Conflict exercise: This time, it's personal.

Today I did some searches on creative writing, and the more I read, the more I see where exactly to fix up my script.  Here's an exercise I did, and if you want to do it too, the link is here.

Inner conflict: Bob vs. himself

• Bob wants to be a sailor, but he's claustrophobic and doesn't think he can ever really live on a ship.
• Bob wants very much to try dog meat, because his life's passion is cooking and sharing different kinds of foods, but he doesn't think that anyone would eat it with him.
• Bob fantasizes about getting out of his mother's basement, but he doesn't know how to operate in the outside world, and most days he finds himself more comfortable as his avatar in an online game.
• Bob desperately wants to save his marriage, but he's having an affair and doesn't know how to end it without hurting the mistress.
• Bob wants to be a secret agent, but he is terrible at lying and always spills the beans under pressure-- a little bit too many beans.

Interpersonal Conflict: Bob vs. others

Bob wants to be a secret agent.  He has applied for a job at interpol and did very well at his interview. The job is in another state.

• Bob's girlfriend is afraid she will never see him again.  She likes living in Vanillaville and wants him to like it, too.  Forever.  She will try to tie him down with marriage, then buy a house with his name on it.
• Bob's current boss doesn't want to have to find a replacement once Bob leaves.  Bob is currently in management, and is a good, hard worker.  He'll offer Bob a pay raise and benefits, plus give Bob a bad reference behind his back.
• Max, another man vieing for the job, wants the slot at interpol.  Max has also dreamed of becoming a secret agent, and these jobs are very competitive.  He'll lie to make himself look better, and spy on Bob to find any kind of dirt he can.
• Bob's father is afraid he'll lose the only family he has left.  His wife and daughter died in a terrorist attack while he was out fishing with Bob.  He gets drunk one night and cries, telling Bob about how lonely he's been since mom left, and how he wouldn't know how to live with himself if his boy turned up dead in Mali.
• The director at MI6 met Bob on a tour of the building, and doesn't like him.  He's never been able to trust gingers ever since his wife left him for her ginger lesbian lover.  He'll pull some strings to get Bob's screening turned down.

External Conflict: Bob vs. the World

The British Embassy has been blown up, claiming hundreds of innocent victims.  An anonymous threat says that Vanillaville (Bob's hometown) and its Vanilla inhabitants, the Vanillites, are the next target.  Bob, a fresh recruit at secret agent school, has information on Vanillaville that could turn the conflict around for the Forces of Good.  With the help of his classmate Ricky, an Army veteran with a speech impediment, they must find a way to get this information to the Director before it is too late.  The school, however, is riddled with double agents, spies, and dirty agents, who will stop at nothing to capture Bob.  If they do, they will torture him until he gives them the information, then make him watch as his city, family, and friends all burn.

Antagonists- The Puppetmaster, Re-evaluated.

Hi there.  I know many (read: 2 or 3) of my friends ask me about my progress on the old novel.  No, I don't really have any new pictures.  In fact, I'd taken a break from writing Capeless.

"But Bagels, how can you do that? Capeless is your labor of love!"

The reason I keep taking breaks, re-writing, and editing the crap out of Capeless before I've even finished the entire first draft is, simply put, I have no idea what I'm doing.  Every time I work on the story, I find myself asking, "so what?" and "why would anyone read this?"

Let me tell you a tale.

I watched Les Miserables last week with my beautiful wife, and it's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, and a fantastic work of fiction.  I'm reading the book when I finish Hunger Games.  I realized I don't have a meaty antagonist.  Upon a quick google search, I found Kristen Lamb's Blog entry on the antagonist, how to make one, and what they really provide a story.  Fantastic read, and I recommend it to anyone who likes fiction (and tearing it apart like we do here at home).
Kristen Lamb and Victor Hugo finally forced me to answer the questions:

"What does Ruth (my protagonist) want?  What does the Puppetmaster (my villain) want?"

After I sat and pondered, and some talking with the wife, I realized that what all Ruth has ever needed, and what she has at the end of the story, is a sense of control and actualization, of impact on the world.  At the beginning of Capeless, we meet Ruth as a whining girl who simply reacts to the world, being its victim.  At the end, Ruth has become a woman with power, though she possesses no superpowers.  At the end, Ruth realizes that people aren't always powerless, controlled by their environment.  Sometimes, all anyone needs to do is step up and take control, and create action, to change their world.

Now on to the Puppetmaster, who I actually probably have to develop more than I've developed Ruth.  I need to make a powerful villain, or I'll keep asking, "so what?"  I think PM needs desperately to control, to sate his lust for power.  But why?  Why does he need to conquer?  What is missing (apart from Christ, but as he's a necromancer who makes a pact with a devil, so that part is obvious) in his life that causes this desire?  What in his childhood inspired this need in his adulthood?  Why isn't being CEO of a media conglomerate enough for him?  What does the demon get in return?   For that matter, what would really happen if he succeeds?

I realize I didn't answer those questions because I was afraid to think too hard.  Isn't that stupid?  Sometimes I'll think hard for days on how one single panel will look, and I can't even answer the really important questions.

So I should mention that Karen's blog also inspired me to start blogging again, and really start getting my creative juices flowing.  Shameless plug.

Until next time,

Bagels