Why This is Good

In talking about creating character sympathy, there are rules, techniques and devices we can use, but there are also simple, intuitive ways to create a likable, sympathetic hero. But there is also a very practical, intuitive way to create sympathetic heroes that will captivate and engage your audience.

Think about your closest friends. What about them makes you like them? What drew you to them initially, when you first met? Some friends were set-ups from your childhood-your parent’s friends, cousins, kids in the same class and school. You may have become your friend just because of proximity. There are other friends that you probably met as an adult-through work, through other friends, in college. What attracted you to them? What made these people stand out, regardless of how you met, and kept you in touch? What about them made you want to nurture and sustain a friendship? Having things in common is good, but you have things in common with a lot of people that you don’t become or stay friends with. You’ll maintain relationships with your friends because they are likable. Think about why.

Write down the names of your five closest friends. Next to each name, write where or how you met them. Then describe your first impression of them. Did you like them when you first met or did your connection grow slowly? If you did like them right away, what was it about them that was attractive? Was it the way they spoke, the passion they had for a certain subject or cause? Was it because they seemed powerful, didn’t care what others thought and broke the rules, encouraging you to push the limits? Was it because they were funny? Think about why you liked them enough to want to keep spending time with them.

After the initial meeting, what was your second impression? What did you think the next time you saw them? What made you decide to continue pursuing the friendship instead of letting it go, like you have with other people you have met? Did they say something you really agreed with? Were they so nice to the waiter when you had lunch that you knew they were a genuinely sweet person you wanted to get to know? As in dating, when you meet friends, you decide whether or not you want to continue being their friend based on behaviors you observe and how they make you feel.

Next think about why you have remained friends with each person. Were there times where you drifted apart? What brought you back together? Often times we lose touch with friends or family and are brought closer after a tragedy.  As with a character in a story, you may have worried about your friend or felt they were in jeopardy and been compelled to reconnect because of that. If you’ve been friends with someone consistently for a long time, think about why they have stayed a constant in your life, while other people have come in and out. Why do you admire them and want to spend time with them? These qualities are the types of traits you can instill in your characters and most importantly, in your hero. Even if your hero is unlikeable, or not that nice of a person, there needs to be something seductive about them that makes the audience interested in them, makes them want to spend time with them the same way you want to spend time with your friends.

One of the consistent problems I run into when reviewing screenplays is a passive hero. Most new writers create passive heroes without realizing why or understanding why this is a problem. A passive hero is one who lets things happen to him or her. Instead of being the catalyst, they are the victim. It is natural to think of your story in these terms at first. Many ideas begin with “What if ___ happened to someone?” This thought process starts your story down the road to passivity. Your story is based on outside forces acting upon your hero. They are not in charge of their situation and passively react to what happens to them rather than what they make happen.

The story may begin by something happening to the hero and forcing them to take action, but from then on, each turning point needs to occur because the hero has done something. If the hero has a goal and pursues it, they are making things happen. They are constantly active and always moving forward. Turning points occur because their actions create resistance, obstacles stop them from achieving their goal and they are forced to redirect themselves and take a new approach.

As you write, ask yourself with each new turn your story takes, if the hero is the one who cause this event to happen. If not, you may have created a passive hero. Take time to examine your premise, and create an outline of the story. What is the hero’s goal? Is it an active goal that will force them to pursue something? Often inexperienced writers create stories based around a passive goal, which in turn necessitates a passive hero. A passive goal is to not do something, to avoid life in some way. The best way to achieve this is to sit around at home and stay out of trouble. This creates either 120 pages of someone sitting on a coach, or forces you to impose things upon the hero. If they are avoiding life and passively staying home, other characters must act upon them to give the story momentum. In a well-written story, the character has to do something in order to get what they want, and therefore goes out and makes things happen.

After going over the ways to make a character likable, I want to point out that your characters can and should be flawed. Every hero in a film needs to have experienced some trauma in their past that has caused them to react to the world in an unhealthy way. The experience that they will go through during their story-whether it is meeting the love of their life, accomplishing a career or personal goal, or changing the world-will heal this wound, teach them that they have to live life in a healthy way again in order to be fulfilled by accomplishing their goals.

We know from Storytelling 101 that a well-written script involves a protagonist with a goal who tries to accomplish this goal but faces opposition, which he or she eventually overcomes. Opposition comes in two forms-external and internal. The hero cannot accomplish their goal because the antagonist, circumstances, or forces of nature are preventing them from getting what they want. For example, in Shrek, Shrek cannot be with Fiona because she is betrothed to Lord Farquaad. This is the external opposition. But Shrek is also wrestling with his own internal obstacle. He lacks the confidence he needs to admit his feelings, and he has been hurt and rejected in his past for looking different, so much so that he has shut down and decided it’s better to be alone than to open up and face possible rejection. He is forced to overcome both obstacles before he can accomplish his goal, and finally be himself and live a full life.

