It’s a beautiful gloomy day where I live – a perfect day to curl up and read a good book or partake in a little binge watching, but instead I shall write because I’ve been anxious enough as of late.
Have a wonderful and productive week!
*Quote from Etsy shop WordsGloriousWords
Today’s prompt continues the running theme of character. I feel a visual representation of the images you have in your head as a writer are a great source of inspiration. I always find a few pictures that help me visualize characters or places better, especially since I can not draw, at all.
If you are interested in finding images that help you better tell your story, Pinterest is a great resource. I have created a number of boards for creative purposes, such as Character, Environment, and one entitled Inspiration for a variety of images that pique my interest, as well as a board for each of my screenplays.
Take a look and maybe you’ll find just what you’ve been looking for to help in your storytelling.
Happy Writing!
*Image by artist Eve Ventrue, who is quickly becoming a favorite!
In Sunday’s post, I mentioned how I’ve been struggling to get to know the protagonist of my space odyssey pilot. I have nearly every other character worked out, backstories in place, and even a number of future episode ideas plotted, but this one character, the main character, still sort of eludes me.
I decided to find ways of getting to know my character better and found two useful tools. The first is a list of personality traits ranging from positive to negative from MIT. The second is a list of questions to answer that will help you create a fully fleshed out person, not just a character. I found two separate sources:
1) Gotham Writers has two lists.
2) Is a link to a page entitled, The 100 Most Important Things to Know About Your Character. This page incorporates many of the questions from Gotham and then added on.
I have found both tools rather useful. I went through each character and assigned them all a handful of positive, neutral, and negative traits each to encourage diversity and to better understand them individually. Not all characters are all good or bad (I’ve written a bit on this before. Click here.), and this helped me to learn more about them and how they might respond in a given situation.
The questionnaire is a bit more daunting, at 100+ questions, but even just looking over the list allowed me to take other facets of my character’s life into consideration. There are big things to consider, such as what were her biggest fears or her dreams before arriving in this new world? And there are trifling matters, such as did she secretly have a crush on someone? Will she be upset that she’ll never know how Game of Thrones ended? I know I would. Okay, I threw that one in just for giggles, but you can see my train of thought and how these questions will shape your character.
Novel writing and screenwriting vary in a great many aspects, but knowing your characters is not one of them. Although many of those personal aspects will not find themselves on the page of your screenplay or even on the screen, and some of those topics may never be visited within the pages of a novel, but as the writer, understanding your characters will help you determine their actions, their feelings, and their responses – and sometimes it’s with this understanding that they help us write the story. If we know how they will react to a certain situation, it makes the writing that much easier, because we are writing what is in their nature, and not trying to force a situation to work a specific way because it’s what we want.
I hope you find these tools useful, and if you have any other sources or tips, please share!
Happy Writing!
I was scrolling through my quote board on Pinterest and came upon the following. Not exactly a quote, but as writers, it is something we should have prominently displayed, pretty much everywhere.
Have you ever been in the midst of a conversation and suddenly had an idea of how to fix a story problem? Did you overhear people talking and think, “I am so stealing that line!” Yeah, we all have. 🙂
Have a wonderful and productive week!
I’ve been struggling to get into the head of my protagonist for the pilot I’ve been working on. I have a few big decisions to make, but have yet to settle on anything definitive. As the story is about sisters who have been separated – set against a space odyssey backdrop – I had this idea to begin or end each episode with the elder writing letters to the younger. I thought of it as an exercise, in the hopes it might give me more perspective on these characters as a whole.
While I’m at work, I often find I have large blocks of time to make notes, write scenes, story ideas, etc. and it was my plan to utilize this time for this specific purpose, instead I have begun to write letters from Dragon Age characters to each other.
Yes, yes, I know.
I’m currently on my second play-through of Inquisition, so I suppose it was just a matter of time. I had this random idea of what some of the current characters might say to their old friends from the first game, specifically, the hero, who is referenced in each game, but has yet to make another appearance. A number of other characters make appearances throughout the series, a few becoming major characters in Inquisition (game three, and the most recent).
My first letter is from Leliana. In Inquisition she is one of your advisors, but she was previously a companion, and possible love interest, and her growth as a character has been noted throughout the series. Her letter is a companion piece to the fanfiction I’ve been writing, so the letter is addressed to the mage of that tale. The second letter I’ve been writing is from Cullen, a Templar who, although has had only small parts in the previous two games, has become an advisor and love 
interest in the current game. As my protagonist of the fanfiction knows Cullen from their time together early on in the first game, I developed a story in my head that they have remained friends all these years.
I’ve written quite a bit in just a few days, and although it’s not truly relevant to my own portfolio, it’s a fun exercise to get me out of my head, and it helps to break up the monotony at work. I may post them, I haven’t decided yet.
As writers we have dozens of characters roaming around in our heads at any given time, and sometimes it’s difficult to know them all intimately. We have to figure out techniques to bring all their traits and quirks to light. In regards to my pilot, I’ve discovered I know some of the characters I wasn’t even focused on entirely much better than I thought. As I’ve been concentrating on figuring out the protagonist, I found a couple of interesting sites and tips to help understand our characters better and will share those in the next few days.
In the mean time, if you are struggling with character development, try having them write a letter. They could write to an old friend, someone they admire, a teacher they’ve always meant to thank, or maybe a letter to their past/future self. Who knows what you’ll discover.
Good luck and happy writing!
This week’s writing prompt inspires another bout of poetry in me…huh, will wonders never cease?!
What does it inspire in you?
Happy Writing!
