Sketch Synopsis

Magical Manifestations sketch synopsis

Stephanie, single and searching for more meaning in her life, has a failing catering business in the North Bay outside San Francisco, loves yoga and studying Hindu goddesses, encounters Annapurna. Or does she? On a walk in the redwoods, she hears Bhuvaneshwari’s voice and learns of the cyclical nature of the world’s creation, blossoming, and destruction, according to Hindu legend. Then she contacts her yoga guru, who raises doubt on both these encounters by asking whether Stephanie is on her schizophrenia medication. Though she is not, Stephanie insists she is now connected to some of the goddesses she has studied. She sets out to prove her disbelieving guru. After staying up all night in her catering kitchen, Stephanie glumly goes to bed at dawn, exhausted and without any sign of Annapurna. In her dreams, Kali transports Stephanie back in time to her grandmother’s hospice care in the room in which she now sleeps. The confrontational exchange in which Kali brings up the DNR as an excuse to get rid of the old lady, leaves Stephanie wracked with guilt on awakening. Stephanie begins to question her sanity and whether it was a wise decision to go off her medication. She reaches out to her longtime friend, William, to receive his wisdom. Instead, Stephanie hears of his wild tales. They make plans to meet the following day to trade notes on the magical manifestations. They decide to visit their hometown outside Los Angeles, meeting up with Stephanie’s yoga guru, Rosie. Rosie tells them of the powerful energy and life force at a local Hindu temple near the hometown. Once there, they overlap with the other characters. Rosie introduces them all to a Hindu priest, who walks them through their three options: medication to forget the encounters; leave this plane of existence to be servants to their respective goddesses/gods/seers; or choose to stay in this limbo, never knowing whether the manifestations may return. Stephanie decides to ascend. No one recalls Stephanie’s existence except William, who, whenever he sips her special tea recipe with cardamom in it, winds his pocket watch and smiles an inward smile to his friend now at peace.

William works in San Francisco at a startup music company. He dreads going home to Derrick, who is depressed and is unwilling to communicate with William about their relationship. William sleeps a fitful night in which he dreams of Dhanwantari, physician to the Hindu gods. When William awakens, he is encouraged to try to save his relationship with Derrick. At the music company, William meets Sage, a mandolin player who plays devotional music, which touches William deeply. Sage explains how the hymn came to him, which leads William to look up Bharadvaja, who turns out to be a Hindu seer who wrote the hymns of the Vedas. William composes a letter to read aloud to Derrick, in which he tries to communicate his exuberance for his life garnered via Dhanwantari, their love, revitalized by Bharadvaja through Sage’s hymn, and how he cannot live without Derrick. When he shares it, Derrick’s first reaction is to question whether William is high—breaking a vow of abstinence they share. William presses on until Derrick shouts at him to leave him alone, he wants to die, then grabs his car keys, runs away from their home, slamming the door on his exit. William is heartbroken. He wonders how Derrick could throw away fourteen years of partnership. Had William really contributed to Derrick’s desperate situation? Suddenly Hindu god Balrama, the ideal man, appears before William in a dapper outfit, asking for the keys to William’s Fiat to pursue Derrick. Along the way, Balrama points out all of William’s partnering flaws, how to rectify them, and win Derrick’s heart back before it’s too late. William pulls Derrick off the Golden Gate Bridge, and the EMTs who responded place Derrick in a 72-hour involuntary hold on the psychiatric ward of the local hospital for suicide watch. Throughout all this, the dapper Indian gentleman is by William’s side, though invisible to all others. Stephanie contacts William, etc., etc. William chooses to stay in limbo to rebuild his relationship with Derrick.

