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The Craft: Sequence 4, The Promise of the Premise, with Max Timm

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  • Max Timm
  • . March 24, 2016
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Proving the promise of your premise - fun and games - trials and tests:

Imagine that I'm planning a trip. I'm headed to a place like London, or Paris, or Edinburgh (all places that I would love to visit, by the way). I select the dates, I pack accordingly, I have a hotel reserved, the flight is taken care of. The usual stuff we do when planning a trip. Any of those three places, for me anyway, hold some semblance of familiarity for me. The English language is prevalent in each of those cities, though I would happily try and remember what I learned in my high school French class when going to Paris. All three cities are culturally similar in most ways to what I'm used to here in the US, and I basically know what to expect before visiting.

Now imagine that I'm sitting quietly in my living room, maybe watching an episode of House of Cards and hating Frank Underwood more and more every minute, and suddenly my front door bursts open, three men wearing black suits and sunglasses grab me, put a bag over my head, force me into their car, shove some sleeping pills down my throat and...the next thing I know, I wake up in the middle of a crowded street in Beijing.

I've heard Beijing is a beautiful city. I've heard that the Asian culture is amazing and something that everyone should experience...but compare this trip to the one I had previously described. The trip I would have taken to, say, London. Not only is this Beijing trip unplanned and, to put it lightly, a kidnapping, but the cultural differences are extreme in comparison. I have nothing packed - no suitcases, change of clothes, or toothbrush - and the language might as well be alien. I don't know where to go, who brought me there, or why.

Now what? That question - "now what?" - should be something that you have in your head when brainstorming not only your sequence 4, but the experience of your main character as she is experiencing her 2nd Act.

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