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A Shakespearian actor becomes unable to tell reality from a play. When his character Mercutio dies he wanders through what he believes is the afterlife distressing his family and friends. Title : A grave man
Maybe an example will help. Chances are you're familiar with Star Wars: A New Hope. Looking at that film we can see that the Inciting incident: Luke's aunt and uncle are killed, which causes him to set his Goal: To help fight the tyranny of?the Empire and he does this by... Action: Learning to use tRead more
Maybe an example will help. Chances are you’re familiar with Star Wars: A New Hope.
Looking at that film we can see that the
Inciting incident: Luke’s aunt and uncle are killed,
which causes him to set his
Goal: To help fight the tyranny of?the Empire
and he does this by…
Action: Learning to use the Force and then joining the Rebellion.
Now, looking at yours.
“A Shakespearian actor becomes unable to tell reality from a play. When his character Mercutio dies he wanders through what he believes is the afterlife distressing his family and friends. ”
What you describe here is basically only the inciting incident. An actor who is unable to tell reality from fiction thinks he dies because his character dies.
Now, since he thinks he’s dead, what does he want to do? Normally the answer would be something like, ‘escape from his false world’ but he wholly believes that he’s in the afterlife. What does he wish to do in the afterlife(or what does he think Mercutio wishes to do?) And how does he achieve this?
You may want to consider creating distance from this character, by using one of the friends or family members to be the one with the objective goal to help him. ?Or figure out something the actor must do.
Actually, this idea faintly reminds me of Edge of Tomorrow, or Groundhog Day, I suppose. In ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, Tom Cruise’s character is stuck in a war with aliens, reliving the same day over and over because of some time travel power. Your story is a bit more difficult because he seems to still be interacting physically with the real world, but he’s mentally inside the afterlife.
See lessAn unemployed mother works hard to get an honorable job as a zookeeper, but then finds herself at the center of an ethical conflict between a zoo and an unorthodox shelter for wildlife.
"An unemployed mother works hard to get an honorable job as a zookeeper, but then finds herself at the center of an ethical conflict between a zoo and an unorthodox shelter for wildlife." The inciting incident of the story seems to be what happens that puts herself in the center of an ethical confliRead more
“An unemployed mother works hard to get an honorable job as a zookeeper, but then finds herself at the center of an ethical conflict between a zoo and an unorthodox shelter for wildlife.”
The inciting incident of the story seems to be what happens that puts herself in the center of an ethical conflict. What is it? Does she witness an animal being killed? While I’m sure the effort to get the job is a part of the script, at the beginning, it is not the main plot of the story.
As a result of whatever happens that thrusts her into the plot, what does she decide to do? Get the person authorizing this fired?
After she sets her goal, what does she do to achieve it? Get proof that animals are being mistreated and present it to the person’s boss?
What is the mother like? She was unemployed, but during the story she is employed so it’s not a useful description. Is she anxious, depressed? A veteran? Former cop? Bipolar? What is she like?
If you haven’t already, check out the Formula tab at the top of the page, it may help.
See lessI hope this helps.
When her father is assassinated, a sheltered princess searches the land to learn magical arts from her exiled mother to take revenge and save her people
"What makes the usurper so potent, so sinister she must resort to such extreme measures as sorcery?" This is a great point that I hadn't thought?about. What exactly makes her the one who needs to be the protagonist? If this assassin is so bad, why wouldn't there be an uprising to take back their kinRead more
“What makes the usurper so potent, so sinister she must resort to such extreme measures as sorcery?”
This is a great point that I hadn’t thought?about. What exactly makes her the one who needs to be the protagonist? If this assassin is so bad, why wouldn’t there be an uprising to take back their kingdom? The protagonist’s little journey to go learn magic and then come back, would be useless if the people have already turned against the new ruler. Sure, if it’s a powerful sorcerer(something we’ve seen all too often…just saying) then he/she won’t have a problem keeping the power through fear.
Personally I think it would be much more interesting for this antagonist to be truly not evil at all. He/she genuinely wants to better the kingdom, free them from what they see as a bad reign. You could introduce the question as the princess is on her quest: Is she wrong? Is the assassin truly making the place better? As she travels she sees people completely happy,
I think that could be a much more interesting angle. I mean, sure, girl’s father dies, she learns magic and something about herself and then she overthrows the bad guy and blah blah blah. We’ve seen it a dozen times before. At least with a male protagonist, but anyway, what is she truly fighting for? Because if it’s for herself, for revenge, and she’s wrong, that could end up a great character arc and an interesting antagonist who isn’t just evil for being evil. That’s not to say that the assassin is completely great, maybe the protagonist is actually right, and manages to prove it, or something.
That’s just my opinion as someone who watches/reads a lot of fantasy and I’ve seen quite a lot of the same plot over and over again.
See lessI hope this helps.