Character Combo Logline Jam - 2x Character Combos + 1x Conflict
Modifier(1) + Archetype(1) + Conflict + Modifier(2) + Archetype(2)
Session 1
Modifier + Archetype
Caustic + Nerd
Oscar Wilde-ian wit, or Internet Troll, know-it-all, long-suffering IT Admin, PBCK (problem between chair and keyboard), EMBO, new nerd niche? Action figures, comic books, etc - Collectors. Insect collectors, protein folders. What is an Art Nerd? Right-brainy. Art Collector? People Nerd; collects people; collects individual’s stories - therapy nerd, psyche nerd? Doesn’t suffer fools (and horses).
Spineless + Outsider
Fish out water or outsider by choice? Spinelessness could be about not wanting to rock the boat or take a stand; they are shunned by other people because of their behaviour or thinking; or come from a marginal group.
They could be feckless, don’t uphold any moral code. Politicians who say what’s necessary to get power but don’t really believe in what they say; they extol the fact that they are not a Washington insider, not from the political elite - but an outside - and an opportunist.
Publisher or Platform owner (Zuckerberg, Dorsy)? Robinhood is the Reverse Robinhood - they say their helping people when their business model is actually to hurt them. Someone who sells you a false narrative.
Synthesis
Internet Troll has to learn to deal with their lack of emotional intelligence. Trolls benefit from anonymity, their details not being known, they feel comfortable to be anti-social - might have to come face-to-face with someone their targeted; confronted by their victims; see the real-world consequence of their actions. EQ is required.
Conflict
Failure to Launch
Synthesis
Indignation is not enough for change. And amnesia is not a solution (forgive and forget). Power imbalance. What is the solution? Activism. Persuasion. You can’t solve it alone. Requires socialisation (the opposite of what the caustic nerd has been doing).
The caustic nerd could be a blown-out Internet bazillionaire who’s last venture failed and he spends his time trolling everyone - or is that the spineless outsider?
Early Steve Jobs brings in a safe pair of hands who is less mercurial to run the enterprise but is then ousted by the new hire who convinces the Board to eject the maverick. Now he’s the outsider looking in. The spineless outsider saw a power opportunity to take over the house that you built.
Fight breaks out in Adult Kindergarten. Weekly gladiator fights to see who gets special access to the million dollar espresso maker. Aggressive Brocademy.
Genre
Crime
Premise
An escape from reality leads to a day of reckoning
Founder creates their own reality, their own mythology - shocked when sacked.
Logline
Mercurial founder hires new CEO to pander to the Market then is ousted, degenerates, rich has-been laughing stock. Discovers that the new management are criminals (who are probably going to pin it on him) and has to go back to former employees that he bullied, eat crow, and get them to help him.
Session 2
Modifier + Archetype
Eternal Optimist + Lovable Rogue
someone who keeps landing on their feet. Delboy, Sergeant Bilco. Keeps launching plots to enrich himself but always gets foiled. Hatches a plan to help himself, someone else finds out about it so he cuts them in, but it backfires yet all is good. He’ll keep doing the thing. Lovable criminal that keeps chasing the big job. Optimism vs Magical Thinking. We love the optimist - to a point. People might not like optimists in the long run. They grate on the nerves. Their relentless looking at the good side of things is annoying. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.
Could be an eternal optimist about other people. True shock could be being played by someone else. They don’t see everyone else as scammers like themselves but other people as basically trustworthy.
They keep doing terrible things but they do it so well (and with so much aplomb) that people can’t fault them for it.
Lustful + Turncoat
The loveable rogue might be terrible in every way except they are loyal in relationships which is the opposite of this character; someone who plays the rogue, who tests their optimism. Les Liaisons Dangereuse. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Femme Fatale.
A lust for power, passion, status, money.
Random Prompt
Curbside Pickup
Premise
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions
Rogue and his/her team had a plan that relied upon the Turncoat who led them down the garden path.
Topic
Culture War
Conflict
Something missing reappears
The lustful turncoat is someone who burned the rogue in the past but re-emerges, says they are changed, wants a second chance, dupes them again.
Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football. How come they keep falling for it every time?
PR person who worked for the other side but now says they want to help rehabilitating the Founder’s image?
Topic
Instant Karma
Conflict could be “Culture War” - that describes the relationship between the two characters. The protagonist thinks they share the same values but the antagonist knows they don’t and relishes teaching them this, teaching them a lesson - “You’re just too easy to take to the cleaners each time because you think we’re alike but we’re not and I’m going to keep doing this to you until you wise up”. Why does this relationship keep “rinse and repeat”? Caught in an endless loop. These characters are destined to keep doing this to each other and the other people around them are getting tired of it.
Eternal Optimist vs the Cynical Pragmatist - they actually need each other yet don’t understand it (or even recognize it).
Bad Buddy. Co-Dependency Nightmare.
Test themselves to re-affirm their beliefs.
Genre
Romantic Comedy
Logline
Eternal optimist and loveable rogue who rarely escapes the repercussions of their (harebrained) schemes, re-encounters blast-from-the-past (nemesis) who claims to be reformed and offers tip on new caper, same disaster, betrayed as before. Why do they keep returning to the same well?
–Possible story message: “Love is giving someone permission to drive you crazy”.
Random Prompt
Guru Garden
Reflection on the Process
The cards are a framework to help us structure our time but they also serve as bad executive notes that we would normally dread but are provocative (in a good way) because we are in a safe space.
Figure out which character is the protagonist and then determine that the antagonist will test or reinforce the protagonist’s modifier via the conflict.