Friday, November 24, 2017

November 2017 Writing Challenge - #24 - Bad Tweet. Pluck Out Your Eyes.

The inciting incident? 

A tweet that was written years ago now has surfaced and is destroying your character.

They don’t remember doing it… or… it’s out of context… just bad humor… or something more “of its time”. It doesn’t matter.

Bring them down.
Take things away from them.
Take everything away from them.
It’s a horror if you do that.

If the character realizes that this punishment is justice. 
Let them pluck out their eyes.
Then it’s a tragedy. 

Sometimes I think about this difference in modern contexts as people view different events differently. The way we treat past sins and whether or not we are “married” to those sins today.

Or… write a circular structure play where the beginning is the end is the beginning. Nothing changes.

HOWEVER, there is still an inciting incident and dramatic arc! You just end up with exactly the same stasis as before AND the same inciting incident again- built in to reoccur forever and ever.

**********

I'll save the mean tweets for later; for now -
Mixing the antidote...

**********

SARAH is joined by JEFFREY and, unexpectedly, DUNCAN

                          SARAH
Oh, you brought company.

                          JEFFREY
This is Duncan, from the Wiccan supply store.

                          SARAH
I'd say "nice to meet you" but -

                          DUNCAN
I also wish this were under better circumstances.

                          SARAH
Still, this situation is already working out pretty well for you.

                          JEFFREY
Well -

                          SARAH
This is the guy, right?

                          JEFFREY
Yes, this is the guy.

                          SARAH
Because you made that sound like -

                          DUNCAN
I'm not any happier with the lapse in ethics than you are.

                          SARAH
So you have a vested interest in seeing this antidote works right the first time, too.

                          DUNCAN
I feel slightly responsible.

                          SARAH
Well, you are.

                          DUNCAN
I had no idea what he was going to do.

                          SARAH
Are the ingredients he purchased common to a whole lot of other spells?

                          DUNCAN
Actually, yes.
You never know where someone is in terms of the ingredients they already have on hand, the level they're working at, their experience.
Believe me, if he'd flat out said at the counter, "I'm making a love potion," he would have gotten the lecture.

                          SARAH
So there is a lecture?

                          JEFFREY
Oh, there's a lecture, and believe me, I got it.

                          SARAH
A little later than we'd all hoped but -

                          JEFFREY
Since he, and you, are the experts, I figured it couldn't hurt to have two extra sets of invested eyes on the process.

                          DUNCAN
And we're at your place because - ?

                          SARAH
I have committed space for these kinds of things.  He threw the original together in his garage.

                          DUNCAN
We'll get this right.
We'll make this right.

                          SARAH
It is nice to meet you, Duncan.

                          DUNCAN
And I am sorry, Sarah.

                          JEFFREY
Like you said, we'll make it right.

                          SARAH
Let's mix in the last ingredient, shall we?



(to be continued)



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