Last night we continued to work on repetition with Trigger Events and Hot Whos. An interesting discussion arose out of one of the scenes. The question posed was something like, is it possible for a trigger event to be so “hot” that nothing the scene partner does can affect you?
The discussion actually clarified something that I had been wondering about, but couldn’t quite put into words, mainly about the Hot Who. I understand that the Trigger Event is what gets you into the scene, but I wasn’t sure if the Hot Who was how the scene partner was supposed to be ALL THE TIME, or if it was just how I FELT about the person just in the first moment of the scene. For example, last week I used the Trigger “They had just sold my friend the drugs that killed him.” I then used the Hot Who “Repentant Killer” to add some inner conflict as to how I was going to treat them. However, my Hot Who was an indicator of how they might have approached their side of the scene. I was essentially scripting their character. Instead, the Hot Who, like the Trigger, is just how I view that person AT THE MOMENT that the Trigger Event occurs. My responsibility at that point is to deal with their behavior. I can see them in the moment as a cold-blooded killer, but their behavior may not match my initial viewpoint. It’s through the repetition and dealing with their behavior that I may or may not adjust how I respond to them.