Written by Hal Croasmun on June 19, 2010.
When your lead character is placed in a terrible spot, entertaining things happen. The audience worries about him. They feel sympathy for him. They want to know what is going to happen to him. Why? Because you, the God of your script, set it up that way.
Sometimes, it appears that writers are too nice to their characters. You've established a deep friendship with those characters and don't want to hurt their feelings. You'd never put a friend in such an awful situation. So why would you do that to your characters?
There's nothing wrong with loving your characters. After all, they were so much fun to create. But remember, they have a job to do that, if done right, will bring them to life along with your career.
What is their job? To go through hell and somehow survive to tell about it.
Think of it this way. If your characters don't experience conflict and tension, neither will your audience. This is important. I don't mean that a story can't have happiness or fun or any other positive emotions. For a story to be an emotional roller-coaster ride, there has to be both ups and downs.
But the highs and lows need to be delivered effectively and in most stories, it is the conflict that keeps an audience glued to their seats.
Here are a few suggestions. At some point, I may write articles providing details on these strategies. But for now, this simple list can provide you some possible solutions.
2. Make sure the main conflict of the story is an absolutely "unsolvable puzzle" for the main characters.
BTW, movies aren't all about pain. As I said, there are both highs and lows in any good movie. But try this exercise and see what you find out about conflict:
I heard a song once that said "you got to go through hell to get to heaven." Could be that same advice applies to writing movies... or being a writer...or even being a producer.
Send your characters to hell and you'll send your audience through a highly entertaining movie.
And if you want help punching up your script, check out our "Fresh & Edgy Screenwriting Class."
When your lead character is placed in a terrible spot, entertaining things happen. The audience worries about him. They feel sympathy for him. They want to know what is going to happen to him. Why? Because you, the God of your script, set it up that way.
Or did you?
Sometimes, it appears that writers are too nice to their characters. You've established a deep friendship with those characters and don't want to hurt their feelings. You'd never put a friend in such an awful situation. So why would you do that to your characters?
There's nothing wrong with loving your characters. After all, they were so much fun to create. But remember, they have a job to do that, if done right, will bring them to life along with your career.
What is their job? To go through hell and somehow survive to tell about it.
Think of it this way. If your characters don't experience conflict and tension, neither will your audience. This is important. I don't mean that a story can't have happiness or fun or any other positive emotions. For a story to be an emotional roller-coaster ride, there has to be both ups and downs.
But the highs and lows need to be delivered effectively and in most stories, it is the conflict that keeps an audience glued to their seats.
SOLUTION: Turn up the heat on your characters and watch them roast.
Here are a few suggestions. At some point, I may write articles providing details on these strategies. But for now, this simple list can provide you some possible solutions.
1. Put them in uncomfortable situations as often as possible.
2. Make sure the main conflict of the story is an absolutely "unsolvable puzzle" for the main characters.
3. Every time it looks like they'll succeed, send them a twist that mucks up their plans.
4. Place other characters in their lives that either sabotage or disrupt your main character's usual coping strategies.
5. Alternate "hope" and "hopelessness" whenever possible. The first pulls us back in and the second makes us worry.
6. Force them to do the one thing they would never do.
7. Don't give them the easy way out. Leave them in pain for as long as possible.
8. Murphy's Law and misfortune suddenly visit their lives in unusual and interesting ways.
9. Take their problems to an extreme.
10. Make sure their internal conflict is represented in a graphic manner as well.
BTW, movies aren't all about pain. As I said, there are both highs and lows in any good movie. But try this exercise and see what you find out about conflict:
-------------------- EXERCISE --------------------------
Watch
three of your favorite movies with a pad of paper. As you do, make a
list of all the things the writer did to cause pain and conflict for the
main characters.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Even if you've written 10 screenplays and watched thousands of movies, you may still be surprised at the results. You'll see both conflicts and setups for conflict that you never noticed before.I heard a song once that said "you got to go through hell to get to heaven." Could be that same advice applies to writing movies... or being a writer...or even being a producer.
Send your characters to hell and you'll send your audience through a highly entertaining movie.
And if you want help punching up your script, check out our "Fresh & Edgy Screenwriting Class."
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