Screenwriting Tips and Tricks - Character Development

February 15, 2009

photo credit: kygp

You just banged out 120 pages of script. It’s the best thing you’ve ever come up with. You’re so stuck on how well you did, that you don’t want to change a word. Well if that’s you then prepare for your script to collect dust. You need to be open to criticism if you want a winning script. Did you ever approach a problem where one person saw the problem differently than you? You couldn’t figure it out, but they came in a solved it right away. Well it’s the same thing when writing. I know we’re all secretive when it comes to our scripts. We don’t want to get our idea stolen, so we usually only have one person editing our scripts, ourselves. I love the idea of having writing teams. You might not be good at writing fighting scenes, where’s your co-writer may be better at it. You might not be able to see character inconsistencies, whereas you partner may catch something. That brings us to the purpose of this article?

Here’s a few things you need to ask when editing your screenplay.

Does my character have a voice??? Is he/she/it unique and distinguishable from the rest of the characters? Does he/she/it resonate and have a powerful role in the movie, or is the character a robot that sounds like an automated bank teller service? Reread your script and make sure your writing doesn’t sound like “Press 1 for English.” “I’m sorry, zero, is not an option.”

Would my character say that??? Think about your character and imagine what he or she would say in any given situation. Imagine your character as alive and as a real person. You need to know where he/she/it is coming from so you can write accordingly. If you character is, say, a computer driven information hologram, he would not be saying things like “People are just not fit to help themselves.” He would have no opinion as all as to what people can or can’t do.

Do I care what happens to my character???? If you don’t care what happens to your character, then why should I make your screenplay into a movie. (and were talking main characters here) The single most important thing you need to do in your movie is make the audience care about your character. You can even lead the audience to love him/her/it, or hate him/her/it. Either way, you need an emotional response.

Do all my characters sound the same??? If all your characters sound like they are coming from the same person, you need to go back to school, take a workshop, or pay a script doctor to fix your script. There’s actually a point in Steven King’s “The Mist” where they are in the grocery store and it really sounds like one person. Nobody’s perfect, and you can catch it in some movies on the big screen if you really look hard.

Does my audience know what happens next??? If your character foreshadows everything, the movie will be really dull. If a producer/agent/actor actually reads it, they won’t make it past the first FIVE pages!! That’s saying a lot because people ususallly read ten.

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