Karla is mourning the loss of her husband, John, who died in a tragic car accident. She stays up too late watching Netflix, then hears a whispering voice that turns out to be Dhumavati, the Hindu widow goddess. Karla tries to talk with the goddess, to no avail. She thinks to seek out a medium through the wellness center to help her get in touch with the goddess, whom she believes may be a link to her dead husband. She gets up the strength to visit the wellness center in search of a medium. After several false starts, she sets up a meeting with Willow. The medium convinces Karla that they should visit John’s grave at the cemetery at midnight the following evening to try to be in touch with him. Karla’s heart races as she imagines a moonless night with only blood-red candles burning to light the way through the tangle of overhung tree branches along the back path to John’s headstone. Willow asks Karla to bring three focus objects: a favorite from his childhood, one signifying how he enjoyed spending his free time as an adult, and one to signify their everlasting love. Karla chooses John’s marble, his strand of mala beads for his meditation time, and his platinum wedding band. Willow holds Karla’s hands and encourages her to chant louder and louder to summon John, then Willow releases her firm grasp, gasping in terrible pain, then silence. Karla opens her eyes and, in horror, discovers Willow lying on the ground next to John’s headstone, seemingly convulsing with an epileptic seizure. Karla screams in terror, then calls 911. Only after hanging up does she notice the three focus objects have disappeared into thin air. During the delay to get the front gate opened, Willow awakens, asks where she is, and says she feels fine now. Karla asks Willow where her items are. “With John now,” she replies. Freaked out for being in a cemetery with a medium, Karla races to her car and home. Karla wonders whether Willow is for real. Karla has been dragging herself to yoga classes for the five weeks since John’s death, always ending class in corpse pose, with her favorite teacher chanting, relax and renew. As she slips into a bath after the muddle with Willow the medium (?), she hears the chant again. It is this time from Ganga, the goddess of the Ganges River. Karla wonders if she’s delirious. The next day, Karla calls John’s childhood friend Derrick to find out whether he can replace the gifted mala beads. Derrick sighs heavily at the enormous effort it would take to get out of bed, much less travel across the Bay to the little shop that sold the mala beads seven years ago. Derrick asks how they went missing. Karla explains, Derrick admonishes her for being duped, and hangs up. Karla then calls Derrick’s partner, William. She starts with the Dhumavati encounter, and William interrupts to say he and Stephanie will be in town the next day to visit Rosie, would she like to join them? Karla does, goes to the Hindu temple with them, literally bumps into Chuck, and chooses to forget the encounters to pursue a relationship with her high school sweetheart..

Chuck and Bonnie host a party in their 1,000 square-foot rental in Live Oak Canyon. Chuck walks out the back door of the house, among the old-growth oak trees until he reaches the edge of the property, which overlooks a steep tumble down to the road back to town. From here, he can see the stars on the moonless night and lament his sorry self. He recalls all the bad relationships since his high school sweetheart (unnamed, but Karla) because of booze. He remembers sneaking to Tijuana with his younger brother, only to have Bonnie get them out of a Mexican jail. And he remembers his idea of growing weed in the back-40. Almost got Bonnie thrown in jail. He ends up in a conversation with Lord Vishna to get on the right path. He returns to Bonnie, already in bed after the party. The next morning, he gropes for Bonnie, only to find an empty bed. She is up and out for her house cleaning business. He takes time to nurse his coffee on the front porch. Then he heads down to the city below to get some fast food and encounters Krishna, ends up with a grilled cheese. As he drives to his plumbing gig in the next town over, he is stopped by a cop for a busted taillight. Turns out his seatbelt is busted, too. And the cop finds an open bottle of booze under the passenger seat (left by one of the partiers the night before). Chuck gets hauled to jail. He calls Bonnie, trying to explain his bad luck. She doesn’t believe him. Though she bails him out, she also kicks him out of the rental, but not before making him clean the horse stalls in the barn. Chuck could encounter Ganesha at the Montclair Hindu temple while fixing the plumbing there, and ask him to remove the obstacle (alcoholism) from his path to true love. While there, he backs into Karla, they lock eyes, and it feels like home. He chooses to stay a mortal but retain the memories to never go back to his old ways (or to Bonnie, tied up in those old ways).

North Bay (Walnut Creek): Stephanie, caterer and yogini, physically based on Stephani (connection to William), Rosie, yogini and Hindu, physically based on Meena

San Francisco: William, works at a music startup, physically based on Wil (connection to Stephanie), Derrick, at-home web designer, physically based on that beautiful Amazon man I met once at the GVHD workshop (connection to John), Sage, mandolin player, physically based on Seiji

Claremont (Packing House condos): Karla, unemployed paralegal, physically based on Kharla (connection to Derrick and, by extension, William, secret connection to Chuck), John, Willow, medium (?), physically based on Winona

La Verne (Live Oak Canyon): Chuck, plumber, physically based on Peter Harper (secret connection to Karla), Bonnie, house cleaner, physically based on Bonnie

Montclair: Hindu temple, the finale setting

WEEK 6

1. Read a novel or two and try to isolate the three plot points, or three scenes, that are key to its genre.
2. Watch one of your favourite movies — pay attention to the mood or tone of the story. How was this achieved?
3. Create a playlist of music that you think would suit your story. Listen to it while you write.

