The Transformational Character Arc Part 3 Personality Types

The-adventurer

The Adventurer is a ! Full of energy with a dominant personality who always wants to LEAD and always expects to LEAD. The Adventurer always lives on the edge and is always willing to take risks. He or she pushes everything to the edge. The Adventurer certainly doesn’t mind attention or being in the spotlight. Lots of confidence but sometimes the arrogance of confidence results in piss poor judgement. The Adventurer is and impulsive. Courageous and rebellious. Can be ruthless if events dictate. Rules never get in the way. You’ve heard of people who act NOW and ask forgiveness later? The Adventurer doesn’t ask for forgiveness and rarely feels guilty. You’d expect to see the Adventurer working in a job that carries a lot of excitement with it… Everything from being a cop to pulling confidence scams.

My kind of character… LOL.

The Boss

always wants to be the leader. Very aggressive and used to getting their way… Forceful and willing to humiliate others if need be. The people that work under the Boss are simply tools for getting the job done and easily thrown away if they don’t work anymore. The Boss goes out of their way to avoid socializing with the troops and extends that attitude so that others have a hard time getting to know them as well. The Boss loves being the center of attention no matter where they are and often takes their BOSS attitude home with them and releases it on their family and friends. Confident and stubborn, the Boss has his or her own way and will tell you flat out. They often take advantage of other’s weaknesses to get them to do their bidding. You’d expect to see the Boss working in a job where he or she can have quite a few others working under them. They love the military, medical fields, corporations… Anywhere they can act like the King or Queen they really want to be.

The Conformist

The Conformist doesn’t love the rules as much as he or she simply loves to … LOL. The Conformist is normally conservative in their thinking, attitude, and morals. They miss the GOOD OLD DAYS that they were NEVER a part of. They don’t like a lot of change to occur around them and often go out of their way NOT to make a fucking decision. They even have a hard time deciding where to eat but once they do decide, they have an even harder time deciding what to order. The Conformist is devoutly loyal so that’s pretty cool. They don’t deal too well with problems that pop up and often try to fly under the radar when there are problems. You can pretty much count on the Conformist within the workplace as they are dependable and always give you a consistent day’s work, whatever that may be. In other words, they are predictable and you always know what to expect of them. Don’t try to show them new ways of doing the things they’ve been doing for so long because their way is the best way FOR THEM. You’d expect to see the Conformist working in a job like a factory, government technician, teacher… Anything where they can simply punch the clock — do their same old eight hours — and go home.

The Conventional

The Conventional personality type is a close brother or sister to the Conformist… The Conventional lives and dies by the rules and really hates change. While not quite as compliant as the Conformist, you’d be hard pressed to tell the two apart. You’d find the Conventional personality type wearing the full every day… Even when they go out since it’s always easier to let someone else color coordinate their wardrobe… For God’s sakes, don’t ask the Conventional to make a decision on anything or you might perpetrate a heart attack on them. The Conformist doesn’t possess a lot of … Not very creative… Again, they are loyal and make good worker bees and don’t enjoy a rocking boat. They prefer to have the Queen Bee tell them what to do or have their entire YEAR laid out in front of them. It’s almost as if they go into a trance at work… i.e., they get to the job — DO THE JOB — the work gets done — you barely even know they exist. The Conventional busts his or her ass for their family and they often have at least one or two close friends back at the job. God forbid a grown child of the Conventional surprise him or her of some dream they want to pursue… HEART ATTACK! Same kind of career fields as the Conformist.

That’s it for today… Think about the above personality types… Chances are that you know THESE types right now. Again, this information isn’t really anything new but it’s sometimes nice to revisit especially BEFORE creating new characters… It’s also good to keep in mind if you’re using one of these personality types in your story… Just knowing the overall type, his or her attitudes and behavior will help you create a more believable character and will especially help out with the ultimate character arc they make…

Knowing the personality type of your characters and then giving them the traits of that personality type will go a long way toward building a believable character for us as well as building that character arc at the end. You might take one or more of the personality type’s flaws and resolve them thus, creating an arc. You might take some of the traits of a personality type and STRENGTHEN or WEAKEN these traits thus, resulting in a kind of change…

Knowing these personality types can also help keep your characters from sounding the same or doing the same things as other characters in your story… A big no-no when writing a screenplay and OFTEN one of the most consistent problems that plague specs from “the field.”

Unk

P.S. By the way… Bill Martell’s book, is NOW up to $199.94!

Tags:

March 22, 2007 | Filed Under Characters

1 Comment 

The most expensive screenwriting book I have ever seen and the Transformational Character Arc Part 2

The Secrets of Action Screenwriting by William C. MartellYou heard me… How about a screenwriting book that STARTS at $189.95? Don’t believe me? Go ahead and see for yourself over at !

Whew! I’m just glad I got my copy a while back when it was cheaper! I even like the way Bill took some , covered up the name he autographed the copy to, and wrote over the old. Seems to me that would make it worth even more, RIGHT? LOL.

My DOG-EARED copy of has served me very well over the last several years and I just thought I would mention this fact to those of you looking for good screenwriting book to have at your side for QUICK REFERENCE. Bill’s book is ALWAYS in my backpack! As well as several of his at any given time and yeah, I got ‘em all.

What’s in YOURS?

That reminds me… I have another review of a book coming up by the end of the month that is simply OUT-FUCKING-STANDING. I’m not spilling the beans about it just yet but I will tell you that it is an advanced techniques book and WILL DEFINITELY MAKE YOUR SCREENWRITING BETTER.

