I find I go through exercises like this as I’m ‘learning’ a throughline.
My experience over the last week and a half is that I’m spending about two days on each act in each throughline, squeezing everything out of it I can, often just to get the ‘feel and the tone’, but also find that scene ideas pop out as I’m doing this sort of thing.
Individual components, used to
examine Obtaining
Doubt
when you have doubt about something you’re obtaining,
you doubt you want it, you doubt having it will do you any good,
you doubt it’s worth the trouble to obtain it, you doubt it’s worth
what others think it’s worth, what you think it’s worth, you doubt
you’ll be able to hold onto it long, you doubt that it will hold still
long enough for you to catch it, you doubt that it means
what it’s supposed to mean, you doubt the evidence that tells
you: this is what you need. Also you might completely lack doubt
about the thing you’re obtaining.
Investigation
when you’re investigating a thing you’re obtaining, you’re finding out
who has it now, what they want for it, what they’ll do to keep it,
how hard they’ll fight to keep it, how easily they’ll let it go, if they’re
trying to hide it, if they came on it legitimately or stole it,
if it’s been in their family forever, if it’s secretly worth
more than they know, if someone else badly wants it,
if no one cares about it, if it’s treated badly or
damaged, if it’s treasured and put on a pedestal, if it’s
authentic or counterfeit, if it has a hidden problem,
if it has an unrealized benefit.
Appraisal
if you have an initial understanding of a thing you are obtaining,
you understand the things for itself, you understand what it means to take
it away, you understand what it means to have obtained it, you understand how
it makes you feel, you understand what it makes you think, you understand
how it connects with you personally, you understand how it connects
you with other people who admire it or hate it, you understand how
real or countefeit it is, you understand how it can hurt people,
you understand what it will mean to the world, you understand
what it will mean to your girlfriend, you understand it won’t fit
in your car.
(I like it when appraisal is over-confident, cocky, seat of the pants, dead wrong. Think
George W. Bush. First appraisal impatiently waves away more detailed explanation, it
knows what it sees, stop all the jibberdy jabbery).
Reappraisal
new evidence comes in and you look at the conclusion you drew before,
you now realize that it was unjust, you realize your weren’t harsh enough,
you realize you were cheated, you realize you stole it without intending to,
you realize you destroyed an entire town by accident, you realize you
enjoyed hurting those people, you realize you it has nothing to do with
you personally, you realize your thoughts and feelings were
all wrong, you realize you have nothing in common with its fans,
you realize you have everything in common with its enemies, you realize
you don’t deserve it, you realize you should have taken it sooner,
you understand you’re the only one who appreciates it,
you realize you’ve exposed it to terrible danger, you realize you’re powerless
to change things, you realize you can rescue only one person out of a thousand,
you realize you’ve failed and the bomb is going to go off, you realize
you know nothing about what you’re supposed to be expert in,
and you figure out a way to make it fit in your car - your you steal
the truck next to your car.
(I like using the word ‘realize’ for reappraisal, and it should have en element of forehead slapping ‘oh crap’)