Thinking about...
Joseph...he could have had Mary stoned for breaking their marriage contract? And he was likely a fool not to.
Mary's dad...he would have been so pissed at Mary for potentially losing the financial arrangement.
Joseph...how bad would it have sucked not to get to share the joy of his 1st child with his wife?
Mary...when she missed her period & started puking, she knew she never had sex but knew no one would believe her.
Joseph...so the 1st time he saw Mary naked was probably to deliver Jesus. Sexy.
The Magi..."Excuse me, sorry to interrupt, I'm sure you're tired, but we've been traveling for months..."
Bethlehem...how tragic that all the infant boys had to be slaughtered, house to house, screaming mother to screaming mother, for Messiah to come.
The other young Bethlehem-ian mothers...how do you keep your faith in God when Herod slaughters your infant son?
Mary & Joseph...after such a long trip north, they have to travel the same roads south and beyond to Egypt, all the while staying off the main roads so Herod's soldiers wouldn't kill Jesus. Silent nights, indeed.
Joseph...He's never been outside Nazareth before, yet now he's hiking to Bethlehem, then fleeing for his life to Egypt & SEEING THE PYRAMIDS!!!
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THE REALIZATIONS
(1) The lines directly before any kind of time jump were either purple, orange, or green -- internal conflict, external conflict, or a decision. The effect is that we don't get bored following a long sequence of time passing.
(2) In a scene where 3 or more people are speaking, each new speaker gets an action or action tag. This prevents confusion and keeps us in the story.
(3) The MC uses Subject/Verb speaking tags. Other characters mostly use Verb/Subject tags. (Example: Batman says. says Joker.)
(4) Chunks of dialogue are hardly ever interrupted by any other type. Often the author saves the internal conflict till directly following the conflict right before.
(5) Plus the Interns realizations are right on, especially the one about decisions/choices almost always follow right after a conflict of some kind.
More coming soon.
