Why This is Good

Happy Martin Luther King Day! I’m sure he would be thrilled to see how far we’ve come. If you have the day off, consider giving a day of service in his honor, or if you decide to stay home and write, here are some thoughts for the day:

What do you really know about your hero? You probably know what they look like — whether you followed my advice or not about mentioning it in the script — you probably envision them looking a certain way, perhaps you’ve even imagined the perfect actor and picture them when writing about your hero. You probably know how they dress, what they do for a living, and all of the surface things you will reveal in the script. You may even know a little about the hero’s past — perhaps something traumatic that occurred in their childhood, or prior to the beginning of the movie — a wound that has shaped their attitude and created a defensiveness or way of dealing with the world that will be challenged by the events of the story. Aside from this though, you probably haven’t thought about your characters as real, distinct people who existed before and who will exist after the story you are writing. And of course, that is because the characters you are creating do not exist.

But, to make yourself a better writer, and to improve the quality and complexity of your story, let’s pretend that they do exist. Think of your hero, and all of the major characters populating your story, as distinct, real individuals with complete childhoods, families, jobs, and histories as complicated and varied as real people. The more you train yourself to think of your characters in this way, the more vivid your descriptions will become, the more accurate and individualized their dialogue will sound, and the better your story will be.

Writers and filmmakers often rely on flashbacks to reveal something about a character’s past which shows that they have thoroughly researched and studied their character to the point that the character has become real to them. In 500 Days of Summer, the characters seem real because we see so much of their lives in the non-linear telling of their story. There is a sense that this writer knows their entire story, everything about their lives, not just the portion that would fit within the traditional telling of their love story. He understands them and what their lives were like before and after their love story. Even if you aren’t telling a story that encompasses this long of a time period in your character’s life, it’s important that you know as much as possible about them. In Amelie, the narrator reveals quirky details about the characters that give us the sense that they are real people who aren’t just here to entertain us for the duration of the story. In stories that cover an entire life, like The Notebook, The Time Traveller’s Wife, and Forrest Gump, we learn about the past and present lives of the characters, and knowing so much about them makes them seem more real, makes the story more poignant. That is not always plausible or appropriate, but as a writer, you should be the god of your creation and know everything about your characters, whether it makes sense to include it in the story or not.

Many of the daily writing prompts are questions to get you thinking about your hero outside of the context of the story. Keep a folder or journal where you write prose about your hero and any other major character in your screenplay. Get to know them as well as you know your best friends or siblings. Think of the questions you ask someone on a date, and pose them to your hero. Imagine how they would react in certain situations, even ones that would never happen in the context of your script.

Fleshing out the characters in this way is essential for you, whether or not you incorporate their past into the final screenplay. They must be real, independent people in your mind if you ever wish to have their help in telling the story. When you finally know and understand your characters deeply, you may experience that magical moment when the character does or says something you never would have imagined, as if they truly have come to life. Then you know you have a depth and realism that readers and audiences will appreciate and enjoy and embrace.

Tomorrow, I’ll give you a list of detailed questions to ask yourself about your hero to get you started on the path to knowing them better and improving your story.