Character, Scene, and Story Read online

  Character, Scene, and Story

  Books by Will Dunne

  The Dramatic Writer’s Companion: Tools to Develop Characters, Cause Scenes, and Build Stories

  Character, Scene, and Story: New Tools from the Dramatic Writer’s Companion

  The Architecture of Story: A Technical Guide for the Dramatic Writer

  Character, Scene, and Story

  NEW TOOLS FROM THE DRAMATIC WRITER’S COMPANION

  WILL DUNNE

  THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

  CHICAGO AND LONDON

  The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

  The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

  © 2017 by Will Dunne

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

  Published 2017

  Printed in the United States of America

  26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5

  ISBN-13: 978-0-226-39347-6 (cloth)

  ISBN-13: 978-0-226-39350-6 (paper)

  ISBN-13: 978-0-226-39364-3 (e-book)

  DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226393643.001.0001

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Dunne, Will, author. | Supplement to (work): Dunne, Will. Dramatic writer’s companion.

  Title: Character, scene, and story : new tools from The dramatic writer’s companion / Will Dunne.

  Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017008987 | ISBN 9780226393476 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226393506 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226393643 (e-book)

  Subjects: LCSH: Drama—Technique—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Drama—Technique—Problems, exercises, etc. | Playwriting—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Playwriting—Problems, exercises, etc. | Authorship—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Authorship—Problems, exercises, etc. | Motion picture authorship—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Motion picture authorship—Problems, exercises, etc.

  Classification: LCC PN1661 .D859 2017 | DDC 808.2—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017008987

  This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

  For RUSS TUTTEROW,

  the godfather of

  Chicago playwriting

  CONTENTS

  About This Guide

  Exercises at a Glance

  DEVELOPING YOUR CHARACTER

  STAGE 1. FLESHING OUT THE BONES

  Character Interview

  Use an interview process to uncover information about your character in a dramatic way—from the character’s perspective and in the character’s voice.

  Beyond Belief

  Explore your character’s credo: what key beliefs it includes, how these beliefs arose, and what impact they might have on the dramatic journey.

  The Emotional Character

  Characters tend to be emotional beings. Learn more about your characters by exploring their dominant emotions and how they might translate into dramatic elements.

  Meet the Parents

  Whether or not your character’s mother and father are in the story, they have probably played a critical role in shaping his or her physical, psychological, and social makeup. Use this exercise to learn more about your character’s parents and how they might influence story events.

  STAGE 2. GETTING TO KNOW THE CHARACTER BETTER

  Sensing the Character

  Sense memory is a technique in which actors recall a specific physical detail from a past experience in order to relive the experience emotionally. Writers can use a similar technique to trigger emotional truths about their characters.

  The Imperfect Character

  If to err is to be human, you can ground your character in humanity by identifying his or her weaknesses, flaws, and limitations and exploring how these imperfections might contribute to story events.

  Objects of Interest

  What do objects and other physical elements reveal about your character? Explore the physical realm of your story to gain new insights about the character at two key points: the beginning and the end of the dramatic journey.

  The Invisible Character

  Though the audience never meets them, offstage characters can have a profound effect on story events. This exercise helps you identify the most important offstage characters in your story and why they matter.

  Side by Side

  Flesh out two characters at a specific time in the story and record your responses side by side so that you can easily compare them in telling categories, such as “most important relationship,” “dominant emotion,” and “burning desire.”

  STAGE 3. UNDERSTANDING WHO THE CHARACTER REALLY IS

  Character Fact Sheet

  Develop a fact sheet that highlights critical truths about your character that could affect how your story unfolds.

  Two Views of One Character

  Find out more about a character by asking two other characters from your story to describe him or her. In the end, your findings may reveal important information about all three characters and their relationships.

  Nothing but the Truth

  What would your character write in a journal, secret letter, or other private document that he or she would never tell others? Use instinctive writing to explore a character’s innermost thoughts and desires.

  What Is the Character Doing Now?

  What characters do is often more important than what they say, especially when their actions contradict their words. Use this exercise to explore the doings of a character—before, during, and after the story.

  CAUSING A SCENE

  STAGE 1. MAKING THINGS HAPPEN

  The Real World

  Discover new ideas for dramatic action by exploring a scene’s physical life: the setting and what’s in it.

  What’s New? What’s Still True?

  A dramatic story depicts changes that occur as characters pursue their goals and deal with obstacles. But sometimes what doesn’t change is also important. Use this exercise to explore how new circumstances and unwavering truths can both affect how a scene unfolds.

