When writing characters for a screenplay it is so easy to just fill in some dialog only to result in a character that is flat, uninteresting, and easily forgettable. Character development, I feel, is a common process in screenwriting that is so easily overlooked, especially for screenwriters who are just starting out. If we want to write characters that are even remotely as interesting as Quentin Tarantino we need to spend significant time developing our characters.
I have a few techniques that I use to help me to develop characters that are more interesting. It should go without saying, this is not an exhaustive list but should help you on your path to writing more interesting Characters.
Don’t Start Writing Too Soon
An easy thing to forget that not only affects your script as a whole but also your characters is understanding the world that they live in. This goes beyond the idea behind science fiction or fantasy stories. It applies just as much to a romantic comedy as it does any dimension shifting planet hoping story.
The world your character lives in consists of many different elements: who they interact with, who they know, their economic status, the political atmosphere, the country they live in, the time period, etc. You’ll be able to determine the social rules that they have to follow or even the physics of the world. This process is important to understand how your character will respond in situations, what their motivations might be, their belief system, etc. It all plays in defining their world and developing your character.
If you don’t understand your character then you will start writing characters that are inconsistent. When your character starts to make decisions and react in ways that are out of character, your story starts to open up all sorts of plot holes and flaws that will instantly cause people to question whether they want to continue reading. Know your character and how they would respond — you’ll know this from your pages of character development work you will write.
...you have to invest in the concept of being a writer—not just writing something for yourself to direct.
Ditch Your Screenwriting Software
An easy way to distract yourself from diving deep into discovering who your character is is to get caught up in proper formatting. Yes, delivering your screenplay with proper formatting is extremely important if you want to be taken seriously as a screenwriter. Fortunately, in this stage of the process formatting means absolutely nothing. You are getting your ideas out of your head and onto paper. You aren’t going to be submitting any of this work to an agent or a competition, this is just for you. Think of character development as your scratch paper, what you are using to work the problem out.
Sometimes I find that it is easier to write uninhibited when I completely ditch a computer and write with a good ol’ pen and paper. I am not tethered to a power source, I can pull it out of my back pocket wherever, whenever…unless I’m not wearing pants, but then that is a completely different story.
There are two extremely useful features that are available in nearly every piece of word processing software, whether a desktop application or web-based — spelling and grammar check. Here is the surprise, turn them off when doing your character development. Those little squiggly lines or notifications that something is misspelled gets in the way of letting your creativity flow. You’ll be constantly reminded that you can self edit your work as you go and that, for me, is very disruptive to the creative process. There is a time and place for these features and it is not in your creative vibe zone. Save them for when you are editing your script.
Speaking of the creative flow, this is a process that takes practice and training. Being able to sit down and free write for hours on end is not as easy or enticing as it might sound. (I’ll talk about the free write in more detail in my next point.) An easy way to build up the skill is through something similar to what athletes might call interval training. Set a timer and try writing for 5 minutes. Once that starts to feel too short of a time to write, increase that interval by a few minutes. If you really want to stretch yourself create some interval goals:
- 5 minutes
- 10 minutes
- 15 minutes
- 20 minutes
- 30 minutes
- 45 minutes
- 1 hour
The goal is to practice your writing sessions to a point where you can write in longer blocks of time.
The Creative Free Write
So what is the “free write?” It is explained and was first introduced to me in the book “The Artist’s Way.” I may be taking liberties with how I use it now, but I definitely focus the “free write” concept on my screenwriting. When it comes to discovering your character and developing them into something that is highly enticing and interesting takes some time as you work out the quirks and kinks that they have. This is where the “free write” is so great for this stage in the process. The idea behind it is that you prepare workspace, whether it is a computer or pen and paper, set a timer, and write nonstop until the timer goes off. There are a number of really cool exercises that can enhance this process but the idea is to never your writing until your timer goes off.
Don’t stop to think, don’t stop to figure out what the best word would be to use, just write. You may start out just writing a page full of the word “monkey” but it is a start and maybe the next time out you’ll get more words than just one. It is a muscle that takes flexing frequently to build up the skill.
Remember that this is a discovery process. Let your character lead you. You instinctively had rules in your head for how one type of person may react and that will come out during your discovery process. You just have to go far enough to discover them.
The key during this process is to not stop writing. Don’t stop to think, just write. I might have just mentioned this but knowing that the importance of not self-editing yourself is so valuable during the discovery process. It becomes very liberating and it may easily become one of your favorite parts of the process.
Stopping will cause your flow to break – maybe you’ll start self-editing.
Conclusion
It should be pretty evident that one of the best ways to create characters like Tarantino is to spend a lot of time with them. The more time you spend with someone the better you get to know them, the same goes with the characers you are writing about.
If you get lost you can start making up some scenarios that they may get themselves into. Write as much as you can about how they may respond in those situations. This exercise will help you to learn what makes these characters interesting.
I have heard that for the Kill Bill series Quentin Taratino wrote over 800 pages just to develop the characters. Maybe we should get in the habit of writing a novel of our character’s backstory before we start the screenplay. Maybe this is some additional material with we are thinking bigger picture.
Check out the article that was written for Movie Maker magazine you can read that here. It is a fantastic read.
If you need some help in knowing what kind of questions to ask during your character development process I put together the Character Development Question Sheet to help you out. I’ve linked it below for you to download.
Happy writing.
