Exercise 6.4
Blue-Sky Brainstorm
In this exercise, use the techniques previously described to do a brainstorm for a “blue-sky” project. The challenge is to come up with ideas for a “remote control” for a stereotypical character. Choose a character from this list: Door-to-door salesman, Busy mother, God, Superhero, Politician. First, brainstorm about the character: What does the character do? What makes the character interesting? What aspect of the character would it be engaging to control? How does the character react? Does the character have free will? Next, brainstorm features for your imaginary controller. What will it look like? What could each button do? Remember, this is “blue sky,” so the buttons can do crazy things.
Politician - This character plots for world domination and parrots anything their party and constituents say. They say whatever they think without consideration of consequences or how their words will affect others. This character is a braggart, pompous, sociopathic person who flaunts power and wealth. This character is 100% fictional and any similarity to politicians, past and present, is purely coincidental.
Aspects of the character that would be interesting to control would be kindness and empathy. The character looks in the mirror and doesn’t know who they are anymore. They stop parroting the beliefs and dogma of their base and start thinking about how their actions affect others. This character becomes emotionally touched by events happening around them, and for the first time in many years, sheds a tear at the sight of injustice and unkindness. The character has free will and tries to shut this new part of themself down, but they are at the mercy of the person with the remote control.
Remote control features and design: the remote control will look like like a person, and buttons on different parts of the body will control some aspect of that part of the body.
Top of head: decreases height.
Forehead: increases logic intellectual capacity.
Ears: increases patience, listening.
Nose: makes the character sneeze.
Mouth: a dial that ranges from lies, lies and more lies to absolute truth teller.
Back of the head: sleep, or shut down, depending on pressure applied.
Heart: increases emotional capacity, kindness and empathy.
Hands: increases skills such as dexterity and crafting.
Feet: increases speed.
Bottom of feet: increases height.
Legs: increases flexibility.
Finger: pull to make character fart (very juvenile, I know - but funny!)