| How to Further Develop Your Characters |
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By
Che’Rae Adams
A crucial consideration to the success of your
script is the effectiveness of your characters.
I believe that the key elements that make up an
effective characterization are character arc,
accessibility and likeability.
Character Arc = Your character’s ability to
change
Do your characters have an arc? Double check
yourself with the following exercises:
1) What is their Objective?
Your characters must be hungry for something!
What does your character want? The answer to
this question is what dictates each character’s
behavior.
2) What is their Superobjective?
What is your character’s higher will? What gets
this particular character out of bed in the
morning? What drives this person? The answer to
this question is what dictates how each
character will react to certain situations.
3) What is their Gelman Factor?
Taught to me by one of my directing professors,
Alexander Gelman, and therefore aptly named,
this question relates to how the character wants
to be perceived by others. The answer to this
question will help you to get to the
contradictions that exist in each character.
Contradictions or opposites in people are
interesting and make for well-rounded
characters.
4) What is each character’s Arc?
Where are each of your main characters in the
beginning of the script and where do they end
up? This question is best answered when
considering the character’s mental state,
heart’s desire and innermost secrets.
Accessibility and Likeability
Accessibility: Can your audience get into your
characters’ heads and understand who they are
and where they come from?
The accessibility of the characters is important
to the effectiveness of your script. If you have
created a character into whose mind, soul, or
heart the audience cannot relate to, then you
might have created a character about whom no one
will care about.
Likeability: Does your audience like your
characters, whether they are the
protagonist, antagonist or supporting?
The audience not only needs to like the hero or
the protagonist, but they need to at least see
shades of gray in the antagonist as well. No
character is black or white unless it is a
cartoon or a comic book character, and even
then, the villains have gone through something in
their life that has made them the way they are.
Why? Because it is infinitely more interesting
to create characters who are accessible and
likeable.
Try the following exercises in order to
understand your characters better:
- Write a
monologue from the antagonist’s point of
view, delivered directly to the audience, in
which the action of the antagonist should be
to win the audience over to their side. This
exercise will help know and understand your
antagonist better, as well as help with
their accessibility.
- Give each
of your main characters a personal attribute
of yours. Include your best attributes, but
also try to give them one of your worst
attributes. Examples: intellectual,
pacifist, good humored, misanthropic,
daydreamer, arrogant, etc.
- Create a
metaphor for each main character’s inner
emotional state. Examples: Seawall with tide
coming in; needle standing on end; a rock in
a bowl of Jell-O®; teapot in a tempest.
Che’Rae
Adams
http://www.cheraeadams.com/
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