A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of
sitting on some panels at the Comicpalooza convention in Houston. I
moderated a horror writing panel with a number of accomplished
writers, including Joe R. Lansdale. The next day, I was on a
screenwriting panel with Joe's son, Keith. These two
gentlemen provided a wealth of information and advice to aspiring
screenwriters about the importance of characterization.
As I walked the convention floor, I
also talked to a number of writers who were displaying their books.
When I would talk to most of these writers, they would pitch their
books based on the concept of their story world, rather than the
struggles of their characters within those worlds. This pitching
approached turned me off, as I'm sure it did to other
convention-goers, based on the number of copies left on the authors'
tables.
As I've said in previous posts,
audiences fall in love with characters, not ideas. The biggest
example of the importance of characters over concepts often come from
the genres that are also the most in love with its concepts: sci-fi
and fantasy.
The examples I use in my teaching and
consulting work are the characters of Rocket Raccoon and Groot from
Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy films. On paper, the
concepts of these characters are so absurd as to be laughable.
- A three-foot-tall talking raccoon with a gun fetish?
- An eight-foot-tall walking tree that says the same three words?
If any writer were to pitch these
characters in almost any venue, be it film, novel, or TV series, they
would likely be laughed out of the room.
So why did it work? Why do millions of
people love these characters, even if they aren't always likable?
The main reason is that writer/director
James Gunn treated Rocket and Groot like characters, and not like
caricatures. In the first film, he showed Rocket's pain and anger at
his transformation, which he hides behind his false bravado. He
showed that Groot was a loyal friend and slow to anger, until he was
pushed into action and made the choice to sacrifice himself to save
his friends.
At the opposite end of the spectrum
lies the films of the DC Extended Universe, most notably “Batman v.Superman: Dawn of Justice”. On paper, these concepts are a
no-brainer: take the most recognizable superheroes in the world, pit
them against each other, and then put them against a foe so tough
that they have to work together to defeat it.
Simple, right? So how could two
award-winning writers in Chris Terrio (Argo) and David S. Goyer (Dark
Knight Trilogy) get it so wrong? One of the points of failure in the
story was that they failed to make the main characters relatable.
Both heroes (and their alter egos) come across as aloof and
disconnected from their world, and from the audience, despite their
“maternal connection” to each other.
This infatuation with concept over
characterization is a major reason why writers, especially writers of
genre fiction, struggle to build and audience. As I wrote in my first post, no one cares about an “original idea” or
“ground-breaking concept” until they care about the characters.
Strong, well-developed characters can save a flimsy premise, but a
great premise won't save flimsy characters.
If you need help in creating strong
characters for your screenplay, novel, or comic book concept, contact
us at Story Into Screenplay. Whether you have the seed of an idea, or
a fully-completed feature-length script, Story Into Screenplay can
help. We offer script consultation, coverage reports, and rewrite
services to ensure that your screenplay is ready for the most
discerning reader.
You can reach us by email at
storyintoscreenplayblog(at)gmail(dot)com, or send us a message on our
Facebook page.
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