Comments from me for the scripts will be on hold for a few weeks (going in for surgery on Monday). Until I get caught back up, each week will just be a short article with my thoughts on subjects dealing with the prior exercise and the launching of a new exercise.
Wish fulfillment. Many people have sat around and mused over what they'd do if they were granted one wish. They think about how great life would be like if they were rich or super-powered or famous. But is that what they really want? Is that what will truly make them happy?
People often develop a certain duality to their lives. They have an outer appearance with a tendency to conform to the world or people around them and what is expected of them. It's a social self. The side of a person that builds up a facade to fit in and keeps plugging away at that crappy job to work their way up the corporate ladder... keeps striving to accomplish what it thinks everyone else expects. Then, there's the inner self. It's almost another person built of subconscious thoughts and desires. A person that knows exactly what it loves. It has a grasp on what makes those happy chemicals go off inside a person. Most of the time, it can be found living underneath that social shell.
Unless the two sides line up exactly, there's opportunity for contradiction and conflict. Maybe it's just a skirmish or maybe it's a war. Maybe one side surrenders to the other, or maybe the two sides sign a truce. The balance between these two sides can play into a character's personality. Are they really after their dream or are they trying out all these other people's dreams hoping to be as happy as those others? Will they follow their dreams with everything they have, or will they look to others to determine how much to put into the pursuit of their dream? Do they react quickly to their initial feelings on a matter or do they ponder the ramifications to their status in the world around them before making a decision?
When a character gets a chance to turn a dream into reality, which self gets the call? The side that really knows what it wants or the side that knows what everyone else wants. When you built your character, did you consider their options? This kind of dual nature can help lead the way to all kinds of fun character options like inner turmoil and searching for one's true self. Take a closer look at your character and think about what they want. What they want to advance their lot and standing in society and what they really want. If they don't have any such inner conflict, play around with it and see if it can help add some extra depth to your character.
You can see how the writers in the Dojo tackled the wishing exercise here.
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Exercise #5
Fancy clothes, cool costumes, or hi-tech battle armor. The clothes could be protective in nature... to hide your character's identity or keep her or him safe from harm. The clothes could just be a fashion statement. They could be all the character has left in the world. But what would happen to your character if he or she lost that extra layer between them and the world?
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) winds up in public... naked. How did they lose their clothes? Be creative. How do they react? Well, that's up to you to explore your character and see how they'd feel about romping around in the nude for the world to see. Have fun!
Deadline: Friday, May 20th 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 doesn't like medical procedures 'cause they nauseate him. He was good friends with the Health class hall pass back in his schoolin' days. So, he decided not to pursue medical school and become a computer programmer. Oh, and he also writes. He scribbles some scripts (and lays down the word balloons) on some weekly mythology webcomic. And he works on this movie monster reality-spoofing one, too. I think he also does some weekly humor column bit. Check his member page here at Scryptic for more details.
