"Look At Me" Moments

Classic cartoons are a great way to study what I have termed Look At Me Moments. A Look At Me Moment is when the audience is glued to the set and cannot tear their eyes away from watching what happens next.

Classic cartoons, as I said, are a great place to discover what the artists used to compell the audience to look. I have begun a list of such moments for use in story writing, and I thought I would let my fellow writers have a look at them.

1. dangling
2. falling
3. nearling being eaten
4. flying/being airborne
5. being covered in mud/dirt
6. upsetting a tray of edibles, especially messy ones
7. being lost
8. multiple things going wrong at once
9. a kick to the character's posterior
10. valuables being nearly destroyed
11. cold water being applied in various ways to a character
12. a pathway being blocked

This is only a partial list, and I intend to expand upon it as my studies continue. You may also discover several more on your own.

Every character needs a goal, or there is no story. I have begun compiling goals as well:

The hungry/thirsty seek food/drink.

The lonely seek friends.

The fearful seek safety.

The bored seek adventure.

As you can see, the list is just beginning. See how many you can think of as you make your own worklist.

Here is an example of how I might use my list to begin a story.

"I clung to the ladder, sure I would lose my nerve if I didn't lose my grip. Everything on the ground below seemed tiny. I looked up at the sky, wondering how I got into this mess. If only Thompson hadn't been intoxicated and if only he hadn't just dropped my safety equipment ten stories down. I glanced at him angrily. He certainly wasn't going be of any help. I would have to get us both down, and that required me to get a grip and keep a clear head."

This employs dangling or nearly falling, his helper being out of commission, his safety equipment being unavailable, and the goal in mind of getting them both out of danger and into safety. Multiple things were going wrong at once. Maybe I would develop this more and have a cold bucket of window washing water splashed on the drunken man's face (by accident or your hero will seem vindictive). It is also similar to a pathway being blocked, because it is much more difficult to get down a ladder carrying a limp and uncooperative person without any safety equipment than it is to do so in the way originally intended.