Writers often have one major shortcoming. We often skimp on character development.
Yet Character development is a crucial part of writing novels, and is often the key to whether a screenplay survives or fails (after initial concept).
[Tweet “There has to be something identifiable about your Characters – Nicholas Reicher”]
So how do we fix this?
- Give your characters a personality. I’ve got a chart of 100 character archetypes. I don’t agree with all of them, including John Truby’s insistence that your protagonist be a trickster character, engaged in con games (notice that Han Solo is a supporting character, not the protagonist). Make sure though, that your protagonist has something you can hang a hat on. He or she is ____________ ….what? An example was the British bookstore clerk in a Tom Clancey novel. She kept her glasses on the edge of her nose, was the kind of person who you expected more comfortable reading old, classic books than talking to a human being – and racist against the Irish. Those little quirks identified who she was. There has to be something identifiable about your Characters. Like the police officer in a low budget monster movie I saw, who was addicted to Pop Rocks. No kidding. Or the lead in “I, Robot” – the first time you see him, he’s opening very carefully a box of antique sneakers, which he promptly puts on his feet. In a high tech futuristic society, we identify him immediately. He’s the non-conformist. The first time you really meet a character is your chance to show them in some little flaw or element that tells us something of who he or she is.
- Avoid the stereotype. Here’s the balancing act – make him or her the stereotype, but change it slightly so they’re not JUST the geeky nerd, not JUST the absent minded professor, not JUST the College sports jock. Take your College football player and give him a passion for collecting antique tea sets, or memorizing poetry, or endlessly quoting Shelley, Chaucer and Keats. Take your geeky nerd, and make him a black belt in Aikido. Your absent minded professor could also turn out to be a heartless serial killer. Take your clue from the Samurai warrior, who was fierce, loyal, and expected to be polite, respectful, an artist and poet at the same time. Why not the European Nazi Hunter who collects stamps in between hunting for Nazis? Believe it or not, that was Simon Wiesenthal! Truth can be a great source for characters!
- Give them a backstory. This is where movies go wrong. Without a backstory, your character is one dimensional. Books can easily delve into backstory and on the nose narrative. Movies cannot. And because it’s tough to work backstory into a movie, often the screenwriters prefer not to. But you know John Mclain’s backstory in Die Hard. There never was an “As you know, Bob” moment, but through subtle dialog and exposition, you know about John McLain’s checkered career as a New York Cop, his unorthodox methods, his estrangement with his separated wife… We know all about Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man, but very little about Tom Cruise’s… until partway through the movie. We discover that Cruise is angry that he’s always been on the outs with his dad, and when he really grasps his brother’s situation, the anger changes from selfish to selfless. In that moment, you see his backstory – without a word being said.
- Show them in strong emotion. My father taught me a lot about movies, by explaining John Wayne to me. We were watching The Searchers, and there’s a scene where John Wayne shows all the emotion only with his eyes. A loving look at his ex-girl, and the look turns into flaming hatred as he looks at her husband. It’s in the beginning of the movie – look for it. The scene in Dirty Harry where he’s being shouted at by the District Attorney, and Dirty Harry shouts “Well, I’m all broken up about that man’s rights!” One of the greatest movie scenes of ALL time was Kathy Bates in Delores Clairbourne, a scene that rendered me to tears, as she tricked her husband Joe into falling in the well, and Joe shouts threats at her as an eclipse goes by overhead, and you see her agony as she wrestles with her love for a man who’s going to kill her if she doesn’t kill him first. I rate this as one of THE greatest movie scenes of all time, and hopefully Kathy Bates won an Oscar for that performance. John McLain’s overreacting about his wife using her maiden name and shouting at her to cover his fear that he’s losing her.
Conclusion
These are not the only four techniques you can use – you’re a writer, use your creativity! How are you going to bring your character to life? These are four techniques I try to use to move the reader, to give them a reason to care about the person they’re involved with by reading an entire novel or sitting through a two hour movie.
