working for writing workshop course |
Practical Exercise #2: This practical exercise comes from Objective 6 "Drawing a Diagram" Use this format to diagram your initial concept of the story line. Post it in "Assignment Forum for Exploratory Writing" as a "bitem." Name the post: PE #2 and your name. Drawing a Diagram At this point, the complexity of developing a good story line really begins to expand. If a writer were to analyze it, he/she might chart the story line on a piece of paper. I will use the "Real Steel" screen play example to explain. {{u}size:4.5}1. Synopsis of Story: Yancy is a biracial man that brings himself in a world that both respects and regales him. People have respect him because of his occupation as a lawman. On the other hand, others reject him because he is of both Indian and white-man. After loosing his family, Yancy spends his childhood living with his Cherokee uncle Majag, his mother's brother. The story is about the trials and triumphs of Yancy as he uses his profession as a criminal pro filer to save lives, catch murders, and find his family's killers. 2. Sketch of Central Character: Yancy is a biracial Cherokee/white American. He grew up in Garrett Kentucky. His parents taught him about his heritage of both people that made up who he was. His father was George Lancer a white sheriff, and his mother was Cenoa, an Indian. She was given to George for saving her father's life. After his parents were killed, Yancy had to live with his Indian uncle. He grew into a criminal profile investigator. He spent his life finding serial killers, looking for those who murdered his parents, and caring for the son of a man Yancy had to kill in the line of duty. Yancy finally follows all the leads to find who killed his family. One of the killers have grown old dying in a nursing home, and the other lies in the Lexington Union Cemetery. Yancy learns to let go of the pain. 3. CC’s Wants Needs and Desires: Yancy wants to be the best pro filer keeping his emotions separate from his occupation. He doesn't want his past experiences to cloud his insight. Yancy has the needs to lift the guilt for killing a child's father in the line of duty. Sammy was six when his father ran from Yancy. The man was not but eighteen himself. He stopped scared, pulled out his gun, and Yancy had to take the shot. Yancy desires to be able to reunite with his brother who was separated from him after the fire. 4. Life Changing Event: There are four life changing events that I think of when I think of the direction of this story. However, I am not sure of the one that I will allow to make the most difference. 1. Yancy's parents murder and living with his uncle. 2. Killing Sammy's young father had to change his out look about his job, and how he saw the offenders. 3. Yancy finding out that the killers of his family was dying and dead is a major life changing event. 4. Yancy reuniting with his brother is another life changing event. I think that the first few chapters would be directed by 1 and 2. The conclusion chapters would be more directed by 3 and 4.At this point in the writing process, we begin to see the synergism between the components of a good story. It isn’t just one thing or an array of things but the synergism that is taking place between the parts. Using a diagrammatic technique such as shown above is a good way to see if the thread of the story has the components that will lead to success. |