In crafting your characters, delve into their past and determine what happened to them that made them the flawed, incomplete person they are today? This is usually something that happened in their childhood and deeply affected them. Write out that scene, in prose form, so you can fully explore their life before you put them into your screenplay. This event will most likely not be a part of your script, but it can and may come out in dialogue. Whatever it was, it has created in them a fear of doing the one thing that they will be forced to do in the climax of your story. Overcoming this fear is the only way they can accomplish their goal and achieve true happiness and an authentic life.

Creating sympathy for your hero is an essential part of successful screenwriting. This is something many writers overlook in their quest to create a great flawed hero who can go through an arc. But in order for the audience to enjoy the movie, they need to empathize with the character-relate to them, understand them and care about watching them take the two hour journey that will be the movie.

The same things that make you like or dislike a person in real life will make your audience like or dislike your hero. There are some specific devices you can utilize to make your audience empathize with your hero. It’s important that you employ one of these techniques within the first ten pages, or your reader will lose interest in your hero, and therefore your film. And luckily, some of these can still work if your hero has to start out flawed in order for your story to work.

Undeserved Misfortune-the key here is undeserved. Something bad that isn’t their fault. If they are running late for work because they stopped to help a little old lady with a flat tire, and they get fired. If it is their fault, it’s not undeserved misfortune. If they are running late for work because they stopped to get a coffee because they had a horrible hangover from partying too hard the night before and they get fired. That is their fault and therefore not sympathetic. In Fight Club, Edward Norton’s apartment explodes. In no way is this his fault, so we feel sorry for him.

They are in jeopardy-we care about people we are worried about, and will want to continue watching to make sure they are going to be okay. Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire, Harry Potter in all of his movies, Frodo and the other hobbits in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We know something bad is going to happen to them, so we are compelled to not only care about them, but to watch and see if they will be okay.

Liked by others-showing that people are liked by others by showing them around their friends, often at a birthday part, especially a surprise party, or showing that they are popular at work or school. Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List is shown at a party, schmoozing up a storm, he’s the toast of the town. Because others like him, we feel we can like him too. He must be a good guy.

Kind to animals- Obscure but true. Characters who are kind to animals are perceived as heroic, likeable characters. If they are kind to other less fortunate creatures that also will make them likeable. A lot of movies show the hero giving money to a charity, a homeless person, or volunteering. We all know that is the right thing to do and therefore we instantly like those we see doing this and will want to keep watching them.

Good at what they do- Most people wish they had more power, and therefore admire people with power. James Bond movies use this exclusively to make you like James Bond. He has tons of power and he is good at what he does. Often times this is one of the first things you see in the beginning of a movie, the hero at work, making deals, helping people, making money, finding the bad guy, etc. Show that they are good at what they do and they have power, and we will like them. This is a great technique to use when your character is kind of a jerk and is going to learn something during the course of the film.

In As Good as it Gets, Jack Nicholson’s character Melvin is almost entirely unlikeable, save for the fact that he is good at what he does.

In Collateral, Jamie Foxx wasn’t just a cab driver, but he was the best cab driver ever. He was meticulous about keeping the cab clean, and he knew the best routes and had a very good sense of how long it took to get everywhere. We respected him also because he embodied the next trait.

They have grand aspirations-He was a cab driver, but he dreamed of owning his own business. In Jerry Maguire, Jerry noticed the problems in the world and dreamed of bringing some integrity back to his corrupt business. We like this.

See the problems in the world/want to fix it- your hero will be likeable if he sees the problems in the world and wants to fix them. In Jerry Maguire, Jerry embodies three of these qualities-he is good at what he does, he sees problems and wants to fix them, and he has a big dream. As discussed in yesterday’s post, Baby in Dirty Dancing can’t wait to join the Peace Corps and make the world a better place. She goes out of her way to help Penny and help others.

Funny-Everyone would like to be funny, and everyone likes to be around funny people. Giving your hero a sense of humor makes them seem down to earth, easy to get along with, and just downright entertaining and fun to be around and watch. Juno, in Juno was instantly likeable because of her wit and humor. Even if it’s not a comedy, they can have a strong sense of wit and irony that makes them appear funny, and smarter than the average idiot, it makes them special. We like that.

Unselfish- Referring back to the undeserved misfortune example. Our hero that helped the old lady with the flat tire even though he knew it was going to make him late and get fired was acting unselfishly. Showing your character is unselfish is a great way to make the audience like them. Will Smith’s character in Seven Pounds gives up time, money, and his own organs in order to help others.