When I first came up with outline to the first act, I pictured this scene to be two dudes partying until the sun comes up. They already both know that they’re going on a drug deal in the morning before the wedding, and simply party hard enough to sleep in and set off a chain of really bad events for them.

Then I drew the card “Secret Society”, which gave me some ideas and details as to how to use a secret/powerful/criminal group to enhance the story. Obviously, some sort of drug-mob had to be involved at some point, but the card gave me the idea (and somewhat forced me to) introduce that mob right in the second scene, up the stakes, and let everyone know who we’re dealing with.

So, instead of focusing on the party, I shifted the scene towards Nathan making a terrible deal with a notorious man named “The Knuckle” (a name both cheesy and serious). As I brainstormed in the beginning, Nathan has to replace a previously taken out drug-runner, and he sees this as his chance to finally make a name for himself.

I also used the scene to show that Nate is aware of how people think of him (and that he doesn’t totally disagree), but that he’s willing to aim high and play big. He takes charge, makes the deal, convinces Mitch that he has it all under control, and ruins it all by partying too hard, too long.

What does that mean going forward? First of all, Mitch is now not directly involved with the people behind the drugs. Maybe I can use that later to give Nathan a feeling of guilt (we already know they split up and Mitch’s left behind). Mitch also doesn’t know how high the stakes really are, but I estabslihred that he does deal in drugs on a small, local level. So once the real bad guys enter the scene, they might know him (hate him), or he might know them (fear them), or maybe they’re connected somehow else already.

Read the scene again, or go straight to the first scene and catch up from the beginning, I conveniently placed page-turning-like links on the top right of each scene to easily flip between them.

Let me know what you think, how you would have handled the scene in conjunction with the card I drew.

As a bonus, I’ll leave you with the card for next week’s scene. Make of it what you will.

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