I am sure those of you following along and working on this writing challenge know what Task we are looking at today. Yesterday we added our emotional notes to Act one. And so today with Task #29 we are adding the emotional notes to Act 2.
I know, you are completely shocked.
Before you start remember to briefly look over your three point emotional arc for your characters and run your eye down the work you did yesterday for Task #28.
Act 2 is kind of the big hunka chunka of the plot so in the interest of keeping our Bob example from being too much of a behemoth I am not going to copy Act one out for the example I am just going to put a few notes to remember before showing the Bob example below.
When we left Bob at the end of Act 1 He was worried that if he left Henry would dismantle everything he did to get the company back out of the brink of bankruptcy and then Bob would be called back to fix it again or be blamed for the failure. He was also hopeful that he can find someone else within the family to reign in Henry’s impulses and thus let him escape with no damage.
If you remember our emotional Arc, we are starting Act 2 Hopeful and slowly Bob is going to run the gamut of emotions as we put him through the ringer. I think in this set up we have everything from feeling used and underappreciated to anger and betrayal. So with that in mind let’s jump into our Act 2 Example with Bob. (remember these notations can be as short or as long as you want. They are reminders for you so put what you need. Just resist the urge to put too much as you don’t want to get bogged down. You just need enough to know what you were thinking.)
Act 2 emotions for each point
Bob: Act 2: Complications
7:Bob makes a list of the family working for the company looking at strengths and weaknesses so he can see who to pass which jobs to. (Hopeful)
- Bob knows only family will do because no matter how competent they are Henry will always treat family as better regardless of the reality. (determined and hopeful he can find family to carry the role, annoyed he has to)
- Bob makes his list and adds strengths and weaknesses of each to his list. (determined)
- Bob ranks all of the family in order to figure out who will actually be the most stable. (becoming disheartened, worried)
8:Obstacle #1: He finds out that most of the family wants to be seen to be in charge without actually doing the work.(annoyed, dismayed)
- When ranking the family he finds that henry wants Chuck in charge regardless, which will be a disaster. (worried)
- Henry has a hierarchy but he also realizes that the rest of the family doesn’t agree with it and has their own ideas about who should be in charge. (irritated at the behavior as it hurts them all)
- They all want to be king of the hill and have all the others reporting to them. (irritation)
- The general management system for the family is to order someone to do something without figuring out the details of how it should be done. (annoyance)
9:Plan to deal with Obstacle #1: Bob figures if he has the system set up so that the underlings take care of things and the ‘in charge’ family only has to sign off so they look like they are the one with authority it would work best so he decides to shift the systems, protocols and checklists so it is ‘foolproof’ and easy to manage. (determined, sneaky)
- Knowing that the family is not detail oriented, he sets up internal systems and protocols for the people actually doing the work to follow in the hopes it will keep everyone on course. (determined, becoming more eager to escape and realizing that it might just be a house of cards he needs to get out of before it crashes down, but still determined to do his best))
- Bob also starts splitting up management responsibilities so that everyone in the family has something “Important’ they can be in charge of thinking that if he gives hem each their own kingdom they might not try to rule the empire. (pleased with himself over the plan ‘separate kingdoms to rule’)
- Bob figures out a way to make it look like Chuck is running the whole thing in order to make Henry Happy even though Chuck is the worst of the lot. (Entitled and believes he should be in charge despite having none of the skills required) (pleased)
10:Obstacle 2: Bob finds out one (or more) of the family is embezzling. (annoyed, angry, exhausted)
- Bob sets up his systems and notices some discrepancies in the ordering system. In some cases Orders were put in, marked as delivered and paid for but the companies supplying items are unfamiliar and the inventory doesn’t line up. (worried, concerned)
- Bob delves into the orders and finds the companies don’t exist and it is just a way to move money. (upset with rising concern)
- He checks the details of the other systems and realize there are missing funds and other thefts making it more than one person involved. (extra worried, annoyed and starting to get angry as he sees the family names)
11:Plan for dealing with Obstacle 2:Bob puts in a system of checks and balances closing up the avenue for theft and will be telling FiL about it so he can decide how he wants to handle the theft now that it has been stopped. (tired and nervous but determined)
- Bob sets up a check system so only the recognized vendors are approved and all others are flagged. They have to be sent up for approval. At the moment, Bob is the one who has to give approval but he will need to figure out a longer term solution. (determined, worried, annoyed)
- Bob sets up an audit of the system to make certain the accounting based thefts are all tagged. (relieved)
