Script Writing Class: Character Beat

And so today I attended this Script Writing Class in Quantum Cafe Makati.  It is quite interesting and very much distressing to attend a class and be given assignments that I really enjoy doing.  Script writing is super different from what I'm used to.  I'm not sure if you've tried script writing ever before.  It's like creating your own dream story and painting it on paper through your colorful characters, dialogue and gestures.

Well, the first part of the script writing process is to think of a story that moves you.. a story that won't bore you to death.  Create characters that you may as well like because they will have to become your bestfriends throughout the whole script writing process.  We were tasked to create a character beat -- basically information about and motivation of the character.  I had a couple of options for my character, and I ended up with this:

Karen is a 25-year old girl who has the perfect life ahead.  She has a beautiful home in an upscale town house.  She is well provided by her businessman father and is well protected by her perfectionist mother.  She has graduated with honors and is now working in the biggest multinational company in the country.

She tells her mom that she’s going to take a year off to soul search.  It’s the perfect time, at 25 -- the quarter life crisis age.  She envies women who’ve “found themselves.”  They seem to be very happy and very much content.  It’s like everything just fits.  They excel in whatever they do, and more importantly, they get paid for it. She believes with her whole heart that she too is alive for a purpose.  

Karen loves learning about people and culture.  Her family has ignited and cultivated this passion of hers ever since she was young.  They’d travel to different places every year.  She’s particularly interested with China.  Not only is it the country of her forefathers, but it’s also the home of numerous success stories and astonishing discoveries of admirable people.  So she goes to the family ancestral home in China.  She discovers accidentally the diary of her great, great, great grandmother who had become the “dragon’s wings” in Xiamen.   

I'm still thinking of a conflict though. As for the script, 10 pages down, many more to go.  Let me know what you think.  :)