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Scryptic Dojo: Just One Wish |
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Written by Jeffery Stevenson
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Thursday, 28 April 2005 |
Sorry for the delay this week. Lots of stuff I need to get done by the end of the month, so I'll add the comments for the stories to the article when I get them finished.
Anger, at its most primitive level, is a survival trait. A lot of survival instinct boils down to "fight or flight." Fear increases the heart rate, raises the adrenaline levels, and primes the body for flight. Anger increases the heart rate, raises the adrenaline levels, and primes the body to fight.
Many times, these emotions will surface when there's a threat to deal with. A threat to an individual's control of their environment... their status quo... their life. In a life-or-death situation, the person might be overwhelmed as they lose control over their own mortality. In the office, someone might be threatened when they lose control over the fate of their career. Fear and flight deal with this loss of control by retreating. Flee the source of the problem, regroup, and come back to face it later or avoid it completely. Anger and fight deal with the loss of control more aggressively. Confront the source of the problem head-on, assert your dominance, and take it by the throat to regain control.
When someone becomes enraged, many people generally attribute the cause to a single trigger, but there's usually more to it. Little frustrations and annoyances over a period of time can build up if not dealt with or expressed. The body slowly readies itself to lash out and defend itself, but it never gets the chance. Emotions rise and fall until the person can no longer take it. You can use this to your advantage in writing anger by showing the seemingly mundane events that form the foundation to the rage. These events can help build empathy with the character and pull the reader into their rage.
Another aspect of anger to consider is the underlying goal to the rage. Deep down, why is the character lashing out? Instinctively, the mind will lash out at a source of a frustration/annoyance or make a play to re-establish control of the situation or environment. Sure, anger forces people into an irrational state, but the instincts for survival and regaining control still point that anger in the direction of what it thinks can rectify the problem. Keep that in mind when you tackle bouts of anger in your characters. Play it up and use it to help fully engage the audience.
You can see how the writers in the Dojo tackled last week's anger exercise here.
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Exercise #4
Ever wish something could be different in your life? Tons of money? Superpowers? Break into the comics industry? Wishes can help a writer explore a character's personality and find out what they value... what's important to them.
In four pages or less, your character (if you didn't create one for the first exercise, make up one to play around with for these exercises) is granted one and only one wish. You could write about their struggle figuring out what to wish for, or you could just jump into the wish and see what happens. Give the character what they want and have some fun.
Deadline (for article): Sunday, May 1st at 6pm (central)
Deadline (normal): Wednesday, May 4th at Noon (central)
Please post your questions, comments, and entries in the appropriate threads in the Scryptic Dojo forum.
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Jeffery Stevenson is one of the Scryptic Studios co-founders. He's sometimes considered a research-aholic, but he just looks at it as "exploring all his options." He knows better than to drink crushed No-doze dissolved in coffe, enjoys singing badly (for comedic effect), and was once really successful with a spotter in mobility drills. He also writes (and letters) some weekly Asgardian webcomic. Oh, and this spooky reality-spoofing one too. I think he also does some weekly humor column bit. Check his member page here at Scryptic for more details.
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