Posts Tagged With: characters

How NOT to introduce a character

Posted on 05/30/2014 by VR

“In closing, […] screenwriters — you need to chiggity check yo’selves before you wreck yourselves.” “#betheFUCKINGChange”
―@mysteryexec (Twitter)

**Oh ye of sensitive dispositions: I apologize in advance for the all swearing in this post. It is necessary.**

A while back (almost a year ago) the sage @mysteryexec of Twitter fame went on a bit of a rant:

“pretty without pretense or solicitation” “pretty without trying” — If you have this as character description you are a BAD, LAZY WRITER.

STOP WRITING FEMALE CHARACTERS AS FUCK PUPPETS. YOU ARE ALL BAD WRITERS. ALL OF YOU.

TALK TO ACTUAL WOMEN. MALE WRITERS, YOU ARE ALL DOING IT WRONG.

HAVE A WOMAN READ YOUR FUCKING SCRIPT AND CALL YOU OUT ON YOUR AWFUL FUCKING DIALOGUE.

“She’s quirky”. NO SHIT!!! WE BETTER GET ZOOEY GODDAMN DESCHANEL ON THE LINE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!! LAZY LAZY LAZYYYYY.

“It’s stylized,” you argue. NO. IT IS SHIT. NO WOMEN TALK LIKE THIS YOU FUCKING HACK.

THE FACT THAT REPS BRING THIS SHIT TO ME IS EQUALLY EMBARRASSING.

So sayeth the Lord of the Mystery Twitter Accounts.  Amen.

However, again almost a year later, I am still seeing this crap in the scripts I read.  “The only thing prettier than her face is her ass.” “Her eyes were clear blue gems in a porcelain face.” (also – present tense people, please.)  “Girl-next-door looks with a not so sweet mind.”  Yes these are real.  But you see the problem.  Besides being pretty awful, they also tell me NOTHING about the character.

Now I admit, I was guilty of this until the amazing ladies at Script Chix (http://scriptchix.com/ shout out to Miranda Sajdak) hit me over the head and pointed out that I wasn’t any better.  I take solace in the fact I was doing it to both male and female characters, though that doesn’t make me a better writer, only a less misogynistic one.  But it is totally and completely lazy.  Here’s a piece of advice from the Script Chix: Hollywood does not hire actors who are not good-looking.  Therefore it is entirely redundant to specify in the script that they are good looking.  It’s a given.  It doesn’t tell us WHO the character is.  And on a smaller soapbox, it limits casting.  Is it important that your heroine is blonde?  Is it important that your hero has green eyes?  Of course not.  I tried to argue once that it was, actually, important to my character that she was pretty and that it influenced who she was as a person.  But the way to go about that was not to talk about how beautiful she was.  It was to show how she acted in the scene.  I’m sure “show don’t tell” has been beaten into your brain enough by now, but it’s as true for character descriptions as it is for anything else.

Look at some screenplays from writers you admire (I’m not going to compile a list for you, that’s what research is for) and pay attention to the descriptions.  As John August says, “Look for details that have an iceberg quality: only a little bit sticks above the surface, but it represents a huge mass of character information the reader can fill in.”  Think simple, think memorable, think beyond hair color and ass shape.

First impressions are forever, make sure yours don’t suck.

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Friends on TV

Posted on 05/25/2014 by VR

“In a very real way, television is the new mythos. It defines the world, reinterprets it. The seasons do not change because Persephone goes underground. They change because new episodes air, because sweeps week demands conflagrations and ritual deaths. The television series rises slowly, arcs, descends into hiatus, and rises again with the bright, burning autumn.”
―Catherynne Valente

 

The Social Surrogacy Hypothesis sounds like an episode of The Big Bang Theory (actually it IS the name of my BBT spec, so don’t steal it), but in reality this is a very real phenomenon of psychology which says that people can form social attachments to their favorite television characters.  This research is supposedly proves why Friends really feel like your friends.  Or why someone (don’t know who, just someone, no one in particular, stop looking at me) would vow to never watch Lost again week after week as their favorite characters are methodically killed off, only to return like a moth to a bright screen.  And then repeat that with Grey’s Anatomy and then again with Game of Thrones even though I had already read the books and totally knew those people were about to die horribly.  But this isn’t about me.  I think.

This parasocial element of television has helped “Who shot JR?” and “Joanie loves Chachi” and “Yadda yadda yadda” become an ingrained part of our culture.  Studies have shown that people feel less lonely, less sad, less afraid, when their television is on.  And this is a GOOD thing.  Of course shunning the outside world to watch reruns of Gillian’s Island is probably going too far.  But, though it seems crazy, it is perfectly normal to get caught up in the imaginary lives of the Gallaghers of South Side Chicago or the Starks of Winterfell.

However, the sense of belonging, which can buffer a negative mood and even increase self-esteem, is part of the reason we love television so much.  It’s why we keep returning even though they killed off Charlie, why we cheer for Alicia even when she does something a little scummy, why we may or may not have cried just a little bit when Cam and Mitchell got married, and why if Daryl dies we riot.

So what does this mean for us as writers? (after all this is a writing blog)  It means television is all about the characters.  We start watching because of the hook, but we return because of the characters.  So when you’re working on that new pilot and thinking about your story engine and all the little plot points that will allow the series to get to episode 100, remember, it all starts and ends with the characters.  I’ll be posting a little more on television in the weeks to come, so tune in (har har.) to get some tips and trick on starting that pilot or spec.

