"It is while trying to
get everything straight in my head that I get confused." Mary Virginia
Micka.
How true. The trouble
is not becoming confused, but depicting it in our characters. Confusion
gets often rolled up into other emotions: frustration, anger, bewilderment.
The trick is learning to pick it out for a moment, study it, then put it
back untouched, retaining only the knowledge of how it works and what it
does.
1. Make a list of ten
questions "for which there is no answer" that show confusion. Be sure the
character being addressed is asked "why" somewhere within the question,
it needn't be at the start. Having a specific listener will help you stay
focused. Pay attention to the voice of the questioner.
2. Choose one of the
lifes below and describe how it might be. Then write two questions that
contrast reality with imagined life. Once you're done, try two more.
A young woman who claims
to be a movie star's mistress
A homeless man holding
a sign that says "Vietnam Vet Needs Your Help"
The father of triplets
A mechanic spcializing
in foreign cars
A man confessing to
be a sought-after serial killer
Anastasia Romanov who
was believed to be killed with the rest of her family
Ringo Starr
3. Make a list of twenty
simple solutions (eg. calm down, take a bath, go for a walk, etc.) Choose
two of them for each of the situations below, or come up with your own.
Which ones work as a way to sort through disorder and confusion? Why?
That can't be Michael.
He's supposed to be dead!
Frank is positive this
is the way home, but he keeps hitting dead ends.
Surely Mary knows the
answer. Everyone stared at him, including the professor.
4. Make a list of what
you do when you're confused. How do you react? What thoughts go through
your head? Incorporate two of these into a character who is confused over
something.