I Don't Care

Well, despite my time being split between a baking project and a minor work crisis that kept me on my company leashlaptop until far too late, I did manage to read the first completed draft of Enlightenment (my play). I found a variety of problems, including one really big one:

I didn't care.

The basic story is there. It works. But I finished reading it and realized the play had absolutely no emotional impact on me at all. The most sympathetic character dies at the end, and I was thinking "eh".

What this means is that I need to do more character work. Let me illustrate this. Here are the five characters in the play:

1. Carter: An alien with amnesia who is disguised as a human and who has founded a cult.
2. Bobby: Another alien (also disguised as human) who is looking for alien #1.
3. Charles: A follower of alien #1's cult (this is the guy who dies).
4. Rose: #3's crazy ex-wife and anti-cult activist.
5. Tucker: The son of #3 and #4, boyfriend of alien #2.

Tucker is the main character. Note that he also is the least interesting character.

Moreover, he doesn't drive the play: things happen to him, and around him, but he doesn't really initiate much.

So, I think next steps are:

1. Do some serious character work on Tucker.
2. Make him more active.
3. Give him a plan from fairly early in the play that will carry him through to the end (this will help with #2).

If the play doesn't get more interesting after doing that, I'm going to have to seriously consider making Charles the main character.