I’ve read hundreds of first drafts, and I see the same characterization mistakes again and again. Here are three of them:
1. The Many-Sided Monster
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
I’ll start with a controversial statement. You need to write one-dimensional characters. Yes. You heard me right. Your characters should have one dimension. Let me explain:
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
Screenwriting 101 taught you to write multi-dimensional characters. That’s not incorrect. But it can be misleading advice. It’s misleading because it skips a step.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
Seeking to create multi-dimensional human beings, many new writers give their characters numerous conflicting traits. But when no one trait stands out, a character is an inscrutable mess with nothing for the reader to hold onto.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
What you need to do is first create a clear, readily identifiable one-dimensional character (the by-the-book cop, the maverick, the stoner). Then and only then should you carefully build in a character’s nuances. If that first dimension isn’t there, the other dimensions present no surprise, no interest. If that first dimension isn’t there, you don’t have a multi-dimensional character. You’ve got no dimensions.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
You don’t have a character at all.
style=”text-align: center;”>
2. The Whiny Loser
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
We’ve all heard the business about petting the dog. We all know it’s important for protagonists to be likeable. Still, a surprising number of writers make their main characters whiny downers.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
It may be because we writers also know that our characters are supposed to grow during the story. So we start them out with flaws they’ll spend two hours fixing.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
The thing is, these flaws need to be likeable flaws:
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
The guy who works too hard at his job but needs balance. The innovator who thinks for himself but needs to learn teamwork. The truly considerate doormat who needs more backbone.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
There’s a reason these flaws get used over and over. Audiences don’t hate these characters in Act One.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
“What about Tony Soprano?” you ask? “How about Frank Underwood from House of Cards?” Why are they not unlikeable? Audiences are willing to forgive ambitious killers. But whiny losers — not a chance.
style=”text-align: center;”>
3. The “Sixth Sense” Mystery Man
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
Sometimes writers want to show that one of their characters has some sort of disorder or condition or other complex character trait. But they never come out and say it or show it directly. Instead they feed the reader a series of subtle clues.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
For example, in one script I read, a character kept thinking things were too loud, failed to make eye contact and acted in inexplicably strange ways. The writer needed to explain, outside the confines of the script, that this character had Asperger’s. The thing is, the story didn’t make sense until I knew this fact.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
Was this a reading comprehension problem? An intelligent reader will put subtle clues together, right?
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
Wrong.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
The reason the famous twist in the The Sixth Sense works so well is because audiences (and screenplay readers) don’t put clues together. They do it so poorly that a writer can count on them not doing it when setting up surprises.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
Unless you don’t want your reader to pick up on the truth about your character until the big reveal at the end, don’t rely on subtle clues to get a character trait across. If you want your audience to know this character, don’t be subtle. Readers have absolutely no sixth sense about such things.
style=”text-align: center;”>
style=”text-align: center;”>
By the way, the writer who wrote the script I offered as an example is far from a hack. He’s actually very talented. It’s just hard sometimes to get out of your own head and into the heads of your readers.
In anticipation of Mockingjay Part 2, I recently took part in a Hunger Games marathon. Watching the first three films in a row made me realize there are many things to learn from this franchise. Here are a few of them: (Warning: There are spoilers below.) Protagonist Likeability Matters Big Time It’s hard to get…
When I read scripts, there’s a phenomenon that happens fairly often. It goes like this: The writer manages to impress me with some fresh comedy in the early pages, and I’m looking forward to more of the same. But then the writer does something that threatens to ruin the whole script. Don’t worry if you’ve done…
style=”font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;”> New writers often think the industry is biased against them. style=”font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;”> style=”font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;”> In some ways that’s true. Film executives are risk averse and love the comfort of banking on a scribe who already has a hit at the box office….
A few years ago my manager submitted a script of mine to Sony. After a weekend of nail-biting anticipation I finally found out that they!!!!!!! — passed. The reason, I was told, was that they have a policy of making films offering “wish fulfillment” and this particular script didn’t fit the bill. It got me thinking…
Do titles matter? Here are two brief anecdotes that say yes. A few years ago, I was in L.A. pitching ideas to a well-known manager. He sat quietly on his living room couch as I tossed log line after log line his way. Nothing seemed to resonate with him. Finally, I pitched a new idea…
style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> In a prior blog (December 2015), I talked about avoiding coincidence in screenplays. I opined that 95% of the time, your story is better off if you take the coincidences out. style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> style=”mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;”> But what about the other 5%…
