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psyche throbs the Inner Essence, that soul that harbors aspirations, deep desires for what that person really wants to do and be in this life. Only a select few are allowed to see that Inner Essence. The Soul Mate, the sexual match meant to cherish and appreciate/accept both good and bad, sees beyond the Outer Identity to that Inner Essence.
    Hauge solved a story problem for one script writer with this concept when he explained how a love triangle proves who should be the lover who wins. Of the two vying for the third’s affections, one is attuned only to Identity of the apex person while the true soul mate (who should win) recognizes and plays to the Essence of the beloved.
     
    THE RELATIONSHIP PLANE
    This approach to a relationship’s evolution fits well into the structure of Syd Field’s Paradigm and those suggested by various other Hollywood gurus.
    Start with the idea of a stair step of complications encountered, blocking life moving forward and forcing consideration of other options, a choice of action moving forward until another event forces consideration of new action. The result is ever-worsening circumstances, the climb up the staircase of dramatic action thus creating Rising Tension and sucking the audience along with empathetic concern.

 

 
    Relationship Plane Definitions as related to Screenplays:
    Look : Initial encounter where Linda Howard’s Step 1 happens . . . but characters are going about their business. Though other person is noted and that event is seen by the audience, the two characters are not instantaneously turned on.
    Interest : Howard’s Step 2 . . . This contact can illicit an awareness of pheromones prompting the body language of opening toward this other person, watching and listening for what makes this person so intriguing. This is a cinematically intense moment of one character’s focused POV. This event must happen to move the relationship forward, to make them memorable to one another when they are apart. This event will have a direct link with the Permission of Plot Point I that ends the set-up and launches the couple into actually investigating the totally new world of this relationship.
    Engagement : Howard’s Step 3 . . . Where the two people seek a mental commonality and acknowledge the Pull Factor of the pheromones-physical attraction. but the tentative nature of cautious humans maintains the distance with the Push Factor.
    Permission : Howard’s Step 4 . . . The two have moved close enough to physically touch hand-to-hand and maintain that contact. Trust blossoms and in the awareness of accepting, the two step across the social barrier from acquaintances to curious investigators. They allow themselves to intellectually open to this other person.
    Attraction : Howard’s Step 5-6 . . . Acknowledging that this might be an important person is admitting one may not be complete and independent, may need someone else to make life a happy experience. How does one happily survive life incomplete? That can create insecurity and fear of loneliness not previously recognized. The need to step close and hold this other person can be a driving force.
    Liking : Not related to any of Howard’s Steps but a definite element in relationships, liking one another is vitally important to the longevity of the relationship. In the build up of physical attraction, the signaling of all that chemistry, a writer has to demonstrate these two people respect one another so they can see glimpses of Essence. Those inner qualities make them feel so comfortable they want to be around that other person more. They want to share some of their own Essence to see if they are compatible. Are their values the same?
    Connection : Howard’s Steps 5-9 . . . At the Mid-Point of a story an epiphany happens, a culminating event that shocks the characters into an awareness of the high stakes of both failure and success. This could be merely a heightening of the physical tension, but it could be taking the couple all