Hello everyone, This is my first attempt at screenwriting and I have a few questions about how to define a character in a script Here is my story in brief A socially awkward protagonist who is low on confidence turns into a drug addict in college after the death of his mother who was an anchor for him.He is suspended from college after getting caught and lives working an odd job with a drug addict friend. One day his friend is admitted in a hospital after an overdose .Later the protagonist is arrested for possession and is offered a deal to work as a confidential informant for a cop(female lead),he agrees and works for her as he also needs money to take care of his friend .In this process he falls in love with the cop and tries to quit and live a normal life so that he can ask her out,he takes a loan from his estranged father and sets up a diner .His friend gets well and joins him.In the meantime the protagonist gets his life in line earns- well,woos the cop and gets in good terms with his father.The cop also falls for the protagonist ,they start a new life while he is battling addiction.The cop tragically dies in a drug bust related incident and later seeks revenge and so on the main characters Protagonist Mother Father Friend Female led(cop) Cop Buddy I am facing difficulty establishing specific characteristic traits to my characters and need suggestions for it
Hey there Sathvikm! I read through your post, but I didn't see anything that defined your protagonist until I got to this line: This right here is your character; and what I mean by that is, this is his goal, motivation, drive--whatever you want to call it. This is the 'thing he wants so badly that he's willing to throw himself into danger to get it'. Each one of your characters needs something like this. Each of them needs to want something so bad that the risk of trying to GET that thing is worse than the risk of NOT trying to get that thing. For what its worth, 'what a character wants' usually falls into one of three categories. 1) Possession of something -- a girl, a treasure, a power, a character trait, you name it. 2) Relief from something -- Blackmail, physical pain, psychological pain, etc. 3) Revenge for something -- Your main character. These three things seem specific, but they're really vague enough to encompass most things your characters might want. Give each of your characters SOMETHING they want more than anything else; something they're willing to do UNIMAGINABLE THINGS to achieve. Once they have that one thing, you'll be able to put them in different situations where you can see what they'll do to continue pursuing that one thing. Note: if you put your character in a situation where they would rather give up that one thing than fight, it wasn't a good enough one thing. That's my opinion, anyway!
The protagonist's goal in the first act would be just survival no particular goals or motive ,in the second act his goal is to get sober and pursue the girl and in the third it is revenge I want help with the friend's character which is goofy but has emotional influence .How do you guys think I should go about that??
One question to ask would be what kind of emotional influence does he have? Like, is it specifically over the reader or himself? Here's an idea that would work for both: There are some people who hide their pain behind a wall of sarcasm and admitting outright that they are trash. So, maybe, have him sometimes change from his normal goofy-self into a cynical, sarcastic guy who's just struggling to keep his life together.
