| January 9, 2006
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PT 1 - ANJA STORY - IDEA STAGE
Anja is our scientist character. Not suitable for an action story, so I'm thinking drama with a twist ending. Our more successful stories have been ones that show a human side of the characters, so we're going to go with one where too much focus on one part of her life leads to disaster with the other. I want to show Anja's home life, and I'm willing to take a chance — make it unexpected — and make her partner at home a woman. I also have a notion to tie it in a little with the Raul "stolen serum" story, so I'll set the first part of it in the lab, and the climax in the home. Basically, the premise will be this: Anja has been experimenting on duplicating the effects of her immortality. She has been testing a serum on Russian volunteer soldiers. None yet have survived. The latest is a nervous talker, so he tells a story about how Russia is cold and he fell in a pond once and almost died and ever since then it hasn't been so cold to him. She is noticing a missing vial, so she doesn't listen. She never really does, anyway. The serum fails again, and he dies. She is frustrated, goes home to a loving partner who has dinner ready. The girl talks nicely during the meal about her only brother coming to visit, but Anja is distant and doesn't listen. She only notices when her partner mentions that he once fell in a pond and almost died. The realization of what she has done hits her hard. She truly loves her partner and cannot bring herself to tell her the truth. Instead she hides a tear, hugs her, and tells her "I love you". Hopefully, the tragic ending is enhanced by the fact that it could have been prevented if at any time Anja had thought of anyone's life besides her own. Next, we flesh this out to the proper page length and begin to write some dialogue. (To read our last series - "Tips of The Week" click here)
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