What’s the dramatic conflict for my play? Will I realize that emotional addictions are ruining my life?
What’s the problem the narrator is dealing with at the beginning of the story? Helpless rage and disconnection from others. What does he grapple with? Lack of ease with himself, with others and with God. What’s the arc? I start out angry and miserable. Through my teens into my early 20s, I fool myself that I’m becoming more normal. After 22, I see the chasm steadily widening between myself and my peers. Every year, I fall further behind the good life (marriage, family, honored place in the community). I sense a way to connect and to escape from my misery — sex. Eventually my gropings lead me to some painful realizations of emptiness and need, that my sex addiction is a mark for an underlying intimacy disorder. I set about doing the 12 Step work to feel more comfort with myself, with others and with God.
How does my problem get worse through the play? I see the gap between myself and my peers widening.
What is the narrator trying to figure out at the start of the story? A way out of his misery. He wants to build something big, angry and powerful. He lights fires. He builds woodies. He feels he’s riding a wave, overcome by pleasure, forgetting his pain, taking control of his life and ridding him of moral responsibility. Then he lands at shore and looks back and sees a tsunami building of all the people he’s used and abused in the pursuit of his addictive needs. He realizes why he feels so much fear and shame — karma is coming!
