Today
we're going to talk about character and character development. Many of you
may be saying, "Who the the fuck are you to talk about character
development?"
Believe it or not I actually know a thing or two about it, and I'll try and
convey a little bit to you that you might not find in the books.
The essence of character is feeling. It's the reader (or viewer, but from
here out we'll call it the reader) feeling empathy for the character, an
emotional response to what they do and say. They don't have to like the
charcter, especially if it's a villain, but if you can't evoke empathy or
emotion from the reader, then the story is over, you might as well have
never written it or filmed it or animated it.
One of the most important things is NOT to beat the reader over the head
with it. Give them credit. let them use their own imagination, which will
conjure up something worse than you would have written (or shot) anyway.
For example: Let's say we have this character who was molested as a child,
say, by his uncle. How do you convey this to the reader without rubbing
their nose in it?
What you want to avoid is a long, drawn out scene where the character breaks
down and relives the hell he was surely put through. That can eat up a lot
of pages, whether it be in a book or a screenplay.
Instead of six pages of flash-back, you can say something as simple as
"...Joe cried himself to sleep that night as he did many times when he was a
child, after his uncle had left the room."
What did the uncle do? You don't know. You know it was something bad, and
since you don't know exactly what happened, the more you think about it the
worse it'll get. Essentially, I'm making you do my job for me, and we are
both the better for it.
In fact, unless the exact act or manner of the abuse is critical to the
plot, then I don't even know, and I don't need to. All YOU (playing the
reader) have to know, is that something bad happened, and that one sentence
can save you having to write some nasty molestation scene.
The basis of good story is to show, rather than tell, and the same goes with
character. Saying a character is honest carries less weight than showing
that character tell the truth in a situation where the truth is not in his
(or her, sorry ladies) best interest. When you're editing your work, you
have to ask a question of each line of dialogue, each line of narration,
each paragraph sentence and scene. That question is: Does this reveal
character or advance the story? If not, cut it. The same goes with
character. Don't bog your audience down with bullshit that has no use in the
story. We all know the character has to go shopping and take a leak and
shower in the morning and pick out their socks and get the car washed or
filled with gas. We know that because it's life...but that doesn't mean we
want to read it, or watch it.
Now, once you have established your character, you have to develop him/her.
You can't let them stagnate, for a character that does not change is a
boring character indeed (again, rules are made to be broken, but in most
cases this is true). In order to change, each character must have goals
(what do they want?) and motivations (why do they want it). The character
development comes with how they go about getting what they want.
Take our overly honest character from a few paragraphs ago...maybe he
becomes obsessed with this one thing (his goal), and as he gets closer and
closer to it, the more he'll do to reach it. The character,
self-detrimentally honest in the beginning, will start to tell lies and fuck
people over to reach his goal. That's a negative development, sure, but
leave the sunsets and roses to the gothic romance crowd.
Development comes from character revelation, an epiphany if you will, that
leaves the character different than how we first found them. Take Bethany,
in Dogma...perfect example. At first, she thought everything Alan Rickman
was telling her was bullshit, her faith was dead, she was alone in the
world. Think of where she ended up in the movie, and how she got there.
Other fine examples of character development can be found in 'The African
Queen' (with Bogey, nonetheless!), and Jack Nicholson's character in 'As
Good As It Gets'.
Watch these, study them, look specifically for character revelation, for
motivations and goals, and you will be on your way to good, strong
characters that your reader (or viewer) cares about.
Thanks for reading. |
