BUILDING UP A GREAT CHARACTER
A good story needs a great cast of characters to be memorable. When you start your screenplay you need to think about the characters you are going to write about. There are ten things a character needs to be great. These all apply to main characters, villains, supporting characters and even minor characters. The ten keys to building a great character are:
- A Goal And An Opposition
- Motivation
- A Backstory
- A Point Of View And Attitude
- Revealing Action
- Growing Room
- Plausibility
- Details
- Research
- A Strong Supporting Cast
Lets look at each of these in detail.
A Goal And An Opposition
There is something that your character wants. The character’s goal should be specific and measurable. Seeking inner peace is not a measurable goal. Seeking the Presidency is a goal, you know when it has or has not been accomplished.
A good goal should be hard to achieve and worth fighting for. Nobody wants to watch a movie about a woman trying to find her spare set of keys. Whatever goal you choose for your character there also needs to be an opposition, an individual force trying to stop the character achieving the goal. That individual force should make the character sweat and work to achieve the goal, and face an inner fear.
Motivation
Now your character has a goal you need to ask yourself a question, why does the character want to achieve this goal? What is his motivation? The more personal the motivation the better. This is why there are so many movies where a character has their family kidnapped. There’s nothing more personal and motivating than that. A deeply personal motivation will allow the audience to relate to the character in your screenplay. This is how you create a relationship between the character and he audience.
A Backstory
The backstory is what happened to the characters before the movie began. Having a detailed backstory helps bring the characters to life rather than being instruments of telling the story. A character’s past should influence how they act and react to things. If their parents were involved in a messy divorce when they were young then they may be very wary of getting married themselves.
Backstory is a great example of the “show don’t tell” adage. Rather than have a dozen flashbacks try to bring out the backstory through the way the character acts, what they say and how they say it.
A Point Of View And An Attitude
Everyone has their own world view, attitude and thoughts and feelings. So should your character. These things are normally closely related to the character’s backstory. The backstory is the reason for the particular point of view and attitude the character has. A woman who has been cheated on by her last few boyfriends is likely, and acceptably, going to have a dim point of view towards men. Use the character’s backstory to create their point of view and attitudes.
Revealing Actions
Actions speak louder than words. You judge a character on the way they act, not on what they say or think. Imagine a character who dreams of committing murder every night, and is constantly thinking of ways to kill people…yet never does so because he realises it is wrong. Now imagine the opposite, a character who thinks and dreams of “normal things” yet one day, for no reason, goes out and knifes an innocent person to death. Who is the evil character?
Your characters (especially your main one) should always be willing to act, even if they don’t act in the way they directly think.
Growing Room
A “perfect” character is a boring character. They have everything they want and need so there’s no story to tell. Everyone knows someone whose life seems to go great beat for beat, you find yourself envious of them and willing them to fail. Instantly you should see from this that a good character should be imperfect. They have to be willing to try and change themselves for the better. Often they will try too hard and end up realising they were fine as they were, even if still aren’t perfect.
Plausibility
There’s a major difference between a character in a screenplay and a real life person. A character is single focused solely on attaining their goal while a real life person often have a lot of balls to juggle at once, causing a lack of focus. However you can make your character more plausible in a number of ways.
A character should have human emotions. If they stand there stone faced as the world is destroyed then they aren’t human, they’re a robotic character. Let them recoil in terror, or scream in anger. Let them react to situations the way a real human would. Remember though that humans often fight their emotions or try to hide them, but they still seep through.
They also need to have human traits and values. Your character could be a mean old grouch amongst those he works with yet have a heart of gold when with his family. This doesn’t mean the character is schizophrenic, just that he hates work and loves spending time with his family. Every character has a dark side and a good side. Even the “bad guy” has a glimmer of hope inside, even if its just the way he treats his plants. Plausibility means shades of grey, not blank and white.
Details
Details are the little things that make up life. They are the mannerisms, quirks, habits, idiosyncrasies and imperfections that make a character human. Along your way through life you pick up some very unusual traits. If you’ve seen Stranger Than Fiction you might remember that Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) brushed each of his thirty-two teeth seventy-six times. Everyone has something peculiar about them, you need to bring out those small details in your character.
Research
To create a great character for your screenplay you need to put time and care into them. This means a lot of research. There are two types of research. One is general research, the other is specific research.
A Strong Supporting Cast
One great character does not make a strong cast. You can have the most interesting character in the ever thought up but if they have no-one else with any depth to play off then they’re dead in the water. You need to put just as much care into every character you create as your main one. Whenever you start a screenplay you want to create at least four rich characters so you have plenty of room for interplay. This makes writing dialogue so much easier.
Your characters should share similarities as well as contrasts that bind them together. Remember that every major character must have their own unique function that moves the story forward.
Build that character up, one brick at a time.
