Peter has no family, and
felt like Mable took him in when he had no one.

TURNING POINT: He meets Marsha.

MIDPOINT: He tells Marsha about his
life and how he was homeless and friendless before Mable. Mable
mothered him and gave him something to believe in. Marsha divulges in
her troubled past with her family being murdered and her being left
for dead.

TURNING POINT 2: He is flogged by
Mable. Marsha watches this from the window. Marsha helps him.

3RD ACT CLIMAX: Mable is incapacitated
so Marsha can figure out what is happening.

DILEMMA: Does he help Mable take over
the world or does he help Marsha keep the devil away?

ENDING: He sacrifices himself, getting
in the way of Mable’s attack and thereby allowing himself to die.

[Dan Evans]

Dan’s Character Depth!

What I learned doing this assignment is how much fun it can be just crafting character and playing with backstory! I also learned that personally, a lot of my ideas stem from what kinds of characters I want to write about, as opposed to the ideas themselves. In other words, I end up using the characters to comment on the themes, instead of using the story to do so.

I’ve basically wound up with something like this:

On the anniversary of her family’s murder, Marsha, a paraplegic medium, returns to the apartment building they died in.

Motivation: Contact her family and help them move on to the next life

Secret: She was able to pull a gun on the attacker. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize the murderer was holding her baby in his arms. When she fired on him, the bullet went through him and killed the child.

Hidden Agenda: She plans to commit suicide so she may join them

Wound: Trauma of the murder itself. She wasn’t always wheelchair bound. The person who killed her family did a number on her and left her for dead. Also, the psychological trauma of such an event.

Subtext: The guilt of killing her only child, even accidentally.

Dilemma: The ghost of the murderer also haunts the building, and wants to finish what it started with her.

Layers: Medium and exorcism is the family business. Her father was a medium/exorcist, as well. She worked for him, but this is her first attempt at an exorcism without him.

Also, her mother was unfortunately mentally unstable. There is familial trauma due to their relationship.

Secret Identity: Her mother was the murderer.