Because admit it, you totally squealed like an eighth-grade girl when Sheldon kissed Amy.

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Why I hate “strong women”

Posted on 03/15/2014 by VR

“Naturally my stories are about women — I’m a woman. I don’t know what the term is for men who write mostly about men.”
―Alice Munro

Recently there’s been a firestorm about “strong women characters.”  We need more of them, everyone shouts.  But I disagree.

Wait, don’t leave yet.  I believe we need more female characters, and definitely more female protagonists.  People may decry the Bechdel Test, but wouldn’t it be great if we lived in a world where we didn’t need it?  The Bechdel Test is flawed, but it proves a point.  Women are more than just the damsel-in-distress.  But we’re also more than the warrior princess.

And this is why we don’t need more “strong women.” Because inevitably someone takes this to mean we need more female characters who can shoot big guns, who know karate, who work for the FBI, or who are obsessed with their jobs.  These women are strong, but they’re not always compelling.  What we need are more COMPLEX female characters.  We need more women characters that are defined not by how well they keep up with the guys, but how well they are characterized.  Though this is not what is meant when we say “strong women,” but somehow it’s what it turned into.

I love a female protagonist who can kick ass.  I’ve written several of them.  But soon this character becomes another cliché in a long line of female character clichés somewhere between Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Adorkable Smart Girl.

Let’s strive for complex.  Let’s strive for compelling.  Let’s strive for surprise.  Let’s strive for a character that isn’t defined by the fact she’s a woman.  F-k it, let’s just write good characters.

I recently had a writer (full disclosure, he was male) who had written a sexy physicist character who did nothing except have sex with the protagonist and get captured by the bad guy.  I told him she needed more characterization, perhaps she could even use her knowledge of physics at some point?  But he felt that it would take up too much space in the script to flesh her out more.  My response?  Would A-list actresses be chomping at the bit to play this character?  No way.  Not even remotely close.  She was a plot device, nothing more, and who wants to play a plot device?  Ultimately, that convinced him to change her into something more.  Thank goodness.

Remember, no A-list actress when asked to look back on her career and pick a favorite character ever said, “The one with the great ass.”

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Hacking away

Posted on 01/31/2014 by VR

“The first draft of anything is shit.”
―Ernest Hemingway

Working down from my list, I opened my dramedy (I really hate that term but I’m going to keep using it) for the first time in almost a year.  This was a pretty big surprise to me, I honestly didn’t think it had been that long, but there it was, the date next to my file read 2/21/2013.  Yikes.

Far from being like a visit from a long lost friend with whom conversation continues to flow swift as the Snoqualmie River, it was more like going back to a high reunion and realizing you hate everyone there.  I have never been to one of my reunions, so please no one take that personally.  I need to do some serious pruning on this tumbleweed of a script.

First off, I had originally had no plans of making this a low-budget film.  Most writers (not filmmakers, writers) don’t get overly bogged down in the budget of the spec they are writing.  This is big mistake.  I’ve met a ton of would-be screenwriters who tell me their movie can’t be made for less than 100 million.  I can’t think of many studios who are going to throw that kind of money at a newbie writer’s spec.  Sorry.  Of course there are exceptions, but I’m not pinning my hopes and livelihood on being the exception.  I recently made two great contacts who helped me make the decision to turn this script into a low budget piece.  One is an independent filmmaker who read one of my other, high-budget scripts and liked it enough to ask to see something lower when I had it.  Huzzah!  The other is a brilliant writer/filmmaker and my fabulous writing partner (you know who you are and I won’t divulge you until I have your permission) who actually taught me what low-budget looks like in script form.  So here are my tips and tricks which I will soon be utilizing on my script:

1) Location (not location location location)

The more locations your script has, the more expensive it is going to be to make.  This doesn’t mean it has to all take place in one diner or one cabin or one airplane (though think of all the movies that do that and turn out just fine), but if you can limit your locations, you can lower the budget.  Also think about culling exterior night scenes and public locations.

2) Action

Normally it’s show don’t tell, but in the case of the low-budget, do a little more telling.  I don’t mean you need to have eight pages of uninterrupted exposition, but avoid extending action sequences.  Which brings us to:

3) Genre

Put away your SFX and stunts and save then for another film.  This goes for period as well.

4) Cast

Pare down your cast of characters to the bare minimum.  Every character needs a actor to portray them, and actors need to be paid.  Most of the time.  Some do it for the love of cinema.  I’m kidding, they’ll want to be paid.

5) Write Something Awesome

Without all the wizz-bang of a high-budget, the script needs to be something really really amazing.  Marketable is the key word here.  High-concept is great, but what’s most important is fantastic characters, an interesting story and a plot that works.  Put ’em together and whaddya got? Something you might actually be able to sell.

__________

I know that I’m about to cut at least two main characters and five locations from my script today.  Then tomorrow I can hopefully begin to streamline my plot.  I usually don’t do things this way but this is a project I still like but know doesn’t work as it stands, so I’m excited to kill a few darlings.  Then I’ll let it sit for a while and work on my high-concept.  It’s good to mix it up sometimes.  That’s how I write.

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