Creative Skills Development: Online Journal #3

Today is the last day of my Creative Skills Development class so I'll be posting the rest of my assignments for everyone to read. And by everyone I mean my 2 subscribers! This assignment was to look at the picture below and answer questions about the character as we see them. Most people in class saw an old widowed woman with Alzheimer's.



Here are my answers:

Q: Who is she?

A: This is Jimmi “Shakes,” a transvestite with epilepsy and a drug problem.

Q: Where does she live?

A: She lives in Las Vegas, NV.

Q: What does she want?

A: She wants to have her own headlining act at The Sands casino. The Sands was closed in 1996.

Q: What does she need?

A: She needs a chance to be understood, serious mental/medical care, and a sympathetic ear.

Q: What does she do and why?

A: She sings in dirty dive bars. She’s not paid. She just sings from a bar stool until they throw her out or some seedy patron with a pocket full of cash and a ball of meth convinces her to go back to a dirty motel. Her habit and dreams of a life that never could have been hers drag her to bar after bar, jumping from room to room and from fix to fix.

Q: Does she perceive herself as a success or a failure? Why?

A: She perceives herself as a success waiting to happen. She doesn’t realize how old she is or how bad her life is. She believes that every horrible situation she finds herself in is taking her just one step closer to her dream. Drugs, mental disorder, and sexual/emotional abuse, delude her into believing all this.

Q: What was, is, or will be her defining moment?

A: When she was 25 years old Jimmi fell in love with a “Made Man.” This wise guy secretly took Jimmi on as his lover. He promised Jimmi the world. He told Jimmi that she would have her own show and that she would headline every night. He gave Jimmi drugs to keep her quite and obedient. When Jimmi got impatient with unfulfilled promises she confronted Jimmi in front of some of his “friends” Jimmi repaid her by beating her into a coma. He never spoke to Jimmi again. Jimmi never fully recovered emotional from the attack.