3 more pages. Another day, and three more pages. I can see the end in sight now.
Struggled today with how to write the scene I was on, because I had outlined it to be a rather dark scene, but I didn't want to take the characters to quite that dark a place (yet), so I was trying to figure out a good way of accomplishing what I wanted to in a different way. So I brought a different character in, and made the whole thing a conflict with a rather amusing interplay between them, and it accomplished exactly what I needed it to.
I am still trying to figure out the ending of this story. I mean I know how it ends, but I don't know yet quite how I'm going to get there. Basically there needs to be an ambush. And before I write more tomorrow, I need to research some ambushes so that I can think through how to construct this one. Can anyone think of good ambushes to reference from favorite movies (or books)? I welcome all suggestions.
Ciao,
4 comments:
Ewoks ambushing the empire's army in Return of the Jedi is one of my favorites.
Red Dawn has some awesome ambushes in it too.
My favs are always the ol' switcharoos, we think one thing, but in the end its another. Im thinking Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Of course, unless you mean military tactics. In this case adapt it to guerrilla tactics.
Maybe reverse-reverse-psychology.
I'm thinking of the first episode of Leverage, where we watched the protagonists build a trap, then saw how the antagonist realized it was a trap and built one of his own to counter said trap, until the end where we realize that the protagonist knew the antagonist would know and that the trap was a trap of its own and the antagonist basically fell into his own trap. Along the lines of "he knew that we knew that he knew that we knew."
This concept can be adapted to heist-stories as well as military.
ROTJ... That's a great one, for sure. Maybe I'll have to watch Red Dawn now...
And I totally love Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Caine and Martin are brilliant in that movie.
Yes, I am thinking more of a military ambush, but to be honest, ambush tactics apply to ambushes of all kinds, so they are easily interchangeable...
Then may I suggest biblical military history:
Joshua's military tactics in Joshua 8:3-22 where the used a decoy to lure a massive army away from the main target and in the ensuing confusion wont the battle.
And of course Gideon's 300 in Judges 7:16-22 where with only the 300 men they surprised an army, pretending to be much larger and so scaring the living daylights out of the enemy, to the point that they turned on each other.
In both cases we learn that to break up a large army and defeat them it is important to interrupt their own chain of command and create confusion.
Also, Sun Zu has a few good point:
"Though the enemy be stronger in numbers, we may
prevent him from fighting. Scheme so as to discover
his plans and the likelihood of their success."
"If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in."
And always, always follow the beat-up-the-bully rule: if you take out the leader, the rest of the baddies will fall apart. Confusion arises and victory is at hand.
I knew those hours of reading military strategies and the Bible could be put to good use!
That and playing 'Risk'...
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