>>> Item number 35665 from WRITERS LOG9408C --- (60 records) ----- <<< Date: Sun, 21 Aug 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: EXERCISE: Basic Needs...Lost! (some of you are going to think you've seen this before. patience...there's a twist!) 1. Pick a character. Any character! 2. Pick two of the following types of needs: physical--food, shelter, water, etc. safety/security--marriage, wealth, etc. love/belonging--relationships, family esteem--honor, rank, fame, etc. self-control--decision, challenge, etc. understanding--closure, patterning, truth, etc. artistic--balance, symmetry self-actualization--?? 3. Refine these for your character. S/he needs challenges, growth in self, but also needs the safety and security of marriage. Perhaps the challenge lies in wilderness survival, perhaps in picking a color for the curtains, or wherever you like. The marriage? Is it the boy next door or a strange prince from another dimension? Up to you! What do these needs mean for you and your character? 4. Define how these needs are already being met for your character. They are married? To who? They have rank? How much? In what organization? 5. List (oh, no, not another list? yes!) at least five ways that these two needs might be threatened, lost, or damaged. Probably should list five ways each need could run into difficulties. 6. List some of the actions your character might take trying to restore the lost condition. Consider the difficulties they could run into trying to find the missing family, beg for money, or whatever. Make the conflicts realistic and difficult... 7. Now arrange two or three of these conflicts in order of increasing difficulty and stress. Consider how resolving one, even partially, could lead into the next. 8. Write up the scenes and disasters as your character struggles with their losses. Can they live without it? Or do they give up on something else for this need? In chasing the lost one, do they lose others? They want something? Make them struggle to get it. They have something? Take it away from them! [BONUS: Satisfying a need may lead to trouble with other needs/desires. That way lies realization and more problems for your characters...keep those rascals in hot water!] Writers are nasty to their characters... tink