A Business Woman, And Her Fiance

Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts —

The Exercise -

In a few sentences, create a specific character in a specific situation. Complicate his life with opposing forces and alternatives within that situation. Ask, Given the situation, what would my character want? What would my character do? How would he act or react? How will those actions propel the story toward a point of crisis and a final resolution?

Practice creating characters involved with specific situations. Then outline miniplots for how you would complicate their situations and move them toward an ending. Keep this outline brief.

The Objective -

To understand how the most effective plots are those driven by character. To see how a character within the given of any situation creates his own destiny.

Mary Sue was a businesswoman who loved to sell products. Even though she had a sales team to do that work for her, she would be out there doing her best at sales. She would be upset when she didn't rank in the top five for sales for the company.

Her parents had retired and had made Mary Sue the person in charge of the company, and she was aware that at some point, she would inherit the company. Because she didn't feel like she earned the business, she tried her best to prove herself. She knew she could do most of the jobs that others were now doing.

She would put her all into getting tops in sales for the year. One morning, she met a man on the way to a sales call, and it was love at first sight, if you believe in that. She did not.

She knew that to keep up her sales position would help her to know that he was interested in her rather than in her money, so she let it continue long after she should have told him the truth. Now they were engaged, and how would she tell him?

He was the type of person who paid close attention to his spending and was good about sticking to his budget. She loved that about him. She agreed to marry him, as he had so many endearing qualities, and they had so many interests in common.

She planned to tell him at dinner that very night.

When they met for dinner, Mary Sue told Mark that she had something important she wanted him to know. He said, "Sure, but let's have a drink first and relax. Mary was close to changing her mind.

After about 30 minutes, Mary told Mark that the truth is that she is not an official salesperson, but rather, she was the CEO of the company. He thought she was teasing and began to laugh. He couldn't picture the Mary he had come to know and love as the owner of the company.

It was a huge company, worth millions of dollars. Was she behind the company? He had to tell her the truth, too, and that was as a part of his job, his company is working to put pressure on large businesses like hers to clean up the rivers and lakes that they have been polluting for years.

After talking, he was upset that she didn't tell him sooner. And she was upset that he never mentioned the part of his job that would affect her company.

After they agreed that they needed time, they went their own ways. After thinking about what just happened, they talked with their friends and came to this decision. Love was first. They wanted to spend the rest of their life with each other. They would be married.

Next, they agreed to make some compromises with their conflicts where he would work with her to understand all that they do and could do to improve on, and she would learn what he knew about the problem, as he and the company he worked for were seeing it.

They talked about how it would mean some compromise, but that they believed it could be done.

Author's Note: Does it sound like a Hallmark movie?