Characters What makes a good main character

Your favorites ✤ Lets take a look at some of your characters and see what we can identify as similarities between them.

Characters ✤ Characters are the nervous system of the story. Everything that happens is an extension of what they do, and how they react. ✤ Why do you think those two phrases are in bold?

Characters ✤ A screenplay is like a noun ✤ It’s about a PERSON, in a PLACE, doing his/her THING. ✤ Character needs action ✤ Must know who you story is about, and what happens to them.

Knowing ✤ In order to be successful writers, you need to know what happens in all aspects of your story. ✤ Know your character. ✤ Know what happens to them and what they have to go through. ✤ Know the resolution of the story so you can get that character there. ✤ Know what the end has in store for them.

Knowing ✤ If you don’t know how your story ends, you will have no idea how to get them there. ✤ ACT II is filled with obstacles that pertain to your main characters actions. ✤ Events and actions in a story are specifically designed to bring out the truth of your character, so we can achieve a connection or bond. ✤ If you know your character you know what obstacles will have more impact

Behavior ✤ Film is behavior. ✤ Dialogue is secondary to action, with two purposes. ✤ Moves the story forward ✤ Reveals something about the main character ✤ A character is what he does, not what he says ✤ Determine whether the main character causes things to happen, or things happen to them.

Biography ✤ Separate character’s life into two basic categories: ✤ Interior Life: Everything that happened to your character from birth until the movie starts ✤ Exterior Life: Takes place from the start of the movie to the end

Interior (biography) ✤ The first 10 years: Birth, pre-school/elementary school, family, friends ✤ Second 10 years: Middle school/high school, sports, political agenda, clubs, activities, friendships, relationships, sexual experience, employment, major traumatic events, etc. ✤ Start by asking yourself “what”

Why “what” (interior) ✤ WHAT implies a direct, definable answer: ✤ What kind of childhood did he/she have? What was his/her relationship to their parents? What kind of child was he/she? What kind of trouble did they get into? What was home like? What kind of hobbies did he/she have? What clubs were they a part of? What was high school like for them? What college did they go to? What was their major? ✤ Trace your character until your story starts

Interior (biography) ✤ If you know your character inside and out, only then can you begin writing. ✤ REMEMBER: Your character is NOT you. They may be similar, but they should be a completely different person.

Exterior (biography) ✤ Sometimes it’s easier to separate into three categories ✤ Professional ✤ What is work like for them? What do they do? What do they love or hate about work? How do they get along with their co- workers, etc.

Exterior (biography) ✤ Personal Life: ✤ Are they married, single, widowed? How long have they been married? How did they meet? Do they fight a lot? Are they a social couple? Do they have children? How many? What are their ages? What is the family dynamic?

Exterior (biography) ✤ Private Life: ✤ What does your character do when they are alone? ✤ What do they watch on TV? Do they go to the gym? How many times a week? What are they working out for? Do they take a night class? What kind of class? What sort of hobbies do they do in their free time?

Importance ✤ The reason why we spend time on the biography, and internal information is so we have a character who lives and moves in a real, believable world. ✤ If you get stuck on what happens next, you can look to the “real” life of that character and put them in a place that is natural for them to be.

Action ✤ Your character is what he/she does ✤ They need to be active ✤ They need to do things, cause things to happen ✤ Things can’t always happen to them. It’s not all reaction.

4 Essential Qualities ✤ Have a strong dramatic need ✤ What your MC wants to win, gain, get, achieve over the course of your story ✤ Have an individual point of view ✤ The way they see the world ✤ Personify an attitude ✤ A manner or opinion based on an intellectual decision ✤ Go through some sort of change or transformation

Writing Exercise ✤ Free write: ✤ The goal of a free -write is try and write continuously for a set amount of time with absolutely NO stopping. There is no right or wrong, you just have to keep the pencil moving. ✤ Today’s Free Write: ✤ You will be given a random character description ✤ Start to fill out the character bio packet ✤ Packets will be due FRIDAY!