Discovering character
I love working on back story and developing mini-biographies for my characters as a step towards finding their voices. But while backstory and biography are useful, they will not necessarily tell me how my characters will act or help me bring them to life on their own.
There are some essential decisions that I need to make in order to develop effective characters. These essentials are as follows…
- Characters have general qualities (bravery, cowardice, ruthlessness, compassion, altruism, selfishness, ambivalence, decisiveness, etc.). It is essential to define these general qualities clearly if I am to design a character that breathes and has a life of their own.
- These qualities generate emotions within the characters (sympathy, contempt, love, greed, generosity, hatred, patience, impatience, excitement, fear, etc.).
- These emotions motivate speech and action. By understanding the general qualities of the character and their emotional states in any given moment, I am better able to authentically predict their reactions to the circumstances they find themselves in.
Notice that there is a clear sequence here. If I want to determine how my character is going to speak or act, I need to understand what a character feels, their emotional (in the moment) state. And to understand what a character feels, I need to understand what general qualities give rise to the character’s feelings.
Dialog is action. It is directed towards the achievement of what a character wants (see below) and grows out of the general qualities (nature) of the character and the emotional state of the character in the moment. If the character is belligerent, it will be expressed in a way that corresponds to the character’s nature and the emotion of the moment.
A quiet character, provoked to anger, might simply whisper “you go too far”.
A flamboyant character, provoked to anger, might loudly cry “Have at you, pig!” etc.
Backstory and character biographies can help flesh out a character – I can design what they wear, how they live, their personality quirks and ticks – but in order to predict my characters’ behavior and bring them to life, the qualities of the character and their emotional states must be determined first.
What a Character Wants
“Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered? Where everyone would be happy? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from.”
– Agent Smith – The Matrix
Agent Smith’s quote from The Matrix contains particular relevance for storytelling. Where all needs are satisfied, there is no story.
A play in which characters want nothing is a play that will bore an audience.
The play opens; Jim sits quietly in contentment, unmoving, happy, needing nothing. Time passes. The play ends and the audience departs. And NO-ONE will have enjoyed the experience.
Desire, a goal, or a want (call it what you will) is essential to the telling of a character’s story.
Every character in a story must want something. If they don’t, then there is no story. But that, in itself, is not enough. Every character must be willing to do something to get what they want and, further, the audience must be able to watch the character pursue that desire.
As a general rule, it is better to have characters want something from other characters (but not essentially so). A character may simply want to survive a deadly storm (and that can form the basis of a satisfying story in itself), but, generally, if a character, caught in a deadly storm, seeks shelter from another character who is safely ensconced within a protective sanctuary of some sort, the interest is heightened.
Another general (but not essential) rule of thumb, is that interest is greater where a character’s desire is related to the story’s theme.
Imagine for a moment that the story you wish to tell occurs at a wake (held in honor of the father of three adult sons who has just passed away) and you’ve decided to explore the theme of how people handle grief. Relating your character’s desires to this theme will generally strengthen the play.
Here are three characters. Bob is the youngest brother. He wants to remember his father fondly, sharing happy memories and avoiding criticism of his old man. The middle brother, Chris wants to avoid dealing with his feelings at all, making his apologies as quickly as possible and getting back to his high-flying job on the other side of the country with as little emotional discomfort as possible. And the eldest brother, Simon, who spent years experiencing the brunt of his father’s anger and abuse, wants to, at last, tell his story and challenge the apparently respectable reputation his father has built up.
The above is far more interesting than using the same setting with unrelated wants. While a good story could be constructed in which the brothers meet at the wake and Bob wants a new car, Chris wants to meet Simon’s new girlfriend, and Simon wants to find a new job, it would lack the coherence of the first example.
Pursuing Wants
It is far better for the audience to learn what a character wants by seeing the character in action rather than being told. If Chris wants to leave the wake as quickly as possible, it is far more interesting to see him trying to politely (or perhaps not so politely) extricate himself from conversations and edge towards the door than it is to have someone say, “Chris wants to leave”.
In an audio play, one of the roles of words and sound is to help reveal the characters’ desires. The activity and conversation of the characters should make what the characters want clear (whether through exposition or through subtext, foreshadowing, etc.) to the audience. If the audience can’t figure out what a character wants (something that can occasionally serve a play by making a character seem enigmatic) confusion may result.
It is equally (perhaps even more) important that directors and actors understand what a character wants. The sitcom cliché in which an actor asks “what’s my motivation?”, while open to comic exaggeration, is based on a genuine need when constructing a performance.
Sides, casting monologues, and casting sheets should, like the play itself, make the goals of a character within a story clear. It is worth asking your beta-readers (the folks you look to for feedback on your draft play before making it available to the world) what they believe each of your characters wants. If it’s not clear, this usually indicates there is a problem with the script, either because the want has not been identified (by the author), or because the characters’ activities and conversation are not revealing it (to the audience).
Character and Subtext
Understanding what a character wants is essential, but it can also be quite complex. Characters can have numerous reasons for what they want (in the form of subordinate and superordinate wants). Subordinate wants are part of the subtext of the story. Surface (or superordinate) wants are text.
When writing our plays It is important that the subordinate (explanatory) wants are revealed slowly (creating a sense of mystery).
Let’s imagine for a moment that Mike (the alpha male of the marketing department) and Bill ( a highly competitive newcomer to the firm) are at a work function being held in a local restaurant, back in the days before mobile phones… and Bill wants to make a call. We could unpack his motivations as follows…
Example:
Level one: At a work function, Mike is using the public telephone but Bill wants to use it to invite a date. Why?
Level two: He wants to ask Mike’s girlfriend to the function while Mike is otherwise occupied here at the restaurant. Why?
Level three: He wants to humiliate Mike in front of his workmates. Why?
Level four: He wants Mike to be distracted during his interview for a promotion tomorrow. Why?
Level five: He wants the promotion for himself. Why?
Level six: He wants the alpha position at work (currently held by Mike).
Each level of want is text for a deeper level of subtext that can be used to arouse the curiosity of the audience and provide its own payoff when revealed.
Conclusion
Understanding character motivation and desire – knowing the general qualities, emotional situation, and wants of a character are essential to designing characters that are relatable, comprehensible, and will live and breathe in the imaginations of our audiences.
Copyright © 2019 Philip Craig Robotham – All rights reserved.