WEEK 7

1. Throw a party right in the middle of your book – or a wedding, a funeral, or a gallery opening. These ‘set pieces’ can give you something to write towards.
2. Think about all the things that interrupt your daily life – paying bills, writing blogs, taking the dog for a walk. Can you use these for your characters?
3. Draw the floor plan of your main character’s house or clip pictures from a lifestyle or décor magazine.
4. Describe the childhood room of your antagonist.

1. If you’re struggling with the ending, start with the very last scene in your story and work your way backwards to the climax.
2. What is the one thing your antagonist has burned to say to your hero but hasn’t been able to say? What would your hero say to your antagonist? Write it out as dialogue.
3. Imagine a dream sequence where your characters are at a fancy dress party. What masks — yes, theBatman or Zorro masks — that would reveal their true nature?
4. Wake your characters up at three a.m. — warn them about what’s about to happen them at the end? What do they tell you?
5. Look at the rest of the synopsis and try to focus on the same tensions and conflicts in your climax.

So, for the month of March, we’re going to take our synopsis and start developing the outlines of each scene or chapter in our novel. These outlines can be as short 20-50 words or as long as 100-150 words, depending on the detail you wish to include.

You can outline in bullet form or just give a quick thumbnail of each section, but you should think about the following: What does the character want in this scene? What is both the external and internal conflict? Where does the scene take place? What or who is going to stop them from achieving their goal? How will the scene end?

1. Buy a pack of 8×5-inch ruled index or record cards. Write out your scene outlines on the cards. You’ll be able to shuffle the order of the scenes — or add in new ones as you go along.
2. Watch music videos on YouTube. Often these tell a short little story just in visuals — notice how the director moves us from scene to scene to achieve this.
3. Try to see your finished book in your mind. See your name on the cover spine in your mind, feel the heft of its pages in your hand. Visualise the cover.
4. Do a crossword puzzle or Sudoku to engage your left-brain and unleash your inner planner.
5. Write your big central story goal on a sheet of paper. Stick it up at your desk to remind you what the story is really about.

1. Create a small diary or journal where you can write down your emotions as you write – the small triumphs, the bad moments, etc.
2. What are the questions do you think you readers want answered in the story? What questions do youwant answered?
3. Look through magazines or Pinterest for images that could stimulate you. Do you have a favourite photographer? Who is it? Why do you love them?
4. What were your characters’ favourite childhood games?
5. Take some time off to talk to a friend or a fellow writer if you feel the pressure set in.

WEEK 11

Emotion, Subtext, Room to adjust synopsis

1. Take 10 minutes and write down as many emotions you can think of on a page. How many apply, or may apply, to your character?
2. If your characters were put in a psychiatric hospital right now, how would a doctor diagnose them?
3. Watch a scene in a TV show or movie you haven’t seen before. But watch it with the volume off. What can you tell about the characters or the story just from their actions?
4. Keep a notebook next to your bed. When you wake up jot down a few lines about what you imagine your character dreamt the night before.
5. What would your antagonist do if his wallet or phone were stolen? His reaction might be quite telling.

Week 12

1. Create a timeline for your character for what happens before the story starts: perhaps one that highlights their career milestones, or the birth order of their children, their criminal activities
2. Describe a place or setting in your novel as if it’s a character. Perhaps the old apartment block is a ‘sour dowager forgotten after World War 2’, or the pub is a ‘rowdy and boisterous uncle always glad to see you.’
3. Write about a secret place your character visits that no one else knows about.
4. If you had to write an article about the culture of period in which your book is set, what would you include as the top 5 or 10 influences?
5. What would your characters be wearing in the time your story is set? Are they in style? Or do they avoid current fads? Do they yearn for a different decade?

WEEK 13

1. ‘My only love, sprung from my only hate,’ laments Shakespeare’s Juliet. If you could sum up your story’s conflict in one line, what would it be?
2. If a scene isn’t working, look at it from a different angle. Try introducing a new or different character to the scene — shake it up.
3. Write down five reasons why you like or empathise with your main character. Would the reader feel the same way? Now do the same for the antagonist.
4. Try Franzen’s method and wear ear buds and a blindfold. Is it easier to write in a soundless darkness? Or do you prefer some background noise?
5. Don’t be afraid to throw away scenes that aren’t working — holding on to something that isn’t working will just cost you time and cause frustration.

WEEK 14

For this last one, if you’re working on an average length novel of 80,000 words, you should have brief thumbnails of:

• 160 scene outlines for scenes that will be 500-words each, or —
• 80 scene outlines that will be 100-words each, or —
• 32 chapter outlines that will be 2,500-words each, or —
• 22 chapter outlines that will be 3,500-words each.