A guide full of tips and tricks that hopefully doesn't recount the same old stuff in every other writing book under the sun, Wattpad and published alike. Covering everything from helpful resources like Susanna's Pacemaker to treating setting like ch...
I already mentioned my day job. I work e'ery day, all day thinking about storylines and the different ways 80+ visually tell a story for the TV watching audience. Having been done theatre and film, I've seen how a lot of different people approach the littlest aspects of a whole story.
So here is the first installment of a mini-series within this guide.
There's the old adage write your secondary characters like they think the story is about them. I don't think this could be truer for anyone more than it is true for an actor. A true professional approaches any role the same way, no matter if they're the lead or the ensemble. As a writer, you're trying to think of all of these characters, what their motivations are, what their role is in the whole of the story, what goals they have to accomplish, et cetera. It's easy to focus on the major characters and leave the tertiary characters one-dimensional.
An actor cast in a small role focuses on that one character, breaking down the script for the beats, the motivation, the obstacles. I've written play and screenplays and in the back of my mind, I try to think about these actors. I want desperately to give them something to work off of. If they're going to go through the effort of determining the objectives of the character, I should, too. I strive to write characters an actor would actually want to play.
Objectives & Super-Objectives
This might be an obvious one, but every character should have an objective. Ideally, they have an over-arching objective for the entire story, that being the Super Objective. And every character every scene should have an individual objective for that scene. As Kurt Vonnegut is oft quoted, every character should want something, even if it's only a glass of water.
If your dialogue lacks tension or interest, it might be time to look back and make sure that every character involved wants something. It can be tricky if you need a secondary character to do something to serve the main character's objective, but everyone having their own goals makes for a much richer narrative. All characters should be motivated by something, even villains and secondary characters.
If a character succeeds in accomplishing their objective within a scene, they need a new objective right away. In a perfect world, a character should never be without an objective.
Tactics
This is personally my favorite piece of an actor breakdown. The tactics.
Now that all of your characters have objectives for the scene, they need to figure out how to accomplish their objective. What tactics will the villain use to extract information from the protagonist? Does he seduce her? If that fails, does he befriend her? Does he threaten her?
Tactics are fun because they are the verbs on which an actor acts. They detail what an actor does, the methods they use to accomplish what they want. A tactic serves the objective. If one tactic doesn't work, a character can move onto the next to get what they want.
There's a wonderful book called Action: The Actor's Thesaurus (apparently also an app, now) full of wonderful active verbs specifically to aid thespians in their tactics. It would not be a bad resource at all to a writer, and definitely falls outside the category of the average writing book.
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Obstacles
Fairly obvious, the things that stop a character from accomplishing their objective. Without a little something in the way, there's no tension in the story. Obstacles can be both internal and external. Fears and character flaws are the easiest sources of the internal obstacle. A pit full of snakes is nothing compared to boobytraps and poisoned arrows... unless, of course, Indiana Jones is afraid of snakes. External obstacles account for broken down cars, villain minions, crooked cops, and all things outside of the protagonist's control.
My favorite kind of obstacles are ones the character creates himself. There's nothing more conflicting than causing the problem in the first place. A boy seeking revenge against those who burned his village to the ground is one thing. It's okay, it works. But wouldn't it be so much more rich if the village was burned to the ground while the boy abandoned his guard duty to learn magic from the cave hermit?
Strive to create obstacles that have both an external and internal implications.
So, write like an actor. Remember there are no small parts and the ensemble carries the harmony.
