Motivating stimulus and Character reaction

1)
MS. Agnes’ face came into focus, then. The blonde hair was matted, the worn plaid dress in
rags. She’d been crying too, apparently, for there were tear-streaks on her grime-smudged cheeks.
Dark circles rimmed the great, frightened, little-girl eyes, and when she turned her head to the left
a fraction, a bruise came into view, all ugly blues and purples, swelling shut the lids, as if she were
a grown man slugged in a barroom brawl.
CR. Miller lay very still, his knuckles white on the glasses. . . .

2)

Motivating stimulus The lake lay like a drop of icy rain, caught in a
cleft of a thin green leaf.

Character reaction:

Feeling NOT STATED

Action Hunkering down in a clump of spruce high on

the mountainside, Miller considered it
carefully.

Motivating stimulus The camping trailers stood at the lake’s south

end, Godden’s tent beside them. . . . and so on

Thing is, close-ups are emphasis shots, shots to make a point. They hit the hardest, count the most.

3)
MS. Agnes’ face came into focus, then. The blonde hair was smooth and neatly combed, the
worn plaid dress clean even though in rags. She was laughing, and even at this distance the blue
eyes seemed to dance with life. Hugging the battered doll to her, she looked down and spoke to it
fondly.

CR. Miller lay very still. Then, slowly, his hands relaxed and the color came back to his
whitened knuckles. . . .

Thus, Miller again is motivated; again reacts, showing feeling. But this feeling is different from the
one before. It points the scenes that follow in a potentially different direction.