MAKING A MEMORABLE CHARACTER
It is important as a scriptwriter to come up with characters that are not only realistic and gripping but also fit the story you are trying to tell. The most important of these two considerations is that the character fit in with the plot. You need to create a character that will deeply care and react to whatever event is happening around them. If your character cares about what happens around them it makes it so much easier to get the audience to care about them.
When to begin to create a character, especially a major one, you normally begin with a couple of personality traits and a vague idea of what they look like. The more visual and audio media you listen to the easier it is to have that spark of an idea to make a memorable character. You just need the right voice, line of dialogue, look or goal to get that initial idea. Once you have that initial idea you need to grab it by the throat and shake as much detail as you can out of it.
Try to draw out this initial idea now and create an image of this character in your head.
- Are they male or female?
- How old are they?
- What type of clothes do they wear?
- How do they style their hair?
- Do they wear glasses?
Now you have a visual image of your character you need to explore the background of the character.
- What was their childhood like?
- Do they have a family now?
- What kind of people do they befriend?
- What is their profession?
- Do they carry anything around with them?
- Where is their home?
- What do they own?
Once you have figured all this out you have a nice skeleton of a character. You have all the information you need of this character to write about them. However if you delve a little deeper you can create a truly memorable character for your screenplay.
Think about what it is that makes this character unique from other characters which might share similarities. Come up with a single sentence description of the character which captures their essence and personality. This sentence should capture the character in such a way that the reader will instantly understand them. Columbo is the scruffy, bumbling detective with a sharp mind.
While you come up with this sentence you may also want to name your character. By now you should have a good idea who the character is and what they stand for. Try to create a name which represents the character without sounding cliché. Lt. Columbo is a great name for the character. Straight away you know his rank within the police force, while Columbo is a step away from Columbus, a man famed for thediscovery of America. You might also note that Columbo never gave a first name, adding to his mystery.
You can still delve even deeper into your character. Take the role of interviewer for a lifestyle magazine. Ask your character interesting questions, sometimes the answers might surprise you. Whenever you come across a surprising answer or loose thread question them further on it. Let the character speak for themselves, let the words flow through your fingers. Take everything you know about the character and take the role yourself.
Once you get into the head of a character this way it becomes a lot easier to develop them to the point where they become completely real in your mind. This is a great thing. Now you can imagine how they act and react to their everyday activities. Think about them at their job, going shopping, amongst family, amongst friends and partaking in their hobbies. You will soon see the small personality changes that naturally happen depending on the situation the character is in.
You’ve created a great thing here, a character who is an individual. If you’re scriptwriting and come to a part of the plot where the character needs to do something which defies their core then you need to re-evaluate the plot or re-create the character. The best way of getting around this issue is to have an event earlier on in the screenplay which explains why the character might react in such a way that goes against what they stand for normally.
Whether the character you’ve created is likeable or not you have to learn to respect them. Treat them as the individuals they are. Respect their quirks and contradictions. Remember that the characters feelings and what happens around them means absolutely everything to them.
CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS
Rarely does a character exist in their world alone. Even films with the central premise of lonliness have some form of relationships, such as “I, Legend” where Will Smith has his canine companion by his side. This is because it’s an awful lot easier to write a script containing lots of character interaction, it helps progress the story, develop characters and create conflict.
As the years have gone one relationships have become increasingly important in films. It seems like every other movie produced is heavily entrenched in the story of a friendship, sexual relationship or family dynamics. The reason for this is simple, we all know how relationships work, or perhaps more accurately, how they don’t work. The majority of the research is already done.
One of the most interesting insights character relationships offer is how character act differently around different characters. A character who appears to be highly successful and confident may turn into a tongue-tied, blithering idiot around the partner of their dreams. Sometimes the chemistry between two characters can strengthen one while weakening the other, sometimes it weakens both character while others both characters will be stronger for the relationship.
There are four basic elements that any relationship can have. If you are writing a script based on a relationship story you might want to create the foundation for the relationship first and then fit the individual character qualities around the relationship. Keep the following character relationship elements in mind:
- 1. The characters have a common bond that both brings and keeps them together. This is most commonly seen in “cop movies” such as Lethal Weapon. While the characters may not like each other to begin with their occupation bond keeps them together until they grow to be friends. This is an example of character attraction, there has to be some reason the characters are together and stay together, especially if they don’t like each other to begin with.
- 2. There is conflict between the characters. Perfect relationships don’t exist, at least not as featured in movies. While sweet it means there is no room in the story for progression in the relationship. Just as there is a bond that keeps characters together there should be some sort of conflict which threatens to pull the characters apart. This could be anything from a minor difference of opinion to an extra-marital affair. The conflict in relationships provides the drama, and possibly the comedy, of a screenplay.
- 3. The characters have contrasting qualities. They can be total opposites which creates conflict yet strengthens the individual characters through challenges since they have a partner with different qualities to fall back on. Going back to “cop movies” how many times have we seen the uptight policeman who does things by the book with a renegade partner who goes by gut instincts? A lot. That’s because the two characters compliment each other well, they become a complete crime fighting machine while being seeped in conflict.
