BlackShanglan
Silver-Tongued Papist
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2004
- Posts
- 16,888
ETA: (Just to clarify issues raised in the thread - these are things I did with a screenplay after the initial 30-page scene-by-scene note draft.)
I've been working on a piece with five characters who each contribute to the plot / mood / emotions / character development. This is a challenge for me, especially the character development. I have a bad habit of having characters be the same people over and over without growing or changing. This time I think I've turned a corner, and two strategies really helped.
Character-by-character questionnaires
With five characters, it was harder to spot the poorly developed ones and work out what was wrong. I took them one by one and worked out the following:
Just working out the start/end points quickly showed me the internal development goals (or lack of them) and got me thinking of the characters as struggling forward rather than standing static. The low/high points were a big help, too. I had one character who was constantly withdrawing and another who was a drama queen. Working out more coherent individual development helped fix that and showed me the other tool ...
Mapping character high/low progression to the plot
During the above, I realized that two of the characters followed opposite patterns of development. One had her biggest challenge early and then grew in strength; the other started strong but had a hard blow late in the story. I got curious about the patterns of development of the other characters. Then I got fancy. I graphed them.
I numbered the vertical axis from 1 to 10, with 1 being a character's lowest, least active/effective moment and 10 being shining heroism. On the horizontal axis, I put the dozen most major plot / emotion events in order. Then I plotted each character's status at each point and drew a colored trend line through them.
It's great! I could see immediately that one character spent the whole first half sulking and doing nothing. I tweaked his development and got him more active, and adding joy and hope gave the sad parts more impact. The drama queen kept plunging into the depths of despair; I kept the most important low point, then re-worked others to emphasize his strengths and let other characters do more so that he didn't come off as a whiner. I also saw how to move the action forward at each point; when one or two characters were wallowing in despair, I could see which others were stronger and ready to move on.
Best of all, I realized that I had two pairs of characters with highs and lows at the same points - responding to the same events, but in different ways and for different reasons. That showed me what they could do for each other and the broader themes by providing equal and opposite perspectives. It also gave more kick to individual development; the two characters who are strongest in the early story get hit hardest by later events, and that helped me see that the two shy, more uncertain people from the early story had a chance to be the heroes too.
Now I'm off to get all of that into the draft. Does anyone else have something hopelessly geeky to contribute?
I've been working on a piece with five characters who each contribute to the plot / mood / emotions / character development. This is a challenge for me, especially the character development. I have a bad habit of having characters be the same people over and over without growing or changing. This time I think I've turned a corner, and two strategies really helped.
Character-by-character questionnaires
With five characters, it was harder to spot the poorly developed ones and work out what was wrong. I took them one by one and worked out the following:
- Starting nature / personality.
- Ending nature / personality.
- Key dramatically performable central need (i.e., what character physically needs to achieve and can be seen achieving).
- Key internal development goal (emotional / intellectual / spiritual, non-physical).
- Lowest point in the story.
- Heroic moment(s) / high points.
- Key interactions with other characters.
- Key contributions to the central theme of the piece.
Just working out the start/end points quickly showed me the internal development goals (or lack of them) and got me thinking of the characters as struggling forward rather than standing static. The low/high points were a big help, too. I had one character who was constantly withdrawing and another who was a drama queen. Working out more coherent individual development helped fix that and showed me the other tool ...
Mapping character high/low progression to the plot
During the above, I realized that two of the characters followed opposite patterns of development. One had her biggest challenge early and then grew in strength; the other started strong but had a hard blow late in the story. I got curious about the patterns of development of the other characters. Then I got fancy. I graphed them.
I numbered the vertical axis from 1 to 10, with 1 being a character's lowest, least active/effective moment and 10 being shining heroism. On the horizontal axis, I put the dozen most major plot / emotion events in order. Then I plotted each character's status at each point and drew a colored trend line through them.
It's great! I could see immediately that one character spent the whole first half sulking and doing nothing. I tweaked his development and got him more active, and adding joy and hope gave the sad parts more impact. The drama queen kept plunging into the depths of despair; I kept the most important low point, then re-worked others to emphasize his strengths and let other characters do more so that he didn't come off as a whiner. I also saw how to move the action forward at each point; when one or two characters were wallowing in despair, I could see which others were stronger and ready to move on.
Best of all, I realized that I had two pairs of characters with highs and lows at the same points - responding to the same events, but in different ways and for different reasons. That showed me what they could do for each other and the broader themes by providing equal and opposite perspectives. It also gave more kick to individual development; the two characters who are strongest in the early story get hit hardest by later events, and that helped me see that the two shy, more uncertain people from the early story had a chance to be the heroes too.
Now I'm off to get all of that into the draft. Does anyone else have something hopelessly geeky to contribute?
Last edited: