My latest short story "The Night the Lights Came On"

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Another First Manuscript Wordcount Update!


Changeling III Act Structure Breakdown

Changeling
3 Act Structure Breakdown
Directed by Clint Eastwood
with Angelina Jolie, Gattlin Griffith, Michelle Gunn

Plot:
A mother's prayer for her kidnapped son to return home is answered, though it doesn't take long for her to suspect the boy who comes back is not hers. *source: www.imdb.com

Act I
  • We meet Protagonist and Secondary Character (Mother & Child), a loving mother and her son, life is good.
  • Mom's job calls her in, she can't keep promise to go to movies with son on Saturday, first conflict
  • Secondary character is missing, the Protagonist must find her son. This is the great conflict of the film which pushes us into act II, the Protagonist is now in a world without her son. (Plot Point # 1)
Act II
  • Protagonist tries to find boy with help of police by calling them, they don't help (1st false victory, falling action)
  • Protagonist continues search unsuccessfully, conflict becomes more intense (rising action
  • Police call mom, tell her they’ve found boy (false hope/culmination)
  • Mom finds out the boy police found is not her son (2nd false victory, falling action, midpoint)
  • She fights to find truth, policeman sends her to mental hospital
  • She is freed, because the truth is found that it’s not her boy (1st victory, rising action, Plot Point # 2)
Act III
  • Protagonist has new goal to get justice for what has happened to her and others put in mental hospital
  • Ladies are freed from mental hospital (2nd victory, rising action)
  • Policeman gets fired, court case won, murderer sentences to be hung (3rd victory)
  • Murderer promises to tell Mom he killed boy, so she can move on, but he doesn’t (all is lost)
  • Murderer is hung
  • Truth found, boy wasn’t murdered but got away, protagonist has hope her boy is still alive (denouement)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Classic Tales & Contemporary Albums


The Alchemy Index: Vol. II Water by Thrice
&
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

You should listen to The Alchemy Index: Vol. II Water by Thrice while reading 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, they go very well together. It is like a perfect soundtrack to the novel. You could also read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson while listening to this album, as they share some themes, but 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the Thrice album have the same tone, and so go very well together. They have much of the same somber feeling. You can feel the quiet wonder of the unending sea, and the massive world that lies beneath it.