Enneagram and Encaustic – Screenwriting, Lyrics, Art, and Investigation

Gage and Wrigley: Chapter One, Part Three

“Ready?” Rachel asked. She mostly hid her impatience well.

Wrigley settled on the leather harness protecting Gage’s left shoulder. The right side was cleaned up and bandaged. “What’s the plan?” Gage asked her.

“I want to start in the laundry. A habit, probably stained with blood, would need to be washed.”

“Or incinerated,” Wrigley suggested.

“We’ll have a chance to find more clues at the laundry. We start there.” She gave Wrigley a waiting look.

“Oh,” Wrigley said. “This way.” He cocked his head.

“Pal,” Gage said, “I can’t see what you’re doing and I can’t read your mind. Use words.”

“We’ll be here forever,” Rachel said, rolling her eyes. “He’s basically your horse. Can’t you just nudge him or something? Maybe we could get some reins and a bit?”

While Gage scowled daggers at Rachel, Wrigley shifted his weight and gently pushed with his left talons.

“Are you kidding me?” Gage snorted. Exasperated, he blew air from his mouth.

“Pretty good whinny.” Rachel headed toward the direction of Wrigley’s nod.

Jason Mendoza

It’s been almost a year since my last look at episodes of Season One of The Good Place. I miss it, lol.

ONE

We begin where we left off last episode. Eleanor tries to understand Jianyu (who isn’t really Jianyu). She’s been dodging and weaving since they arrived. How has he escaped detection? Squinting, Eleanor says to him, “You don’t seem like a super genius.”

TWO

He makes a face and we go into a flashback of his first moment in the Good Place.

When Michael welcomes him, he immediately identifies Jianyu as a monk who took a vow of silence. Would Jianyu like to continue with that? He quickly nods.

He’s been silent ever since. (The change in his character from zen monk to street-slang punk is brilliantly played.) His name is Jason, he’s from Jacksonville, and he used to be a DJ and hip-hop dancer. He made money by selling fake drugs to college students.

Gage and Wrigley: Chapter One, Part Two

At this point a codex will become available. Stories about this world and its religions will start to accumulate. Dry reading can give your imagination context and a foundation.

Achievement unlocked. Pick a special skill out of the Owl’s Gifts power-up list.

Gage sat at the dining table in the monastery kitchen while Rachel pushed a cup of tea at him.

“Cut it out,” Gage said.

“You look like something I scraped off my boot. Drink the damned tea.”

“Just get me out of here.”

“I don’t think so. I can’t halt a murder investigation just because you’re struck with the vapors.”

“Hey!” Gage snapped. “Some bird has just claimed a kinship with me closer than marriage. Excuse me if I feel slightly rebellious.”

“All right, Gage, all right.”

Without warning the owl flew through the wide kitchen doorway and perched on the back of one of the table chairs. As the chair rocked with the owl’s weight, Gage lifted a boot and stomped on the seat to steady the wobble.

“Thank you,” said Wrigley, inches from Gage’s face.

“You’re welcome. And goodbye.” Gage stood and beckoned to Rachel.

WiP: Tribe of Liars

After publishing my last screenplay about a year ago, I hit a creative wall. Fort Defiance was such a bucket list project. Completing it was satisfying, which left me with little drive to find something new to write. I had a great and lengthy folder for Tribe of Liars with no plan how to develop it further. I liked the fragments I’d written, but it wasn’t grabbing me.

I believe in letting an idea cook, even if I remain creatively idle, rather than force my writing. It worked. I had a brain blast: I would blend Tribe of Liars with another (untitled) screenplay fragment. Neither was working on its own, but combined, I could envision the story arc.

This entry is a placeholder for how I’ll share my process.

I have four characters and their animal Companions. Each team needs a backstory before I can develop a proper screenplay. Gage and Wrigley are the furthest along right now. Not only do I have a Story Enneagram for them, but I have the fictional writing that digs deeper.

I’d like to post my backstory writings here. When the screenplay is eventually published, I’ll include these prologues in an appendix. It’s a complicated writing idea. Let’s rock!

Update 1:

When I wrote the beginnings of the Gage and Wrigley backstory I didn’t know how to develop the IP further. It was a writing exercise at that point. The ToL idea began as a video game, not a film, so I wanted to include the gaming aspect even in the fiction. The conceit I used — go into a first-person narrator voice for the details — is cringe to me now. However, I will probably continue with some variation of the narrator in the other three Companion stories. A lot of brainstorming went into the animal powers; I don’t want to lose the fun of that.

EDDIE AND PATSY, FOUR AND NINE

Okay, bear with me, lol. I’ve given the Sherlock Holmes tag to the Absolutely Fabulous duo. Let me explain.

When I was watching the Cumberpatch/Freeman Sherlock, their relationship suddenly made me think of AbFab. One of the team is a silly basketcase (Watson, as he’s written for this series), and one is completely cool. Now, Patsy is no detective mastermind, but within the fashion-oriented world of AbFab, she is a consulting savant.

