Beating the drum of Relationships

They're is a saying: "Your character is defined not by what you say but what you do."

But that's not the only way for us, as screenwriters, to define our characters.

Here's an interesting quote from a book that explores the subject of ecology.

"Humans are not specially privileged species but mere nodes in the grand web of life, properly defined more by their relationships to other species than by their individual characteristics."
- Rambunctious Garden - Emma Marris - 2011

When we surround our main characters with others, we are defining who they are - their economic means and their dominance or lack of dominance.  Through dialog and action we can contrast them against other characters to create a clear picture.

Character Vs. Characterization - Screenwriting

What is characterization?  It's the way a character walks, the tone of their voice, the clothes they wear, the transportation they use, etc.

What is character?  Character is more elusive to me.  It's motivation.  It's desire.  And expressing those can be hard to do.  Sometimes I write a scene or some dialog and move on and when I'm sitting around thinking about it, I think, "Crap, am I clearly expressing character here or just writing something that's characterization?"  I tend to write fast and without a clear intention.  So I have to go back and reread and cut and change anything that seems superfluous.  

Screenwriting Structure - The Ultimate Secret Answer to Every Structure You've Ever Heard of

If you've ever delved into the world of screenplay structure analysis, you'll probably agree that there are many ways to cut a movie apart.
There's the "classic" 3-Act structure and with that the 1, 2 , 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 Act structures.  (Why not 6?) You'll also find a Sequence Approach from Paul Gulino.  A Hero's Journey structure from Joseph Campbell exists.  Along with another version of the Hero's Journey by Christopher Vogler.  In addition to Jacob Krueger who writes about the Hegelian Dialectic.  Let's not forget Blake Snyder's Save The Cat.  And speaking of structure, you've got to talk about archetypes which you can structure your story around too.  Which leads me to one of the most complex systems of structural analytics known as Dramatica.  And so on and so forth.

What's intriguing is that when you take each of these approaches and analyze your favorite films they all work.  They all work.  Like the image above in which there is a face, a butterfly, an angel, an alien, a teddy bear, etc., all structural models are similar but different.  What you see is what you get and what you get is whatever you want to see.

What's doubly intriguing is that none of them can make you understand why a film connects with you or any other human being.  C'est la vie, right?

I would argue that a writer can take all of these models and place them in a drawer within a cabinet within a dumpster and safely land on their feet with a great story.

How?

If you focus on one scene at a time.  And focus on your characters as if they were real people who should react in a realistic way, you'll be writing well.  You'v got to be sincere.  You've got to stop and think after each action, "What would actually happen at this point, within the "rules" of the story I've been writing?"  It's realistic to spend a day or two on one scene.  You've got to read it and be honest.  Be sincere, even if it's comedy.

Screenwriting - Writing Tip

"A play can start with an image that can be as simple as two people in a room and I begin to ask questions about who they are in relation to one another."  - Donald Margulies

 A screenplay can also start that way.  But the main point I take from the above quote is asking "Who characters are in relation to one another."  I like to think of my characters as people.  I like to be sincere about who they are and what the want and why they want it.  A clear simple character can hook me and watching them deal with extraordinary or even ordinary issues can hook me too.