- 4. The relationship could transform both characters – for better or worse. Towards the end of a movie you’ll find both characters in the relationship tend to morph, and become more like each other. Soon the renegade cop becomes a little more focus and less wild while the uptight cop loosens up and is willing to break a few rules.
Those four elements have to be there in a relationship to make it work and keep it interesting for story purposes. The attraction and conflict has to be balanced otherwise the relationship would become dull and stale or the conflict would push the characters completely apart.
One of the best ways to start writing strong relationships is to think of your own relationships. Pick one to start off with, maybe the relationship between you and your closest friend. Look at the four elements above and see what it is that keeps you close and what stops you being even closer. What qualities do you share and what qualities are contrasting? How have you both changed since you’ve become friends?
Do this for a few different relationships and you’ll soon see a pattern emerging. That’s when you start to get an “inside eye” for relationships which will help your scriptwriting greatly.
Now you know how relationships work try creating a new relationship with two fresh characters. This could be the basis for a million dollar script!
USING ADVERSITY TO DEVELOP CHARACTERS
There’s a secret in Hollywood. Luckily it’s not very well kept. The secret is that few stories are happy ones, albeit they often have happy endings. Insiders know that if you want to have a captivating story with well developed characters then you need a whole heap of adversity.
Imagine a screenplay telling the story of a couple of shopkeepers on an average day, with nothing going wrong. It’d make for a poor movie, wouldn’t it? That’s because any good movie is steeped in conflict and adversity. It is how the characters deal with the conflict and adversity that creates drama, action, comedy, romance and so on as well as the boatload of emotions associated with them. Adversity creates the story that you are trying to tell in your screenplay.
There are a number of different types of adversity you could use to create your story:
Physical
Physical adversity is illness, injury, death and the threat of each driving your character. Physical adversity is particularly prevalent in action and adventure movies. There is no greater adversity than being faced with your own death, or the death of a loved one.
Desire
All characters have wants and needs that are unfulfilled. Some desires are obvious and in plain sight, others are more hidden and subconscious. It is the unfulfilled desire that often drives the character throughout the screenplay.
Miscommunication and deception
Favored adversity of the screwball comedy is miscommunication and deception. Typically a character will either misunderstand or be lied to by another character, altering his world view into an incorrect one.
Displacement
Whenever a character is placed in an unfamiliar location or situation they are facing displacement adversity. The best example of a movie dealing with displacement would be Lost In Translation. Displacement can be big or small. It can be as big sending a character to a future time or as a small as a new friend being injected into a character’s clique.
Relationships
Relationships are everywhere. Every relationship you have probably has an interesting story to tell whether it be a family member, friend, work colleague or pet. Relationships are forged by characters going through adversity together. When there is adversity within the relationship a character must either change the relationship status, be changed by the relationship, accept the relationship or fight against the relationship.
While conflict drives the story forward the adversity drives the character development. However it is not the adversity that is so important, it’s how the character reacts deals with the adversity. If you create a character who has no worries, no stress and no problems then the reader will have no interest. And no interest means no purchase.
Using adversity to develop a character means exploring the character you’ve created. As the scriptwriter and creator you must find the way a character would react to a situation, and what it would take for that reaction to change. If a character makes the same decision, in the same situation, twice and it doesn’t work then your character hasn’t learned. For a character to develop they have to learn and improve themselves.
It’s natural for a viewer to imagine themselves dealing with adversity in a different way, but you need to convince them that you’ve captured exactly how that character would deal with that specific adversity.
To truly develop a character through adversity you need to:
Know your characters inside and out.
The more time you’ve spent creating your character and analyzing them the more you will know about them. The more you know about them the easier it becomes to work out their thought process. Once you know the character’s thought process you can work out exactly how they deal with whatever adversity comes there way. Bear in mind that a character will deal with relationship adversity differently than displacement adversity.
Choose how your characters will change and how they’ll stay the same.
As your story develops so will your character. You’ll want a few elements of their personality to change while others stay the same. You need to decide how your characters change and then come up with a reason why they change. This has an added bonus of allowing scenes in your screenplay to almost write themselves.
Mix and change things up.
As balanced as a person may be they will always have some contradictions within their personality. Blofeld was an evil villain hell bent on world domination and killing James Bond, yet he showed great love and affection towards his cat. Similarly you may have a character who appears calculating and ruthless becomes a softy at the sight of a baby. These contradictions add a whole new dimension to a character.
As a character grows you may find that you need to change events and situations in your screenplay so both the character and plot can develop further. Don’t worry. This is a very good sign, it shows that the main character has taken on a life of its own.
Finally I want you to remember that character growth and plot growth should be finely balanced, like the yin and yang of the screenplay. This way the audience will leave the movie having seen a memorable story with an unforgettable cast of characters.
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