“Be attentive to what is arising in you”

“Be attentive to what is arising in you, and prize it above all that you perceive around you. What happens most deeply inside you is worthy of your whole love.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke

This works on at least two levels. First, in our own lives. Second, if you direct this thought toward the Protagonist of your story, it focuses your attention on the essence of that character’s transformation.

What is arising in your Protagonist? What is happening most deeply inside them pressing upward into their conscious life and increasingly influencing their choices and actions in Act Two and beyond?

This is what your Protagonist needs, what I call their Unconscious Goal. Whatever happens in the Plotline, it is almost certainly tied to their Authentic Self “arising” into full bloom.

With Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, it’s her knowledge that her home, which at first doesn’t feel like a home (Kansas farm) is actually worthy and full of love.

With Rick in Casablanca, it’s his idealism, which had gotten swallowed up by his cynical response to having been jilted by Ilsa, arising at the end, sacrificing his revitalized love for her to a greater cause.

With Baxter in The Apartment, it’s his inner ‘mensch’ which emerges and trumps his initial want to rise up the corporate ladder.

With Michael in Tootsie, it’s his inner female which had been blinded by his sexist attitudes, awakened via his experiences as Dorothy Michaels.

With Clarice in The Silence of the Lambs, it’s the empowerment she summons up to ‘confess’ her deepest terror — reliving the slaughter of the lambs on her uncle’s farm, how that has a deep association with her father’s murder — then using her new-found power to free Catherine Martin and slay Buffalo Bill.

Engage your Protagonist. Dig down into that which is “most deeply within” them, their Need which is “arising”… and you will tap into the essence and foundation of their personal metamorphosis.

And as I say, we can look to this in our OWN lives as well!

Onward!