All memorable and successful stories have one thing in common. They all have memorable characters that have become part of our culture. In film, or in any fiction/non-fiction, the best stories are told within the context of human relationships; it is not so much what happens that affects us, but what happens to whom.
Great stories are about characters we care about. Characters who embody our emotions and, at some level, even our thoughts? People who are caught up in events, and have to make difficult decisions and choices which affect other people.
Timeless stories are about characters making choices and forming commitments to each other in difficult circumstances and what these characters are willing to do to keep their commitments; it is through commitments a character makes and struggles to keep we find out who the character really is.
Before you put a word to paper, you must know the character. It is through characters that audiences/readers experience emotions, through the characters they are touched deeply.
Your aim as a writer is to:
- Create full-bodied, three-dimensional characters who will move the story forward with skill and clarity.
- Create characters an audience/readers want to spend time with
- Create heroes, anti-heroes, villains, and every complicated variation of human nature in between
- Characters the audience/readers will want to join on a journey both foreign and familiar.
- Characters in situations the audience recognize
- Characters who are the audience and readers’ agents in the fictional world, act out their desire for romance, revenge, retribution, for control.
Character is the essential foundation of your story.
It is the heart, soul, and nervous system of your story.
