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Erica

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  1. This is a redo on the homework using the new book I'm going to work on, Sleuthing on Set. STORY STATEMENT: Sydney Lang must make a go of segueing into a writing career within the next few months or have to move to an unwanted city and job. A murder on set occurs and she feels she needs to solve it. ANTAGONIST: My story has 2 antagonists. One is Willow Weston, the new PA who is the model daughter of a superproducer. Her goal is to get her script finished and to the showrunner before Sydney, and be selected to work in the writing department. The other antagonist is the murderer, but we don’t know who it is until the end. It’s someone who stabbed the showrunner’s assistant Olivia in the neck with a pen in the writers’ room. TITLE: Sleuthing on Set COMPS: Shock and Paw by Cate Conte Murder Buys a One Way Ticket by Laura Levine Both stories are fun, light cozy mysteries with strong female protagonist sleuths. There is whimsy and humor in the stories. CORE WOUND: Sleuthing on Set is Sydney Lang’s journey from office temp to possible TV writer. When she encounters writers’ block, the only thing that helps her creativity flow is sleuthing around the murder of the showunner’s assistant on set. INNER CONFLICT: Sydney is fighting to get her script finished in time to present it to Tina Tieri’s assistant with the goal of getting a job in writing. She encounters writers’ block and feels stuck, while her rival continues to get ahead. This makes her extremely nervous and worried that she will have to leave LA and move to another state to take a job in HR so she can support her son. She discovers that trying to solve the murder is a way to get her creating juices flowing again. SECONDARY CONFLICT: Sydney’s 5-year-old son has behavioral and learning issues. She is worried about being able to properly parent him and get him the help he needs. In one scene he has to go to a psyche hospital after threatening to “murder” someone (a term he learned while his mother has been sleuthing). Sydney feels challenged to rise to the occasion and help him get better. SETTING: The majority of the story takes place on the Brighton Network lot, a television studio in Los Angeles, both in the production office and on set. It adds an interesting element to the story, with the murder suspects being Brighton employees.
  2. special note: I have changed the book I will be working on. This is another book, called Sleuthing on Set. OPENING SCENE - Introduces protagonist and her soon-to-be mentor, setting, tone, stakes, and side conflict. I was picking out grapefruit in the produce section of Ralph’s Supermarket, my cart already full, when I received a call from Sebastian’s school. I immediately felt an emptiness in the pit of my stomach, as hearing from the school usually wasn’t good news. “Ms. Lang, it’s Mrs. Turbeline from Vineland School. I need to talk to you about an incident on Friday. Sebastian was threatening some of his classmates with a pair of scissors and he cut one of the girls’ homework sheets in half. He was laughing as this was happening, but I spoke with him afterwards and he seemed very angry, though he wasn’t sure why,” she said, her voice sounding grandmotherly. “How’s the counseling going?” “I thought it was going well. That’s what the therapist has told me. I don’t know what got into him on Friday, but I’ll talk to him tonight. I’m very sorry.” I had been at my wit’s end with Sebastian’s moods and behavior that year. I tried to keep my voice low and cupped my mouth so other shoppers wouldn’t overhear me. “I’d like to have you come in for a meeting this Friday at noon with his kindergarten teacher and some of the other staff who work with him. I’m going to refer him for some testing, exploring the possibility of him receiving some special education services.” I was a little taken aback. Frazzled, I left my full cart near the bananas and stepped outside to talk more openly. I felt a headache coming on, and rubbed the back of my neck. I had always thought special education was for intellectually challenged students, but I was certainly open to any type of help available. The meeting was confirmed for Friday. “I don’t know much about special education, and I can’t believe it’s come to this, but I’ll look into it before our meeting. Thank you,” I said. After I hung up, I was disoriented and bewildered and unable to move for a few moments. My hands felt sweaty, and I wiped them on my black pants. The sun was in my eyes, and I was squinting. “Excuse, me, I don’t mean to intrude, but I overheard you in the market, and I’m so sorry if this is rude but it sounded like you’re having some issues with your child.” An average built middle aged man in khakis and a polo shirt stood before me. He blinked profusely, took his glasses off briefly, and then rubbed his eyes. I quickly sized him up. Something about him looked very familiar. “I went through something very similar with my daughter, and I just wanted to let you know you’re not alone in the fear and confusion. I believe parents need to stick together and be more open about these issues.” “Thank you for your kind words. It’s just stressful right now because I’m getting ready to move across the country, to start a new job and a new life I’m going to hate, and I’ll have to get my son into a whole new school and arrange for help for his problems out there. It’s going to be a lot.” I felt overwhelmed and started to choke up right before this stranger. Where I knew him from finally clicked. He frequented the Starbucks I commonly wrote at; I saw him all the time. “Why are you moving if you’re so unhappy about it, if I may ask? By the way, Tom Friedman.” Something about him didn’t creep me out. He seemed like a legit person and not some kind of perv. I grabbed the sunglasses from my bag and slipped them on. “Sydney Lang. I’ve been out of college for a few years now, trying to make my dreams happen, and it’s not working. I am not going to be able to support my son out here anymore, it’s just way too expensive, so I had to be realistic and look for a stable job. It’s the right thing to do.” I noticed I had started to bite my nails, so I put my hands in my pockets. “By the way, I think I know you from the Starbucks on Lankershim. I write there all the time.” “Yes, I go there almost every day,” he said. “By the time I pass by that intersection, I need a refill on my Americano. So, what kind of work do you do now?” “I’m temping. I have nothing steady. My goal was to get a job in film or TV writing but after trying for a few years I have no choice but to give up. It’s depressing.” “Movies and TV? Interesting. I’m the production manager on a limited series coming out on the Brighton Network this fall. We need a couple of new PAs if you’re interested. Cool show and weekly paychecks.” A production assistant was basically a glorified gopher, but a good way to get a foot in the door to the industry. It sounded appealing to me. “I’m very interested. How long will the job go on for?” “There are eight weeks left.” “That sounds great. Today is June first and I’m set to leave on September first. So, I have time to do it.” “Great. I can help get you acclimated and maybe even help you out with your writing goal.” Tom blinked again, and I realized he probably had some kind of a tic. I explained to him that I was writing a feature film script, one that I had been working on for almost three years, and that it was almost complete. The information about the show sounded phenomenal. It was called High Caliber, starring award winning actress Kenya Mortimer Smith portraying Ursula, a woman who worked in a funeral home who was a self-appointed sleuth, investigating the suspicious deaths that came through. We agreed that I would show up at the production office the following morning and we’d try things out. I left my groceries in the store to rush home, and drove away feeling more hopeful than I had in weeks. I had a perma-grin.