Once again, upon clearing out my email, I discovered this wonderful series of infographics from Good in a Room entitled “Screenplay Writing Explained in 7 Infographics. I really need to be better about checking my email. This was an interesting look at the world of screenwriting as a whole and a bit eye opening. Take a look! There’s not only great information and tips, but some stats that show what one reader saw within 300 scripts.
And then there was this…
A couple of days ago while scrolling through Twitter, I found this article from Screencraft entitled “How to Survive the Screenwriter Grind“. I was left with a sort of “ugh” feeling. I don’t think that was its intended purpose.
*Disclaimer: I did not intend for Fun Fact Friday to be defeating in anyway. I just wanted to share what I read. Okay, with that being said…this is my train of thought.
In the first article and the first infographic, of those 300 scripts, it does not say how many are by first time writers. I think the first story we, as writers, put out in the world, should be one we are passionate about. I, personally, am not passionate about the horror genre. I’m not a fan in general. Horror was the most submitted genre – 49 scripts. I find this surprising, especially in light of Spielberg’s comments recently about superhero movies going the way of the western. I nearly roll my eyes every time I see yet another advert for a horror film/sequel.
Now, I did not see Ant-man, and that is in part because I don’t really care for the character of Hank Pym. Now his girlfriend, Jan, I do like, and she’s not even in the film. Then I discovered, it really wasn’t about them anyway, and we can’t get a Wonder Woman movie?! Yes, I am just like the rest of the geek girl squad calling out for a female driven superhero film. Lynda Carter already portrayed the Amazon goddess and she deserves a return to the big screen! Because seriously, did we need another Fantastic Four movie? Or a whole new series of Spiderman? ((sigh))
But I digress.
Screenwriting is a business. I understand this. All screenwriters understand this. And it is a tough business to get in and stay in. But what I learned is that until we make things happen, we need to live our lives. This is something that needs to be reiterated. We may have jobs we don’t really care for while waiting for the “big break”, but we don’t have to be unhappy in the interim.
I want to be a working screenwriter, so I’ve been taking jobs that maybe aren’t the best to allow me some extra free time to work on my writing, but, and this is a big BUT, I need to be satisfied in my daily life in order to write the kind of stories I want to tell. At the moment I’m going to a very unfulfilling job and finding escape in my writing. Now yes, I write fantasy and sci-fi so it’s easy to escape into those stories, but I’m not sure it should be a refuge from the outside world.
Finding balance, maybe that’s how I’ll survive the screenwriter grind.
What are your thoughts on surviving the writer’s life?
I was thinking that when I reached a grand number I would do a sort of “best of”. Instead of waiting for the distant future, let’s do it today!
I have chosen a few of my favorite images from the past 56 for you to choose from, and hopefully you will be inspired to write something and share it here, or use it towards your own work.
Happy Writing!
A couple of nights ago, The Sis and I were randomly discussing the actors I would like to see cast in my first screenplay, Fate(s). You can click the link for a quick overview. It really is brief. This story has a personal history, the male lead and some of the story are inspired by my own life, so deciding who should play “him” is a little hard to narrow down. This is of course fine, because in reality, when this film is made, who I imagine or hope for will of course not be the actor chosen.
So there we were, imagining all the people who would fill these roles, when I started to laugh. What if the powers-that-be decide they want Jennifer Lawrence for the lead when I envision Rosamund Pike. Huge difference. This would in turn change the whole perspective of the film. It goes from adult to YA.
Fate(s) involves a great deal of Greek mythology, and the character of Ares, in particular, is based on the Ares from the television show Hercules. I loved him. Kevin Smith played the role wonderfully, and to have someone fill his shoes, y
ou need the snark of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki with the looks of a Joe Manganiello or Jason Momoa.
Do you see the slippery slope I am on?
In my head I know what the characters look like, in general. I have some more specifically envisioned than others, but my fear is that where I am looking for women and men (and I mean “women” and “men”), I will suddenly have a teenage rom-com where the role of Ares is played by Zac Efron. Super adorable. Wrong. So wrong.
It is one of the first lessons you learn in your film school screenwriting class. Don’t cast your film. I’ve been told it’s good to have an idea of a few actors you’d like to see in choice roles, to give the execs an idea of your “vision”, but it’s all a matter of chance and fate. See what I did there? Who has an available schedule? Who’s even interested? So many little things that may hinder the right choice. Although, sometimes a different (let’s not say wrong) choice really comes out on top.
Tom Selleck was originally cast to play Indiana Jones. Eric Stoltz was cast to be Marty McFly and actually shot quite a lot of footage. Thinking back, can we think of anyone else who could’ve filled those roles better than Harrison Ford and Michael J. Fox?
So we cast my entire film, although I’m still uncertain about a few choices, then recast it according to the actors that would most likely prevail. Obviously, I want to be a part of the Hollywood system, but when put into this perspective, I had to cringe, laugh, and try not to cry. We’re pretty sure Meryl Streep will be Hera, in any casting choice, because as it was once stated on Modern Family, “she could play Batman and be the right choice”.
It was a fun exercise, but not one I’ll be repeating again any time soon if I can help it. It was just a little too real and painful.
How about you, my fellow creatives? Do you cast your stories? Does it help or hinder your vision?
Wednesday flew by before I had a chance to catch my breath and post an image…better late than never, right?!
Here is this week’s Writing Prompt – an image that stirs the imagination in a variety of ways. Are you inspired?
I look forward to your creations.
Happy Writing!
A Writer's Discrepant Memoirs and Other Tales 