  The Past Barges In

  The backstory is everything that happened in the world of the characters before the story begins. The only parts of this backstory that matter, however, are those that influence the characters here and now. Use this exercise to explore how the past can force its way into the present to ignite dramatic action.

  Levels of Desire

  In drama, desire operates on three levels: story (what the character wants overall), scene (what the character wants at a particular time and place), and beat (what the character wants from moment to moment). Explore these different levels of desire and their impact on the dramatic action of a scene.

  Mother Conflict

  How might your character be his or her own worst enemy? Who else might pose an obstacle to the character’s success? How might the setting or current situation add to the problem? Explore different types of conflicts that your character might face when pursuing a scenic objective.

  Why Did the Character Cross the Road?

  Objective is what the character wants. Motivation is why the character wants it. Define a character’s objective for a scene, and explore two levels of motivation to achieve it: the apparent reasons for the character’s actions and the hidden reasons, whether conscious or subconscious.

  The Strategics of the Scene

  Learn more about characters by exploring how they try to get what they want: what strategies and t
actics they choose, how well they execute these actions, how they manage the unexpected, and how they act under rising pressure.

  The Scenes within the Scene

  Some scenes divide into smaller units of action called “French scenes,” which are each demarcated by the entrance or exit of a character. Flesh out character motivations for arriving in a scene after it starts or leaving before it ends, and explore the results of such comings and goings.

  STAGE 2. REFINING THE ACTION

  The Color of Drama

  Color is a basic component of the physical realm that grounds your characters in the truths of the world they inhabit. Work intuitively to tap the power of color and find new ideas and insights for a scene.

  The Emotional Onion

  Emotions tend to exist not in isolation but in layers. Explore the conscious and subconscious feelings that might influence the thoughts and actions of your characters as they interact here and now to cause a dramatic event.

  Why This? Why Now?

  We enter the lives of dramatic characters when they have compelling reasons to act without delay. Develop a scene by focusing on two of its fundamental elements: importance and urgency.

  Relationship Storyboard

  Map out a scene through the filter of a character relationship and how it both affects and reflects the dramatic action.

  Classified Information

  What is your character hiding? Find new ideas for a scene by exploring the secrets that may influence the character’s behavior at this time in the story.

  STAGE 3. REFINING THE DIALOGUE

  Phrase Book

  Learn more about your characters by exploring how they talk, what words they choose, and how their language reflects the world they inhabit.

  Better Left Unsaid

  Approach the development of a scene by focusing on the subtext—what is not said—and how this flow of unuttered thoughts and feelings can influence character behavior.

  Anatomy of Speech

  Once you have a draft of a scene, you can refine the dialogue by reviewing it from a technical perspective. This editing exercise helps you identify lines that are essential to the scene and lines that need to be clarified, condensed, or cut.

  BUILDING YOUR STORY

  STAGE 1. TRIGGERING THE CHAIN OF EVENTS

  Facts of Life

  Whether the world of a story is realistic or nonrealistic, it has certain operating rules that determine how things usually work here, what is possible under certain circumstances, and what is never possible under any circumstances. Use this exercise to flesh out the facts of life for the story you want to tell.

  In the Beginning

  When should you first bring the audience into the lives of your characters? This exercise helps you explore ideas for one of the most critical times in any dramatic story: the opening scene and its opening moment, or point of attack.

  Character on a Mission

  A dramatic story is a quest driven by a character’s need to accomplish something that is extremely important but also extremely difficult. Answer more than thirty questions to explore your main character’s quest and how it begins.

  STAGE 2. DEVELOPING THE THROUGHLINE

  Decision Points

  Characters often have to make difficult decisions as they pursue their goals. Explore two important decision points in your character’s dramatic journey, how they affect the story, and what each reveals about the decision maker.

  Living Images

  Visual images on stage or on screen are different from those in a book or on canvas. They include elements, such as action and sound, that make them dynamic. Translate a big moment from your story into a living image that can heighten its emotional impact.

  What Just Happened?

  A dramatic story is made up of events that each change the lives of the characters in either a good or a bad way. Identify different types of events in your script, and explore in more depth the one you understand least.

  The Dramatic Continuum

  The past, present, and future of your characters’ lives are intrinsically linked and constantly changing as the dramatic journey unfolds. Flesh out the throughline of your story by focusing on how scenes in sequence connect.

