Post-Seminar Brain Dump: Character Work and Story Arc

Note: a whole lot of this probably won't make sense. This is me thinking through some notes and questions posed to me during seminar about my project and how I'm working on answering them.

What's the inciting incident? And by that I mean, at what point do the characters realize they have a problem?

Today, I answered that the inciting incident comes when Kathy instructs Lex, Rowan, and Dani to go clean out the house. But that's not exactly a problem, that's the shifting of the status quo. So what's the problem these characters face? What decision is made that leaves them stuck in the house during the storm?

Also, in thinking about the characters, they don't have very fleshed-out motivations, so I did a quick and dirty character study below. 

Lex

• want: rebound to success
• need: interpersonal relationships
• the lie: she doesn't need her brother

 Rowan

• want: independence
• need: self-forgiveness
• the lie: he doesn't need help

Dani

• want: stability
• need: reconnection
• the lie: she could've done more for Nana Tully