When I start writing a screenplay or story in general, I usually jump right in by outlining the story plot without much thought around character development; I usually add that in later. I am fast realizing this is like putting the proverbial cart before the horse.
Seems to me I should first THOROUGHLY create my character profiles and backstories, BEFORE placing them into my high level story. Making genuine and relatable characters requires their actions be directed by motivation and life experience -- not by the writer's desire to propel a pre-planned plot forward.
By focusing on the complex interrelationships between well understood and fleshed out characters, the scenes will almost write themselves (again, provided we are true to our characters makeup). In other words, we allow the characters to shape the story to some degree or create scenarios that would compel our characters to do what we need them to do to propel the story forward.
For example...
I am writing a story about a rebellious teenager who is bullied at school and neglected at home by his father and brother. He is abducted by a Satanic cult whose members include all sorts of sordid characters including the front man of a death metal rock band who deceives him. The story requires that the boy enter into a deal with the devil by sacrificing himself in exchange for taking revenge on those who wronged him. As a twist, there's a guilt-ridden guitarist within the band who tries to save the boy before the captured teen is ritually sacrificed, but the troubled teen exposes him to the cult leader and the guitarist becomes the one sacrificed.
It's a nice little plot but the way I scripted the original characters didn't seem to fit in with their actions. It was only after I totally re-created the characters and the scenes that the story started to make sense. I started to study the interviews of David Berkowitz and soon found a template from where I can draw some inspiration for my young protagonist. Berkowitz felt from a young age that he was bad because he believed the lie that his biological mother died at child birth. He felt somehow responsible for this and it led him to a dark place.
I thought this was a great angle I could use to explain the behavior of my character -- he would be self destructive and allow himself to be victimized by those around him as a form of punishment for the torment he himself wrought upon his poor mother who, despite it all, never gave up on her troubled son. And those who he decides will die as part of his bargain with the cult are those who added to his mother's grief -- NOT those who treated the boy badly. This fits in with the boy's reluctance to be saved by the guitarist who would only serve to add to his mother's grief when she realizes her connection to the murders and her son. The boy felt it was better if she believed he simply ran away.
He offers up the guitarist to spare his mother additional anguish. Right or wrong, that would be his thought process in explaining his actions within the story. It goes without saying the story now has morphed into more of a psychological drama or horror than the simple plot heavy horror I originally conceived.
As writers, how do we dig deep and discover the very nature of our characters? Indeed, once we are inside the skin of our characters, it becomes much easier to script their dialogue and actions, but do we invent such characters in our head or turn to other sources for inspiration such as I have with Berkowitz interviews?
I am curious about where other writers get source material for the characters of their stories...
Seems to me I should first THOROUGHLY create my character profiles and backstories, BEFORE placing them into my high level story. Making genuine and relatable characters requires their actions be directed by motivation and life experience -- not by the writer's desire to propel a pre-planned plot forward.
By focusing on the complex interrelationships between well understood and fleshed out characters, the scenes will almost write themselves (again, provided we are true to our characters makeup). In other words, we allow the characters to shape the story to some degree or create scenarios that would compel our characters to do what we need them to do to propel the story forward.
For example...
I am writing a story about a rebellious teenager who is bullied at school and neglected at home by his father and brother. He is abducted by a Satanic cult whose members include all sorts of sordid characters including the front man of a death metal rock band who deceives him. The story requires that the boy enter into a deal with the devil by sacrificing himself in exchange for taking revenge on those who wronged him. As a twist, there's a guilt-ridden guitarist within the band who tries to save the boy before the captured teen is ritually sacrificed, but the troubled teen exposes him to the cult leader and the guitarist becomes the one sacrificed.
It's a nice little plot but the way I scripted the original characters didn't seem to fit in with their actions. It was only after I totally re-created the characters and the scenes that the story started to make sense. I started to study the interviews of David Berkowitz and soon found a template from where I can draw some inspiration for my young protagonist. Berkowitz felt from a young age that he was bad because he believed the lie that his biological mother died at child birth. He felt somehow responsible for this and it led him to a dark place.
I thought this was a great angle I could use to explain the behavior of my character -- he would be self destructive and allow himself to be victimized by those around him as a form of punishment for the torment he himself wrought upon his poor mother who, despite it all, never gave up on her troubled son. And those who he decides will die as part of his bargain with the cult are those who added to his mother's grief -- NOT those who treated the boy badly. This fits in with the boy's reluctance to be saved by the guitarist who would only serve to add to his mother's grief when she realizes her connection to the murders and her son. The boy felt it was better if she believed he simply ran away.
He offers up the guitarist to spare his mother additional anguish. Right or wrong, that would be his thought process in explaining his actions within the story. It goes without saying the story now has morphed into more of a psychological drama or horror than the simple plot heavy horror I originally conceived.
As writers, how do we dig deep and discover the very nature of our characters? Indeed, once we are inside the skin of our characters, it becomes much easier to script their dialogue and actions, but do we invent such characters in our head or turn to other sources for inspiration such as I have with Berkowitz interviews?
I am curious about where other writers get source material for the characters of their stories...