  An End in Sight

  Once you know how the story ends, you may have a better idea of what needs to happen during the dramatic journey. This exercise helps you evaluate a final scene and what it demands of the characters and events leading up to it.

  STAGE 3. SEEING THE BIG PICTURE

  Two Characters in Search of a Story

  Get a clearer big-picture view of your story by studying the dramatic journeys of the two most important characters and how these individual arcs of action compare, contrast, and affect each other.

  Found in Translation

  While drama is primarily an emotional experience, it is often rich in ideas as well. Identify the most important topics your story addresses, and then use character traits, dramatic action, dialogue, visual imagery, and other elements to translate these concepts into character and story specifics.

  List It

  Tap the power of free association to develop a series of lists that can help you identify and evaluate the key elements of your story.

  Different Sides of the Story

  Flesh out the main event of your story by examining it objectively from your perspective as the writer and then by looking at it again subjectively through the eyes of three different characters.

  Coming Soon to a Theater near You!

  While theatrical posters are designed to sell tickets, they also display what’s important and interesting about a play or film. Gain new insights into your subject matter, theme, and plot by looking at these elements through the eyes of a marketer and exploring ideas for a hypothetical marketing poster.

  FIXING THAT PROBLEM SCENE

  Some scenes are harder to write than others and may be indicative of problems elsewhere in the script. This section helps you analyze a troublesome scene, identify exercises from this guide to address the issues raised, and find the solutions that best fit your story.

  Glossary

  Acknowledgments

  ABOUT THIS GUIDE

  From beginners to professionals, working alone or in groups, thousands of writers have used The Dramatic Writer’s Companion to develop characters, cause scenes, and build stories. This guide complements that resource by using a similar structure and approach to offer new storytelling tools for dramatic writers. For best results, please review this introduction, which explains more about this guide and how to use it.

  ■ A NEW RESOURCE FOR SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT

  Character, Scene, and Story: New Tools from the Dramatic Writer’s Companion is a creative and analytical reference guide composed of self-contained exercises that can be used in any order, as needed, to write or revise a dramatic script. Each exercise has been workshop tested and designed as a series of action steps to help you flesh out your own material—not someone else’s. The exercises thus become part of your writing process rather than something you do in addition to it.

  THE AUDIENCE FOR THIS GUIDE

  While written from a playwright’s perspective, this guide addresses both playwrights and screenwriters, since they share many of the same challenges. For example, both must figure out how to translate character and story information into observable terms so that the audience can witness the story rather than have it explained to them. Parts of this guide also may be useful to fiction writers, many of whom have used The Dramatic Writer’s Companion to explore ideas for their stories.

  HOW THE TWO GUIDES COMPARE

  Some of the tools in this guide focus on topics not covered in The Dramatic Writer’s Companion. Others explore the same topics but do so from a different angle or in more depth. Many call for intuitive responses. They help you dig deeper into your script by fleshing out images, exploring characters from an emotional perspective, tapping the power of color and sense memory to trigger idea
s, and trying other visceral techniques. The guide concludes with a troubleshooting section to help you tackle problem scenes.

  It is not necessary to have the original guide in order to use this one. Each stands alone as a writing companion. If you do have the original, you can use it in combination with this guide to flesh out your characters, scenes, and stories. Each chapter in this guide refers to related tools in The Dramatic Writer’s Companion so you have the option to explore certain topics further. Together, the two guides offer more than one hundred script-development tools that can be adapted to your writing process.

  TOOLS FOR THE STORY YOU WANT TO TELL

  This guide builds on the idea that there is no sure formula for a successful play or screenplay. Each comes into the world with a set of characters, plot points, and operating rules that must be defined and developed by the writer with the understanding that what works for one story does not necessarily work for another. It is for such reasons that American playwright and director Moss Hart once said that you never really learn how to write a play. You learn only how to write this play.

  As you figure out what is right for your story, however, you can benefit from understanding storytelling principles that have been common in dramatic scripts through the ages—for example, that characters don’t speak or act unless they want something, that conflict is almost always present in some form as a story unfolds, and that high stakes typically hang in the balance. The exercises in this guide demonstrate such principles while giving you leeway to adapt them to your individual needs.

  For more about tools and techniques that successful dramatists have used and questions to facilitate analysis of your own scripts, try The Architecture of Story: A Technical Guide for the Dramatic Writer by Will Dunne (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016).

  CHARACTER: THE FOUNDATION OF DRAMATIC STORYTELLING