Introducing the exercise

Now it’s time for you to start applying what you have learned so far on a written text.

Remember that last week I asked you to choose a scene to work on? Well, now it’s time to go get that scene along with a pen and some paper.

First read the text several times and try to resist the urge to start thinking about how you might act it. Right now, you just want to get a sense of what the scene is about.

1. What happens in the scene, who are the people in it and where are they? Make sure that you understand everything and look up anything that you don’t.
2. Once you have a good sense of the scene you can now make some specific choices about the three building blocks that we’ve discussed this week:

• Activity – You are somewhere doing something.
• Objective – There’s a change that you want to happen in the other person.
• Relationship – You have a specific point of view about who that person is to you.

Try to find these elements in the text and write them down. In fact, I suggest you come up with three different options for each one. And make one of them the exact opposite of what you think is the “right” choice.

Again, don’t worry about how you will act anything. Just find circumstances that interest you.