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The Nega-Anti-Alternate Me |
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Written by Jeffery Stevenson
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Wednesday, 18 May 2005 |
Comments from me for the scripts will be on hold for a few weeks (I'm recovering from surgery this week). It will just be a short article with my opinions and thoughts to ponder on the prior exercise subject and a new exercise until I get caught back up.
It's one of the classic nightmare scenarios. You're just going about your normal day when the chuckles start. Then the laughter. Then the staring at your naked-- Well, you get the idea. For most people, it would be an embarrassing situation, and people's reactions to you will feel amplified going through the embarrassment looking glass (although I imagine some strangers will just ignore it and pick up their pace to get away). But even though your character isn't like most people, there's probably a little bit of them that is.
So, what if your character reacts like many others... with embarrassment? How exactly will that manifest in them? Physically, they might blush and hide and stutter. But what happens to them mentally. Is there panic? Do the flight instincts take in as the character darts off? Maybe your character will lose it and get angry. They might attack the people around him or her by firing off verbal jabs or even resort to physical violence. Maybe they'll become despondent, curling up into a ball on the ground and chanting, "This isn't happening. This isn't happening. Why is this happening?"
Or maybe your character grew up in a different environment where nudity was nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe their emotions don't flow that way, and they really don't care. Their reactions would differ from the person lit up with embarrassment. They might go all nonchalant and continue what they're doing without even giving it a second thought. They might start joking around with the onlookers. Maybe they'd even flirt with some cute members of the opposite sex. They'll be more in control of their emotions when dealing with the situation.
But not only does the individualistic nature of your character impact their reactions, there's also other factors. The character's mental state at the time of the incident can play an important role. If they're depressed, already feeling a bit embarrassed about something else, or already mad, this type of incident could take those feelings to a new level. Or it could diffuse their original feelings and set them on an opposite emotional outburst. If someone's angry about having a bad day, and something like this happens, they could just break down. And if you think about it, the character's reactions could also differ based on the situation where the incident occurs. Losing your clothes on stage in front of thousands of people or in a room filled with people you see every day at work or school could ramp up the emotions a bit more than losing your clothes in front of some passing strangers.
As you think about how your character reacts to embarrassing situations, it helps develop more of their personality and lets you think about their background and history. It's an insight to how the character responds in the least ideal of situations.
You can see how the writers in the Dojo tackled the wishing exercise here.
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Exercise #5
Who could teach a character (and his or her writer) more about a character's core personality than his exact opposite? Thinking about whathttp://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=doppelganger would be the complete flip-side of your character will help you think about what's truly inside them in the first place.
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) meets up with a doppelganger with a completely opposite personality as them. Could be a character for an alternate universe. Could be a clone gone bad (oops, I said the "c" word). Could be the effect of some evil antagonist's shiny new Nega-being ray. You don't have to go into details on how the opposite came into being, but make sure you do show the interaction between your character and his or her opposite. Have fun!
Deadline: Wednesday, May 25th 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.
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