Focus On Fiction Week 8: Exercises 1 & 2

:Exercise 1:

Step 1: Pick a high moment, turning point, or climax involving your protagonist. Where is it set?

The short story (chapter) I will be using is for this exercise is thus:

ID: 1519596   (Rated: 13+) BENEVOLENCE (Original Space)  Witness the birth of our Sol star System. Adjacent story to A Taste of Death & Mr. Dennys. by Curtis Lee Cancino

A high moment / turning point in this story is when the lead character, Bernese, meets the 12 Masters. The scene is located in a rain forest / jungle environment and is set next to a little pond ringed by cattails.

Step 2: Write a paragraph describing how this place makes your character feel, or how your protagonist feels about this place. Start writing now.

Bernese is in pure wonderment walking through the rain forest. She has never seen such a place before, because she was born and raised inside of the J10 hexadome on the planet Jupiter. Although her eyes sparkle with the lush green flora, Bernese is mindful of her surroundings as her two hosts lead her down a lightly hidden path that ends where the little pond is. She is nervous meeting them all because she has no clue who they are and why there are 12 of them. But the fresh air and the sound of a distant waterfall help her feel relaxed and alert.

Step 3: Move forward one week in time or backward one week in time. Return your protagonist to this place. Write a paragraph describing how it makes your character feel now. Start writing now.

Since Bernese could not be in that same spot one week before, when she returns there a week later, she doesn’t need a host to show the way through the forest, for one. And, for two, she no longer feels quite as antsy toward the 12 Masters anymore. The pond they meditate around is exactly the same, as it the entire rain forest as it is a digital construct. At this moment in time, a week later, Bernese knows this but still loves it all the same. As it is her unconscious place of peace and tranquility.

:Additional Paragraph:

There is only one place that reoccurs in BENEVOLENCE (Original Space), and that is a small triangular room. It is seen from the eyes of Bernese. She happens to visit this small triangular room twice, as it is a sort of elevator but not. The second time Bernese visits this room, she knew to move quickly out of the way of its opaque door or her hosts would elbow her out of the way again as they unexpectedly rush to exit.


:Exercise 2:

Step 1: What is your protagonist’s defining quality; that is, how would anyone describe your protagonist? What trait is most prominent in his or her personality? What kind of person is he or she?

The most defining quality of Bernese, I think, is that she is curious. There are numerous glimpses into her thoughts. She is a lone soul on a strange journey, but that doesn’t bother her too much. And even though the mission she set out on is interrupted, Bernese continues to wonder and be amazed at what she inadvertently becomes part of.

Step 2: Objectively speaking, what is the opposite of that quality?

The opposite of curious is not curious of course. A personality that does not wonder one bit about anything much and is probably more concerned with just doing something. Anything. Personally, I find it hard to think of what it would be like to not be curious about this or that or about life in general.

Step 3: Write a paragraph in which your protagonist actively demonstrates the opposite quality that you wrote down in step two. Start writing now (adding this paragraph to the ones already written in this exercise).

Bernese sat watching the holovision in her favorite hoverchair, grateful for the built-in toilet upgrade that came last month. She thought about getting plugged up into the ethernet so she could get some exercise but considered it too much work. A massive slabs of arm fat swung outward, if so subtle a movement can be called that, and beckoned forth her floatafrig. It hovered over to her jello arm and awaited her order. With a flick of her pinky, at least she thought is was her pinky, might of been her toe.... Either way, she flicked a phalange and the floatafrig exploded!