The Staple Remover in the Corner

The stakes are raised when a character makes choices that he would not normally make to get the staple remover. We don't even need to know what the object he's seeking is, but we can start to feel empathy for him. The character also starts to understand more about himself or her by making these decisions. Most screen wriders have this urge to take their foot off the gas pedal in order to torture their characters. If it doesn't get harder, we're never going to really know the character.