- Bob sets up an inventory of the warehouses and a checklist system so that items don’t walk off. (worried, determined)
12:Midpoint (twist): Bob discovers that if his FiL fires him than according to the contract he signed there is a hefty severance package coming his way that his FiL does not want him to have and is therefore trying to make him quit instead of firing him. (Angry, used, dismissed)
- Bob overhears a conversation where Henry is talking to someone about ways to make Bob quit because of the clauses. (hurt, disheartened, angry)
- Bob hears grumbles about the new systems mostly from those who were using them to steal and how they know he will soon be out and things can go back to the way they were. (irritated and angry, with a trave of feeling stupid as it is almost an inevitable reaction from entitled theft)
- Bob checks the contract he signed when he started and realizes that if Henry fires him there are compensations that Henry doesn’t want to give him which is why he wants Bob to quit. (clarity)
13:Dealing with the Midpoint: Bob realizes that his work will never be valued and that while he will reassign duties he will make his FiL fire him. (angry and determined, maybe slightly vindictive)
- Overhead conversations make him realize he gets the blame for unpopular systems but no credit for bringing them back from the edge of bankruptcy and never will. (clarity and understanding of exactly how he is viewed)
- Bob locks away emotions and starts reassigning duties. (determined to get out)
- Bob decides that he will make sure Henry has to fire him. Since he doesn’t value the work then he will pay the recompense and Bob will consider them even. (determined and angry)
14:Obstacle 3:Bob finds out his wife is having an affair with George. (Sad, used, stupid, dismayed, angry)
- Bob spots his wife at lunch with George and realizes it looks a little too intimate. (dismayed but less heart broken and more angry this is going on while he is trying so hard to help her family)
- He overhears part of a conversation that confirms his suspicions. (anger, betrayal)
- To round it out he goes looking through their credit card receipts and finds hotel room bills. (clarity again with anger fading into tiredness)
15:Plan for Obstacle 3: Bob confronts his wife about the affair and they decide to separate. (angry, relieved)
- Bob waits for Sarah and before she can leave with her friends he asks her point blank about the affair. She admits it. They fight and she tells him she wants a divorce before storming out. (angry and somewhat relieved)
- Bob realizes she doesn’t love him anymore and he realizes he no longer loves her. (clarity)
- Bob calls his lawyer and gets the paperwork for the divorce into motion. He also begins inventorying all their assets and splitting them out on paper. (determined)
16:Obstacle 4: FiL goes in with the help of Chuck and removes the systems Bob put in place to keep them stable and the pilfering down. (annoyed)
- Bob goes into the office and realizes several of his systems have been deleted. (annoyance and irritation)
- Henry brags about them no longer being needed. He checked with Chuck and Chuck agreed. (irritation)
- Henry has new sheets pinned to his cork board and plans to run the company as he once did. (irritated with a level of inevitability throw in and a dose of clarity, they will never change and expecting them to is pointless)
17: Plan/deal with Obstacle #4: Bob decides that as he is getting divorced then it is no longer his concern and he doesn’t fight them removing the system. He will be leaving anyway so let them go down the tubes. (relaxed, free or almost so)
- Realizing that as he is getting divorced this is no longer his problem, Bob doesn’t complain. He just tells Henry that as long as he wants to sign off on things, he is good with it. (letting go of his irritation, realizing this is no longer his concern)
- He also tells Henry that with the systems removed he will have to figure out how to deal with the thefts. He gives Henry a list of what he found (he has a back up copy.)(relieved to pass on the information, with slight petty joy at calling out those who don’t value him)
- Bob starts transferring systems out and makes Henry and Chuck deal with the irate calls that come in. (petty but pleased)
18: Crisis: FiL decides that Bob is the one who is embezzling funds from the company. (Upset, panicked)
- The take over isn’t going as Henry has planned and he is now dealing with a mess, but refuses to back down from his stance. (Bob feels slightly vindicated while Henry is getting increasingly angry and frustrated. Henry feels as though Bob outsmarted him somehow and he can’t stand that so obviously it must be Bob’s fault)
- Chuck yells at people wondering why things are no longer running smoothly. (Bob again feels vindicated but his concerns are elsewhere as he is mentally checking out of the company)
- People start to quit and contracts become muddled. (relieved those he worked with can find new places as they were good people and he didn’t want them to go down with the family)
- Henry is irritated and decides he needs a scape goat so he blames Bob for the embezzlement. (shocked given the amount of paperwork he shared as evidence)
And there we have our example. This far we are moving along with our planned emotional arc (it is an example so I doubt very much will change) but it is nice to see it coming together. And there we have our Task for the day. As always mine will be posted shortly and I will see everyone back her to morrow where as a surprise we will be looking at Act 3. Practice your shocked faces tonight. Have a great day.
Ten til Midnight 