Rouge Wave Mailbox

Hi, Julie. Goran here from Australia. This blog is great and I have learnt so much from it - keep it up! hope you're feeling better. As far as suggestions for entries... Would you be able to explain (in as much detail as possible) the sort of process you go through for character development? I read the entry about interviewing the character, but is there anything else you could tell us?If you've already done something like this, just tell me how to find the relevant entry. Thanks :)

Hi Goran! How are you? Did you get that rash taken care-- oh, ahem. Anyway, nice to hear from you! This is a great question, and as it turns out, entirely relevant at the moment since I am developing a new idea and, ergo, new characters. To be absolutely honest, I don't usually "interview" the character or go through the list of character questions until or unless I feel really stuck about the character or maybe I'm bored one day and am just trolling for helpful tidbits. What I do, in the very early stages, is first of all, have a firm premise that I really like. It all starts there. Now, of course, the premise can and will change as it is interpreted by and experienced by your main character but you have to start somewhere, right? It's like those little flip books when we were kids, where the page is divided into three parts and you can change the top, middle or bottom of the dinosaur or creature.

There are two phrases I have been thinking a lot about lately, in light of events. One is evolve or die and the other is psychic load. When life throws challenges/adventures/nightmares at us, we either evolve with it or we cease to grow and we die. That is essentially what your character is facing. As is human nature, the first thing we try to do is to recoil into our old stories and habits so as not to change because change sucks. But you aren't going to allow your character to do that. Thus the get your character into a tree and throw rocks at them metaphor that we so often hear as writers. It's an oldie but a goody. Your character must evolve or die. Because this is a movie - that might mean literally dying. Or it might mean a dying of the soul. Or it might mean losing the love of their lives. So in a larger, subtextual, character-driven point of view, this is what your main character is faced with. I don't mean the "stakes" per se, I mean internally. Evolve or die. Win or lose except - and here's the beauty part - winning doesn't always look like winning.

Have you ever heard the expression "viral load"? The load of virus in your blood when you are sick, usually something AIDS patients are familiar with? Well, we sometimes carry around a "psychic load" - the cumulative effect of your past and present experiences which tip you one way or the other at the current moment. This might relate to the question: why does your story start NOW for that character? What are they carrying around? We all take great pains to balance what we are going through, to validate ourselves and our place in this world, to make sense of it all. But in a movie, since movies are life writ LARGE and ENTERTAININGLY, something will tip the balance. That - one - last - thing. Take AMERICAN BEAUTY. It isn't that Lester Burnham wasn't speeding toward middle age crisis in a hurry anyway. It isn't that his wife hasn't henpecked him for years. Oh no, that stuff was all building in his psychic load. But what happens? He gets humiliated at work. And that sets things in motion and there is no going back.

For me it is imperative to start off with a premise that I have tested. That I find promising, interesting and unique. I jump up and down on it and invite my peers and colleagues to do so too. It's not pretty. But when that thing has been kicked from every direction and still stands up - then I start work on the main character.

I think about the worst flaw a character could carry around in this particular situation. Like, the polar opposite of what would work. Something double-plus-ungood. Then I ask - well, how did the character get this flaw? What is the backstory of this character? How did they get to this place in their lives such that when this story begins, they are at their most vulnerable?

Then I picture an actor I really like as the main character. Someone with similar physical characteristics. So that now I have a mental picture of the way this person speaks and moves. During this time, I think about where they are from - north, east, south, west, US, abroad, etc. Do they have a lisp, a limp, long braided hair - I just get a sort of mental image that meshes well with the premise.

Then I write a backstory, maybe several in fact, of what psychic load this character carries from everything that has happened in their lives until now that makes them up. I don't mean WAR AND PEACE, oh no, I just a couple of pages. I don't spend inordinate amounts of time on this because nothing is written in stone at this stage and also, your character is organic and alive, you can't predetermine everything. This is all just jumping off points.

And I remember this: all of us - to a one, admit it - would rather do about anything rather than change. Evolve or die. It's the ultimate challenge asked of all of us. And your character ain't gonna want to change. And they will cope with that and they will lie to themselves and to others about it and they will vacillate and obfuscate and articulate and rob a bank not to have to do it.

Relate to your character to your deepest primal instincts as a human. Even if the situation is wholly unfamiliar to you. Character starts in your creative miasma, Wavers, so all character is deeply rooted in a part of yourself. A little part of yourself is in every character you write. Don't be afraid to plumb the depths and scare yourself, charm, embarrass or shock yourself. Writing is not for the faint of heart.

Some great homework, for those Wavers with access to it in theaters, is THE SAVAGES, an absolutely brilliant movie with characters so subtle, so real, so poignant, maddening and confusing that they could only be someone you know in real life. It is brilliant writing.

And so that today's Rouge Wave can have some "take-out" value, as they say in the essay biz (sigh), here's a summation of my so-called process.

1. nail down a premise

2. come up with the worst flaw possible for that premise

3. picture an actor with physical traits that appeal to me

4. write a back story that tips the psychic load at the top of the script

5. Remember: evolve or die and your character is not going to go easily into evolution.

6. relate my character deeply to my own primal human tendencies, even if the situation is one I have never faced.

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