[Darrell Smith]

What I Learned: This is a terrific exercise to add depth to my protagonist, especially in ways I hadn’t thought of.

MAYA

What draws us to this character? Her exuberance about being a Sojourner, her vitality, but also her newness. She knows about as much about Sojourning as the audience does. We’ll learn through her.

Traits: Impulsive, exuberant, guilt-ridden, brave, confident, dishonest about certain things.

Subtext: Asks questions about the subjects of their missions, but is really asking about her family she left behind and how she can secretly contact them.

Flaws: Hides her crime, which could affect her Sojourner status later. Also secretly misses her family, which leaves her conflicted about staying a Sojourner.

Values: Living an exciting life, staying free from punishment. Later becomes helping others.

Irony: Though her mission as a Sojourner is to help fix others’ lives, her life needs major fixing.

What makes this the right character for the role? She’s the only one who can catch Chemkyr because he’s attracted to her, contacts her, and lets his guard down with her only.

[Darrell Smith]

What I Learned: There’s an
interesting relationship between my three main characters that I
didn’t know before.

Protagonist Role: Maya –
Runner/Hero

Antagonist #1 Role: Neekai –
Change Agent

Antagonist #2 Role: Chemkyr –
Villain

Supporting Characters: Maya’s
parents and older sister, victim of Maya’s crime, boyfriend Maya was
trying to protect.

Minor Roles: Characters in
anthology episodes who may or may not appear again later.

Genre: Fantasy (subset of
Sci-Fi)

Maya’s Character Profile

Role in the Story: Teen girl who leaves
her life on Earth to become an Apprentice Sojourner.

Age Range and Description:
Asian-American, female, 17-18, acts free and loose and even flippant.

Internal Journey: From dissatisfied,
guilt-ridden, mildly suicidal, and resentful of her family to more
content, remorseful, appreciative of her family.

External Journey: From a teen girl to a
space- and time-hopping Sojourner (and maybe back again)

Motivation: Advance from Apprentice to
Mentor Sojourner.

Wound: Falling out with her sister, not
getting along with parents, her boyfriend dumping her.

Mission/Agenda: Leave her old life and
embark on the exciting new life of Sojourning.

Secret: She committed a serious crime
that no one knows about for what she thought was a good reason.

What Makes Them Special:

Neekai’s Character Profile

Role in the Story: Mentor Sojourner to
Maya.

Age Range and Description: Female, 40s,
always with a guarded, defensive demeanor.

Internal Journey: From grief-stricken,
controlling to somewhat comforted, more laid back, more content.

External Journey: From mentoring Maya
to a True Sojourner.

Motivation: To excel as a Mentor and
advance to the next level.

Wound: She lost her daughter to war on
her home planet.

Mission/Agenda: Extinguish the pain of
losing her daughter by mentoring Maya and progressing as a Sojourner.

Secret: Losing her daughter, viewing
Maya as a surrogate daughter. Also failed with Chemkyr’s family.

What Makes Them Special:

Chemkyr’s Character Profile

Role in the Story: Vengeful rogue
Sojourner illegally using his powers to hurt people.

Age Range and Description: Male, 20s.

Internal Journey: From vengeful and
angry to penitent to reformed and wanting to make things right.

External Journey: From disgraced
Apprentice to human (his punishment).

Motivation: Get revenge on Sojourners.
Later focuses his efforts on Neekai when he finds out she’s
responsible for his family’s downfall.

Wound: As an Apprentice, Neekai broke
the rules and botched a situation that ended in tragedy for Chemkyr’s
family.

Mission/Agenda: Wreck as many lives as
possible and keep from getting caught by Sojourner police.

Secret: His family’s disaster.

What Makes Them Special: Gains power to
turn Sojourners into mortals.

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[Darrell Smith]

LESSON 1: THE TRANSFORMATIONAL
JOURNEY

What I Learned: There’s much
more to Maya than I initially thought. Because of her choice to
become a Sojourner, much of her personality changed as I focused more
on her character rather than the plot.

MAYA

Internal Journey: From
dissatisfied, guilt-ridden, mildly suicidal, and resentful of her
family to more content, remorseful, appreciative of her family.

External Journey: From a teen
girl to a space- and time-hopping Sojourner (and maybe back again)

Old Ways:

Ignorant and dismissive of any
higher power

Dissatisfied and bored with her
ordinary, provincial life

Willing to stand up for those who
can’t stand up for themselves

Fierce sibling rivalry with her
older sister

Sick of her parents’ rules,
meddling, autocratic domination, etc.

Inadvertently commits a crime and
hurts someone trying to get revenge for a friend, is afraid she’ll
be caught, feels guilt for her action

Wants out of her life,
contemplates suicide, jumps at chance to be Sojourner

New Ways:

Aware of higher power, embraces it

Finds joy and surprise in ordinary
life, still doesn’t love the everyday banalities

Selfless and self-aware, still
wiling to stand up for others

Realizes how much her sister loves
her and how much she’s learned from her

Realizes the depth of her parents’
love and her own love for her family, misses them

Desires to make things right and
pay the price for her crime

Has been conflicted between
continuing as a Sojourner and returning to her human life

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[Darrell Smith]

Hi everybody, my name is Darrell Smith, and I’m excited to join all of you in this class!

I’ve written two TV pilots, a dozen short scripts, and four feature scripts (three of them a long time ago that are best forgotten).

The main thing I’d like to gain from this class is the ability to write well much faster than I do.

I guess something unique about me is that I lived for two years in Hong Kong and learned (as best I could) to speak Cantonese and also Cantonese Sign Language.

[Darrell Smith]

I, Darrell Smith, agree to the terms of this release form:

GROUP RELEASE FORM FOR “THE 30 DAY SCREENPLAY”

As a member of this group, I agree to the following:

1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, communications, lessons, and models of the 30 Day Screenplay confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, communications, lessons, and models of the 30 Day Screenplay available to anyone who is not a member of this class.

2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.

I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.

3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.

4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.

5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.

6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.

This completes the Group Release Form for The 30 Day Screenplay class.
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