An early breakthrough came when a student in one of my classes wrote a scene that the professor wasn't satisfied with. He suggested that the she give one of the characters something to do in the scene that was unrelated to the dialogue -- he said that it was called the "actor's business."
About the same time, a man in his mid-30s stopped by the office where I worked to drop off an ad. He wanted to rent a room near the hospital several nights a week so he could study for his boards.
He was dressed in a physician's lab coat and was on a break from his work as a radiology resident.
Though the hospital seal, his department and his name were embroidered on the jacket, something didn't feel right to me. He didn't have the "look" of a physician who had spent endless hours studying. He had the build and demeanor of someone who had spent many hours doing physical labor.
We later became friends, and I asked how he'd entered medicine.
He laughed and said that he had been working as a painter. One day he watched as an older worker placed sparkle on a wall; he completed the task quickly, efficiently and with much skill. For a moment he was envious and then he was depressed. He thought, "I could work for 25 years and I'd match his skill. Is that what I want to do?"
He applied to medical school and was interviewed by a panel of physicians. "They were serious and intimidating," he recalled. "One of them asked why I wanted to go into medicine. I replied that it was because I didn't want to work outside for the rest of my life. The interviewer laughed and said that that was the most honest answer they'd heard all day."
When I asked him how it had been possible for him to switch from painting to medicine so easily, he said that while he was in school his father had always insisted that he take the hardest science and math courses that offered. Skills are learned over time. Including unique skills characters have developed helps make them fascinating.
Finally, as promised, the story about how becoming skilled in a field different from her course of study helped a student win her dream job -- working at Disneyland.
While I worked as a director of marketing and PR, student workers reported to me. I’d post notices all over campus requesting federal work study eligible students, and each time one student would apply and would work in the marketing/PR office until they graduated. They often were not familiar with many of the software programs; they were sometimes scared they would “break” the programs. I’d give them a template and ask them to have fun with it, moving things around, cutting and pasting and asking questions.
When I gave them an assignment I’d explain the strategy behind it; this saved time because they could then make quite a few decisions themselves which kept projects on time and on track.
It was so much fun teaching them about PR and media relations. In fact, one student enjoyed it so much that she considered changing from nursing to PR as a profession. An old boss dropped by the office and when he learned this he told her, “Don’t do it! It’s hard work and you will earn much more money as a nurse!”
Awhile ago I noticed perfect photo captions one of the past student workers posted on Facebook. I wrote on her wall, joking that she wrote the best photo captions because of her training in marketing and PR. She immediately wrote back. She said that after having worked as an ER nurse following graduation she applied for a job as a nurse at Disneyland. While the competition was fierce, she learned that she was offered the job over all of the other candidates because of her PR/communication/media relations experience/skill.
Fascinating!
The next post will be about pacing.
The reality -- This scene and/or sequence is boring. A solution -- what changes can I make to the story so it will make my heart beat faster?