  3. 1- Story Statement: Bellini Rose has finally left her miserable, toxic life in North Carolina behind, but must succeed now in making a successful and satisfying new life for herself in LA before her life savings is depleted. 2- Rob Marquez is a 38-year-old Wilmington, NC police officer, currently on leave while being investigated for misconduct. He’s been accused of brutality and sexual misconduct and there is suspicion that he has an addiction issue. About five years ago he suffered a knee injury at work and thereafter became addicted to painkillers. Due to pent up frustration and an altered mindset, he started serial killing women in North Carolina, with blunt force trauma to the head with his police baton. After his wife Bellini Rose leaves him and goes to California, he follows her there against her wishes and continues killing in the area. By way of background, he had been severely abused by his mother when growing up. His goal is to convince his wife to give up on the divorce and return home with him. He feels lost without her. 3- On Stilts 4- COMPS: Finlay Donovan is Killing It (by Elle Cosimand)- it’s also a light thriller, with a humorous protagonist. Similar tone. How to Kill Your Family (by Bella Mackie) – it’s also a light thriller/dark comedy with a similar voice. 5- HOOK LINE: Bellini Rose, previously estranged from her abusive mother and tied to a toxic husband, needs to escape so she flees a miserable life to help her sister take care of their mother in LA, with only about six months’ worth of living expenses to her name, and must craft a successful situation for herself before her life savings is depleted and she needs to return home. 6- Bellini Rose’s inner conflict revolves around whether she’s a strong enough person to make her new life work, and not have to return to North Carolina with her tail between her legs, out of hope and money. She’s in turmoil about the fact that her husband followed her to LA and is unwilling to sign divorce papers. He’s begging her to return home. a. A scenario is where Bellini Rose contacts an old friend from law school who works in family law in North Carolina and asks her to prepare the divorce papers and serve her husband Rob (before he leaves for California to follow her). After being served, Rob calls her and advises her that he will not accept that she’s moving on with her life and starting something new for herself, and he will not sign the papers. He begs her to rip up the pages and give him another chance. He tries to appeal to her weaknesses by telling her they will still be able to help her mother with money from North Carolina, and that she could find a new job there, and that he needs her. She questions her inner strength and perseverance and wonders if her husband is right. She fights with herself in order to keep afloat in LA, and keep her plan moving forward. b. A secondary conflict would take place while Bellini Rose is trying to start anew and get a job in LA. She has difficulty finding a job at first, despite her qualifications. She passes a phone screening and is invited to an in person interview with the managing partner of a firm, and things are going extremely well but she ends up putting her foot in her mouth by telling him that she got demoted at her old cruddy job, and then had to explain why she was demoted. Her employer didn’t feel she handled a client’s case with the proper care and oversight. She didn’t get the job. She is depressed and feels like she’s either going to have to take a crummy job that’s not in her field, or return to North Carolina. She’s scared she won’t make it in LA. 7- There are two main places the story takes place at, though there are several other settings where various scenes take place. The first is the apartment building owned and managed by Bellini Rose’s sister Brandi Dawn, who also lives in a unit in the building. Bellini Rose has just moved in after trekking across the country from North Carolina. Several of the other characters in the story live in the building as well. The groundskeeper is murdered by the stairs and thrown into the maid’s cart trashcan. Then Bellini Rose’s friend and coworker disappears from the building and is later found dead in a storage unit. Another setting that much of the story takes place at is the law office that Bellini Rose works at, Marks and Baum. The receptionist there is also murdered, out in the parking lot, and thrown into a building dumpster. Several of the story’s more minor character work there. The office’s managing attorney is dating lead police investigator Lex Callahan. Bellini Rose struggles in this setting (industrially and emotionally) and it is there where the sketch of Rob (serial killer) is first disseminated.
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