Good morning everyone and welcome to the task of the morning. Are you ready? As always, take a minute to look up your five sentences and see if there is any tweaking that needs to be done. We will wait.
Today everyone can hum along with Metallica’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Alright, everyone back? Excellent. Let’s begin. Yesterday we looked at the why of things. Something happened in point #3 to boot our main character out of their ordinary life of point #2. We looked at the reasons that happened and now we are going to look forward to our point #4. Now for some ideas this is going to be a natural continuation (for Bob, Bob got fired so Bob needs to look for a new job). It is almost cause and effect.
In others it is almost a piling on of events. Now it is, 3-Bob gets fired, and 4-Bob has to look for a new job. It could be, 3-Bob gets fired and 4-Bob gets a divorce (the divorce being another event to happen to him and not a result of the firing).
In our example I’ll break both out so you can see the difference, even though it isn’t much of a difference.
The key thing is that here, you have to remember what your fifth point is. That is where this is all leading. The new normal that will become your character’s life once this adventure or catastrophe is over. For Bob that #5 is: Before finally leaving it all behind to buy a boat and sail off into the sunset. So that is what we need to keep in mind as we move from point #3 to #4, we have to lead Bob to the boat and the sunset.
You can also think of this as your main character’s reaction (or the second punch in a one two hit) to point #3. They are hit with the whammy that point number three has for them. They are out of their comfortable spot (or maybe not so comfortable but at least familiar place in the world.) THINGS have happened and they have to deal with it. So what do they do before we get to this fourth point? Think of this as a sandwich cookie. Point #3 and Point #4 are the cookies and we need the filling.
Today’s Task is to find the filling between Points 3 and 4 in your five sentence break down. It is the reaction to the events of point three that either lead to #4 or it is what they are doing to deal with #3 when the wave of #4 hits.
Example
3-Bob gets fired.
4-He has to look for a new job.
1-Bob sends out an e-mail letting everyone (suppliers, employees, etc) know that Chuck is now going to be running things and that he is leaving. It is a nice, politely professional e-mail expressing how much he enjoyed working with all of them and so on. He is trying to leave in a professional way. He gathers up all of his things and hands over the office keys to Chuck.
2-Bob feels depressed about being told he was essentially worthless and that nothing he did for the company had any value. Sarah, his wife, tells him that he should have expected it since he wasn’t family and just doing the day to day ‘chores’ until her brother could properly take over.
3-Bob begins to get mad about how much work he put in and how everyone things he was just turning on the lights and refilling orders. He realizes how much effort he put in and how little anyone appreciated any of it.
4-Bob begins to feel optimistic. He no longer has to work for Sarah’s family and he can get a job doing what he loves and what he went to school for instead of working to keep them afloat. He also thinks that with the separation from the family company maybe he and Sarah can get back on track and save their marriage.
5-He actually thinks about the sort of position he would want. The type of job he should be looking for.
Alternatively our two points could be…
3-Bob gets fired.
4-Bob gets divorced.
1-Bob sends out an e-mail letting everyone (suppliers, employees, etc) know that Chuck is now going to be running things and that he is leaving. It is a nice e-mail expressing how much he enjoyed working with all of them and so on. He is trying to leave in a professional way. He gathers up all of his things and hands over the office keys to Chuck.
2-Bob feels depressed about being told he was essentially worthless and that nothing he did for the company had any value. Sarah, his wife, tells him that he should have expected it since he wasn’t family and just doing the day to day ‘chores’ until her brother could properly take over.
3-Bob begins to get mad about how much work he put in and how everyone things he was just turning on the lights and refilling orders. He realizes how much effort he put in and how little anyone appreciated any of it.
4-Sarah makes comments about how the company will really thrive under Chuck now that it is back in the family and as Bob is now in the angry stage, he snaps at her, they fight and his knowledge about her affair comes to light. Ugly things are said and Sarah storms out.
5-Bob realizes he not only no longer loves Sarah but he doesn’t even like her any more. While he was working to save her family business, she became someone he doesn’t want to spend any time with and he decides it is best to end things. So he gets the paperwork together and presents it to her.
With both examples we are still heading to the same point five where Bob gets on a boat and sails off into the sunset. It just alters things a bit. (which is why this week we took a few moments each morning to look over our sentences to make sure we were happy with our story line. Again i9t is still fluid so if you have a few options you would like to try, play with them until you get your five sentences for today’s task. Happy writing.
Ten til Midnight 