Yes, I’m comparing Patsy Stone to Sherlock Holmes.

And Edina Monsoon, with all of her fake Buddhist chanting and colonic remedies, to Dr. Watson.

They are the antithesis of the Sherlock archetype. It’s impossible to get any further from it. I find it hilarious that, while watching a Sherlock show, I was reminded of these two. However, Eddie and Patsy are a Four/Nine duo living in the best aspects of their Enneagrams.

Patsy, as the Nine, is stoic and dispassionate. Eddie the Four feels everything — everything — for the both of them. Their lifelong friendship, even though it portrays a codependency, is loving and charming. The Cumberpatch/Freeman Sherlock is building something very similar, except the Enneagram numbers are flipped. A Four who feels nothing, as Sherlock does, will never build a healthy partnership with a Nine who carries the emotional load.

As you can see, this post is just an excuse to continue my complaint against the Sherlock series. It’s based, though, in a dedicated passion for AbFab, a ridiculous wonderment of female devotion. I continue to rewatch it every few years. Saunders and Lumley have created something true, even if it’s exaggerated.

(And even more hilariously, I’ve created an Eddie toon in my Fallout 76 playthrough. She’s a ghoul — a wrinkled, noseless, undying social reject. Like a classic episode of AbFab, Eddie pursued a questionable beauty treatment with unexpected consequences. It’s all good, though. She looks refreshed.)

Porthole Two

DÓNAL FINN’S MORIARTY, THREE

To make Holmes’ archnemesis his friend in Young Sherlock is a stroke of genius. For the majority of the season Moriarty is a straightforward companion. Only at the end do we see James become tempted by a different path.

Moriarty is no Watson, who’s a sidekick. James behaves like a hero with a daring streak. Sometimes he is sharper than Sherlock and more confident. And he’s not confined by pesky rules.

I could go Eight because of his leadership and boss-ness. I could go Three because of his charm and unwillingness to fail.

Ah, wouldn’t that be interesting! A Three who becomes a villain.

And if Holmes is a Six, as I’ve predicted, then we have strength/weakness numbers as buddies. James the Three would move to Sherlock’s Six in strength, making him a more law-abiding character. Holmes moving to Three in weakness would be more of a woe-is-me character, which we see in this season.

I enjoyed this show, but I’m not hyperventilating for the next installment. However, these Enneagram numbers excite me for the possibilities. I hope they continue developing the leads along these lines.

HERO FIENNES TIFFIN’S HOLMES, SIX

Goodness, man, lol. We need an overbearing studio head to give this actor a shorter name. Oh, he played Tom Riddle! And he’s Ralph Fiennes’ nephew. Nevermind.

Now he’s playing Sherlock Holmes in a new series, Young Sherlock, that has no connection to the 1985 Steven Spielberg movie. This is a Guy Ritchie production, the director of the Robert Downey, Jr. movie. The pedigree is obvious; this Holmes also previews his thoughts cinematically. So, is this Holmes a Seven like RDJ’s portrayal?

My gut says no. This Sherlock was traumatized as a child by his sister’s death. His lingering sorrow becomes the major plot point. Although he ends up in trouble with the law, Tiffin’s Holmes isn’t reckless like the Sherlock we expect. He’s curious and quick but he’s not as charismatic as previous portrayals.

Here’s the real twist, though: Sherlock’s partner is James Moriarty. At this point he’s not an arch-enemy. He’s his buddy crimesolver. They make a great team, and then add in our foreknowledge of what Moriarty is to become. It’s an excellent story hook.

However, Holmes is not the leader and he’s not remarkable (yet). Basically, he’s a college-aged man who has unresolved feelings about his lost sister. He’s wounded.

I want to say Heart Type, but he exhibits no envy. Is he a Nine, the heroic catchall for writers? No, he’s not particularly athletic or physical. He’s a Head Type.

Not a Seven, though. I think he’s a Six because of his tender heart. If indeed he’s a Six — someone who sees the world in black and white, not gray — he’s going to have a big problem with Moriarty as the seasons continue. Of course. That’s the point of putting them together.

Porthole One

Story Enneagram of the “Hogwarts Legacy” game

ONE

Ministry Official Osric, catching a ride with us to Hogwarts, shows Professor Fig the goblin-metal canister Miriam Fig sent him before her death. It may have some relation to the rebel goblin, Ranrok. Only I can see that the canister glows. Inside is a golden key.

A red-eyed dragon attacks, killing Osric and destroying the carriage. As Fig and I fall, he grabs the key, which is a portkey. We end up at a remote location. A magical doorway that only I can see transports us to Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

TWO

The portkey is for Vault 12, one of the earliest ever built. A guard with red eyes watches us proceed to our vault. After we step through the door, our banker, as per instructions from the original vault owner, locks us inside. Glowing symbols lead us through a dungeon and toward a pensieve with a locket floating above it.

THREE

In the pensieve’s memory, Percival Rackham and Charles Rookwood discuss the person who will eventually discover Vault 12. This person (me) will be able to wield ancient magic.