My character needs a skill! help!

[IsraelHoudini]

my main character is a frustrated teacher. at the end of his day he goes to the gym or track or something to work out his angst about his life, etc. later he gets put into a kind of prison work camp. here he has to compete with the head prisoner for influence by using the same skill in a head to head competition. Finally when he escapes, he calls upon the same skill to save his neck just in the nick of time.

question is...what does he do? and how does it help him later in the plot? ???

[GenJerDan]

Swiped from How I Spent My Summer Vacation*: he can hold his breath longer than anyone else.

How it helps him later?...a myriad of possibilities.

Dan

*1967 Robert Wagner film no one has seen, so it's safe to swipe the bit. ;D
I wish it would come out on DVD.

[seattlegoods]

the skill to THROW HIS VOICE voice voice... :D ;) ::) ....kidin this is a hard one.. kinda feels like a math problem when reading this then going back and reading it again... if I think of anything I'll will post it. good luck

[CageWarrior]

brain power? maybe he could be a really smart guy and uses his intelligence to get an edge over people and overcome things.

ok not really as flashy as the ability to breathe fire but I tried ;)

[EVIL_HOMER]

Rope Climbing!

(Rope climbing is required at one stage of the escape)

Main character is experienced (Millatary training or extreme sports) He teaches a buddy in the prison gym to climb a rope as they prepare for the escape

Head prisoner tourments them and challenges the main character to a climbing contest/race in the prison Gym.

The catch is they must do it with a heavy weight tied to them (dangling from their waist)

(Maybe this is a competition that the inmates have designed to compete/battle against each other) (Inmates circle around to watch, it's an event)

The main character although he is new to the contest, is able to defeat him

As they later on escape from the prison something happens to his buddy (injured or unconcious). He reaches the rope obstacle/stage of the escape.

Lead character ties up his buddy to himself and proceeds to climb the rope. (Buddy dangling lifelessly)

If I go any further I may aswell write this thing myself

Hope this helps!

[reflex]

how about skill with a bow staff?

[uhrgl]

Hop scotch is way underused in film today.

[J_Barnes]

Skills, skills....skills...hmm....

Invoke Cthulhu, Level 3?

+2 Dodge Missile Attack?

-2 Cliched Screenplay Formula Resistance?

How about drinking? At the end, he has to drink the entire contents of a fermenting tank to avoid being drowned in Canadian beer.

Perhaps he has the incredible ability to eat 50 eggs?

Maybe he's horrible at basketball, but at the end of the film he's got to shoot a ball through a hoop at the top of a mast in order to get his sail back up and win the race?

[Neil Rowe]

..i think having him be a master pac man player would be pretty sweet. at the end pac man could come out of the screen and eat his enemy.


..or he could just be smart.. i liked that one too.

[Chris Messineo]

Two words: Roller Boogie

[ckalan1]

He teaches himself the art of fly fishing. Then uses that skill to help reach something that is just out of reach to most people but because he has perfected his ability to hit the spot with perfect accuracy and get what he needs to survive.

[leewriter]

[Seems like everyone is having a bit of fun at the original poster's expense. In all seriousness, there is actually a process to developing a good story. sit down and forget about the plot for now. Create a complete biography for the character. where and when he was born, what did his parents do, did he have any siblings, what kind of friends, girlfriends, kind of car. did he like to ride bikes? depending on his age, was he into computers, TV, Games, fantasy role playing, comic books. etc. In other words, paint a picture of a person and make him real and 3-dimensional. Put a face on this person. I typically use an actor that I'd like to cast in the film. Helps to develop the personality and the limitations of the person. You need to make the person REAL. Don't just say he's a school teacher and put him in prison. Give the guy a history. What does he teach? Why does he teach and why did he choose that particular subject? Maybe it's the subject he teaches that helps him out. If he's a science teacher, he can use scientific principles (like Macguyver on TV). That way, when you throw him in to any, and I mean any circumstance, you'll know what he can and cannot do and you'll also know how he'll react. Once you've done that for your lead characters (note I used the plural form), then you can start developing the plot. BUT! Save yourself some grief and time and write a plot outline first. that way if you screw up the plot outline and load it up with holes that make no sense, it's a lot easier to rewrite the outline than it is the script with dialogue. As a suggestion, get the book STORY, by Robert McKee. I have his book, learned from it when I got my master's degree and now teach from it. I've also been to his seminars and I highly recommend going to one if you can afford the $545 plus travel expenses and meals.

Good luck with your writing, but do realize it's not as easy as you think. Many of my students have found that you have to work very hard to develop a good, sellable script.

[Thomas_E_SP]

How about:

he can ( I don't know the name of it in english ) do the exercise where you grab a bar with your hands and flex your arms until your head reaches the bar, but with one hand.

he can assemble a gun real fast and they have a stand-off at it in jail.

he stand upside down really long ( funny story: a friend of mine does a brazilian dance/fight and he can stand upside down as long as he wants, so one day we were outside a club trying to get in and talking to girls, and one of the girls ( we didn't know her+friends ) kind of nicely challenged him when he ( trying to "impress" her ) told her of his "skill", so he stood upside down for like three minutes until the bouncer came and said: "You can't stand upside down!" ( and everybody on the line started laughing at him ) then a girl pulled off this move: she said: "OK, we got your attention, it's because it's my birthday and I wanted to get in before midnight", so we got in and I ended up with the "challenging" girl, and it really was the girl's birthday! ) sorry it took so long.

he can bend his arm or leg backwards

he can stretch a lot...

he might have a real good balance

I don't know...