Stop Manipulating Your Characters

As a writer, you’re a passenger on your character’s respective journeys, the creator who has to put all the pieces of the puzzle together naturally, instinctively, without too much interference and unnecessary meddling.

Once you set your characters free, and allow them to reclaim their authentic selves, your true nature (and function) as a storyteller will gracefully emerge and you’ll fulfill the task of great writers, craft your story to the best of your artistic abilities, without conceit or misinterpretations.

This process begins with the writer’s impetus, or idea for a story and the characters who should populate it, and ends with the finished product–the screenplay itself, containing a fully developed, entirely believable, and unavoidably interesting character the audience relates to and wants to watch.

Character development requires hours of research, careful consideration, and attention to detail before the character is compelling and believable.