Alicia's Response:
"I've put the memory of that night away like a room with one door in and one door out. So clearly do I remember being the girl who stands outside that room, hand on the doorknob, ready for anything. Funny, when people say that..."ready for anything"...they don't really mean anything. They mean a happily-ever-after, tall, dark, and handsome or short, blonde, and rich kind of anything. They certainly don't mean crushing terror or retching pain. They don't mean death.
That girl who stands there one hand on the door knob and one hand on her hip, tossing a fat glossy braid over her shoulder, she certainly wasn't expecting that truck to come out of nowhere, barreling down a hill with no road, smashing into her car with no warning. In fact, when she opens the door and walks into that experience, that memory I don't think of, she tells herself "I didn't see it coming."
The girl on the other side of that room, through the Out Door, the one missing a hand, she makes sure she sees everything. her fat glossy braid lies heavy down the middle of her back. Her hand presses back against the door, holding it shut, pushing herself forward. She is not ready. But that's okay.
Because she will be. No matter how many more rooms she has to live through, next time, she will be ready.
Excerpt from Assignment #25: Experience as a Room
You’ve been with your character for several adventures and quiet moments alike by now. I’d like for you to pick one or two and imagine them as a room with two doors – one exclusively for entrance and the other exclusively for exiting. Take a while to get a comfortable image going because you are going to walk your character right smack into the middle of the scene....
When you have the scene clearly and lushly imagined, place your character outside the In Door. You may be able to feel their anticipation as their hand rests upon the door knob. This experience, this room, will change them. Your job is to record those changes. Begin by feeling deeply into the character to identify their Before portrait. You have the benefit of knowing the experience that awaits them and even how your character responded to the individual elements of the experience. Quickly, without over-analyzing, check into those memories and awareness of your character Before they entered the room."
Buy Assignment #25 $10.00
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