Do You Like Toast....Too?

Getting to know you.

The main character is the heart and soul of your story. No matter what type of story you’re telling. Getting to know that character is a process. It’s rare to meet someone and know everything about them in the first few minutes or hours you spend with them. Often our first impressions are wrong, or at the very least, incomplete. That’s the case with your main character when you first start developing them. I’ve now spent about two days (in terms of concentrated hours) with Harlan. After two days we’re still at the “I know you don't like cauliflower but I don't know why you get angry about drive thru fast food” phase. I can tell you he loves his wife. I’m not sure why he loves his wife. There are surface details that are easy to identify but the inner workings of the guy’s brain are still a mystery to me. Those underlying aspects of his personality will only become evident after I’ve spent more time with him. It’s those underlying aspects of the character’s personality that the audience really wants to understand and experience. Unfortunately Harlan and I aren’t there yet. But we'll get there.

Get to it already

This is as far as I plan to go with developing Harlan before I start the actual script. Some writers like to be at that deep understanding point with the characters before they start writing. I’m sure this is a completely reasonable approach. I feel like it’s procrastination. Start writing, put your characters into situations and see how they react. Based on the rough outline we already have we can start to put Harlan into scenes and see how he acts and reacts to other people. All this work is research. Research is good. But it isn’t the script. I prefer to get a decent idea of who the characters are, put them into the story, see how they work, then refine it as I get to know them better.

What do we know about Harlan?

A worksheet like this is a tool. It’s not written in stone. It’s not a roadmap of a character. It’s a sketch. It has legs, arms, and a head but it’s certainly not a final image of who the person is. It’s a lot of answers to questions that help me to think more about who the character is. Most of what’s there is surface stuff. That was my best guess at Harlan’s greatest fear. I probably won’t know what he actually fears most until a draft or two into the script at the earliest. It gives me things to ask questions about.

A few things that led to other things

As I was working on this a few things caught my eye. These things came out of working through the character sheet. I hadn't thought of them until I was faced with the question. They gave me pieces for the story so they're worth talking about.

Married: Yes

I originally thought Harlan was single. I think having him be married works better with the theme of the story because...

Home life: His wife is finding a great deal of success as a journalist. She works a lot though so they don’t see each other as often as they would like. When they do get time together they clearly get along well.

If Harlan’s wife is finding success and is the primary means of financial support it puts Harlan in the position where he’s outside one of the “norms” of our culture. It let’s me play with the concept of “man as bread winner” and how that can affect his sense of self and where he fits into the world.

Political views: Democrat with the idealistic fervor of youth

This is something that is very different from me. I make a conscious effort to be non-political (possibly to a fault). I thought it might be interesting if Harlan were opposite of me in that regard. He’s idealistic and believes in the power of politics to make the world a better place. I went democrat because it’s more accurate (stereotypically) to his age/interests. This may never be a part of the story but it helps me understand him and how he thinks.

Hobbies: Roleplaying games. He has a twice weekly game of dungeons & dragons with friends that they’ve been playing since they were 15.

This gives me a support group for Harlan. These are people he trusts and would be willing to reveal things about himself to. He might still keep up a public mask but these guys can see through it easier than most.

Ethics: Rule oriented. Believes every man should have a code even if he’s not sure what his “code” is

and

Values: Believes in right and wrong but is more interested in the shades of grey and how different cultures evaluate right and wrong. Idealistic about the inherent good of humanity. Believes everything will work out for the best in the end

These two things go together. People are contradictory. They will believe in two things that are in conflict with one another. Harlan can believe strongly in right and wrong and obeying the rules but he can also constantly see things as grey where there isn’t right or wrong. He can also break the rules or not follow the rules because it doesn’t coincide with his “code”. I don’t even think Harlan has a “code” so much as he wants to have one. His “code” is probably a way of accepting his contradictions and justifying them to himself. He might detest dishonesty but be dishonest. As long as he can justify it with his “code” this isn’t contradictory to him.

There’s a reason for everything (or should be)

Every piece of the character worksheet should be weighed, considered, and have a reason to be part of the character. Harlan is 29 because if he were younger he would have the invincibility of youth and not be as afraid of failure. Much older and he would likely have a different self image. I want this to be a story about transition. I feel like 29 is a transitional age. Why is he a white male? Because it’s the most commonly portrayed demographic in the media. If this is a story about being a man in modern American culture then that’s the person with the most examples in the media. Most of the information has a reason to be there. If you see something that doesn’t make sense to you or you have a question mention it in the comments and we’ll see if we can come up with something better.

Feedback

Writing is a solitary endeavor. I sit alone (usually) and come up with the characters and story in a vacuum. It can be a little like yelling in an echo chamber. What if Harlan wears pink tights under his pants? Absolutely Caleb, that’s a brilliant idea! It’s great subtext and really brings out the underlying themes of the story! I’m so very smart. The great thing about this blog is that it doesn’t have to be an echo chamber. Let’s hear what you have to say. Is there something that strikes you as interesting about Harlan? Is there something you think would be interesting that isn’t there? I don’t promise to use your ideas but I do promise to consider them carefully and abuse them as if they were my own.

Sing Along

Are you writing a script? Interested in writing a script? Want to work along with me? Follow along and write your story. This script will reach completion and if you follow along with your own, your script will be completed too. Let us (me and anyone else reading this) know and we’ll do what we can to help. You don’t even have to plan on failing.

Next time: Bring your black hats because we’re going to start work on the antagonist.