Here is the first set of responses from #writingexcuses #masterclass episode 10.1 (useful, as they surely relate to the answers for the second assignment!):

1: Aliens come to Earth and become subsumed by the profit motive. Being good cooks, they end up selling hot dogs in NY, pushing all the other vendors out of business. Ends with an alien seeing a former vendor begging for food. The alien doesn't give any, as the vendor can't pay.

2: As country A gears up for war against its former, long-time ally country B, the army gins up a xenophobic fervor. A young woman who escaped violence in B by going to A as a girl is pressed to either make her stand in the country she calls home, or else flee to safety in the place she once fled.

3: In the oldest city of a great empire, earthquakes have started happening where before there were none. The city gov. does its best to keep repairing the damages, but once sink- holes begin popping up, swallowing buses and trains and a small dentist's office, it's forced to admit defeat. At night, strange noises come from people's basements and the people grow fearful of what ancient thing predates their city.

4: Two explorers battle it out for the best radio connection, piloting remote submarines through the metallic shell of a sunken treasure ship, trying to keep their connection up long enough to claim the riches.

5: In a jazz club, the instruments can speak to one another, but only while being played. Changing tastes put pressure on the club, and the instruments, fearing a life of solitude awaits them, they go on strike, preventing the musicians from being heard. The action attracts community attention, and eventually the owner relents. However, having seen they are at his whim, the instruments begin hatching a plan to remove him and run it themselves.

This is the second assignment for the #writingexcuses #masterclass episode 10.2! I'll post responses to the prior assignment (on which this is based) shortly.

1: Aliens visit Earth and become hot dog vendors in the oldest city of a great empire, as they need some form of employment to survive. Their ruthlessness pushes the other hotdog vendors out of business, and at the same time earthquakes and sinkholes start popping up. The old hotdog vendors try to get sympathy,but none is given. People are scared and just protect their own. Story ends with realization that old vendors were the monsters. They destroy city to revenge themselves upon the aliens.

2: For the pilot adventure story, change it to frenetic romance between the two submarines. Each is actively trying to evade a good signal from the treasure hunter, as the signal overrides their own agency. Both hunters find the door to the largest treasure simultaneously, but immediately lose contact with their subs. Inside the room is a small society of submarines who've all managed to escape their masters and now live peacefully.

3: Using the war story, the only character cld envisioned so far was the young woman. She has to be an old man now, I suppose (what about intersex folks, yall??).Much of the drama was going to be the threat of violence, as opposed to actual fisticuffs, so the move will prob. he to amp up the tragedy of his choice (he'll still have arrived when young). Honestly, doesn't feel like much of a change.

4: For the jazz one, the change will be that the club is sold to a very rich land developer. He leverages his power to isolate the community from the strikers (maybe he closes public transit, proposes road works to block the road, owns an electric utility and shuts off power/causes a blackout...). Without support, the instruments lose their battle and die.