Stay tuned for that. Where were we? Ah yes… The Transformational Character Arc Part 2. Very good stuff. Let’s do it.

Let’s start out by making a list of the twenty-three (23) personality types… No, you don’t have to agree with any of this and I really don’t give a shit if you do or not so PLEASE don’t email me about semantics… I’m too fuckin’ busy. Sorry… I’ve been up almost 3 days STRAIGHT and I can’t work on my rewrite because I’m too fucking wired from all the coffee. I can’t sleep because I’m too fucking wired from all the coffee.

So what’s an Unknown Screenwriter to do? Post to his fucking blog I guess… LOL.

I still can’t believe so MANY people come here to read this stuff… Who’da thunkit?

Since the came out this month, traffic has been kinda crazy and it was already crazy before… By the way… The article also mentions , Dave over at , and Craig over at .

If you’re not reading them, I only got one question for you… Why not?

The 23 Personality Types

  1. The Adventurer
  2. The Boss
  3. The Conformist
  4. The Conventional
  5. The Creator
  6. The Dependent
  7. The Eccentric
  8. The Extrovert
  9. The Fall Guy (or Girl)
  10. The Fearful
  11. The Flamboyant
  12. The Hyper
  13. The Loner
  14. The Man’s Man
  15. The Manipulator
  16. The Passive-Aggressive
  17. The Perfectionist
  18. The Personable
  19. The Problem Solver
  20. The Show-Off
  21. The Resilient
  22. The Ultra-Feminine
  23. The Victim

I know I know… You thought there were only … Or is it ? LOL. Again, don’t email me about semantics… Whether you prescribe to the 9, 16, or to the above 23… The exercise serves a purpose when it comes to creating and writing your characters ON THE PAGE and it really doesn’t fucking matter whether you believe in it or not. I had quite a few academic TYPES (hey, that’s not on the list! WTF???) email me about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and tell me HOW FULL OF SHIT I AM.

I read and I read and I read these emails that KEEP FUCKING TRICKLING in and tell me Maslow is outdated. Guess what?

I DON’T GIVE A SHIT.

I apply it to screenwriting and characters ON THE PAGE and it works for ME. Are we CLEAR? LOL. So please let’s not get into another slurry of emails about the above list… Make YOUR OWN FUCKING LIST if that makes you happy! Go get a in the shit…

Whatever.

Okay… Sorry, I’m wired. Of course we’re talking adult character types here… How can knowing about these 23 different personality types help you with your characters?

Glad you asked. Oh you didn’t? Too bad… Vote with your mouse.

Knowing the personality type of your characters will go a long way toward knowing how they react to the obstacles you throw at them throughout the story. That doesn’t mean it’s time to make a cliched character and then like a puppeteer, make him do what we all expect him to do.

Uh… No.

Knowing this information simply helps make your characters more believable to your audience. Knowing what traits these personality types possess will certainly help you figure out how they will react, develop, grow, and change by the end of your story.

Have you ever seen a character in a movie do something SO OUT OF CHARACTER that you’re just pissed off for the rest of the film? Sure you have. We all have. Don’t get me wrong… It’s perfectly OKAY (hear me, ?) to have your characters do something out of the ordinary… That’s what good films are all about but you have to balance that line carefully because it is EXACTLY that fucking line that you can lose your audience.

Many if not all of the above personality types share lots of traits so it’s really not that difficult to get it right and it’s really not that difficult to GET IT WRONG. LOL. You just have to be careful… Many times I have come to a point in my screenplay where I just have to make my character do SOMETHING so different and out of character that I end up taking a step back and CONSIDER whether or not I really knew his or her personality type from the get-go.

That’s right… It can change.

As your characters come alive to you… As they react, develop, grow, and change right on the page in front of you, you SOMETIMES have to wonder if you got it right UP FRONT. It’s okay if you didn’t because let’s face it… Do we really know people? Do we know what THEY want us to know or do we really know them?

As your character(s) develop within YOU, you might very well find out that they are NOT who you thought they were — so knowing what personality type they are can be a big help even if that personality type changes at some point in your story.

Are we clear? Cool… Or as my Actor niece always types… KEWEL.

So yeah… YOU GUESSED IT. Now we must DELVE into these personality types and all the traits they share with each other… Don’t worry… I don’t have the STRENGTH to post any of that information right now… For now, just absorb the fact that we’re trying to make realistic or as I prefer to say, HYPER-REALISTIC CHARACTERS in our stories…

Before I make yet ANOTHER pot of coffee, yes I am working on SCREENWRITING RULES and yes, it will be available for download right here and then you can make it available for download at your site… If you have no way of uploading a file to your blog or site — NO PROBLEM… Just link to the file once it’s sitting on my server and people will still think they’re downloading it from your site. Together we can probably get THOUSANDS of these files circulating all over the net and since there will be hyperlinks inside the document leading to all the contributor’s sites, this means that there’s a lot of future traffic that’s gonna happen. It’s not too late to contribute!

Trust me. I know what I’m doing.

Unk

Tags:

March 16, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Characters

14 Comments 

The Transformational Character Arc Part 1

Transformational Character ArcI keep trying to make my Protagonist’s in my rewrite a little less obvious yet more APPARENT. I don’t want anyone to read and say, “Cool, there’s the arc.” I just want people to walk away after having absorbed the fact that the Protagonist completed it.In other words, I want to slide it in there under the radar so that you FEEL it… You know it but you don’t know it.

Got it?

Nope?

The transformational is the emotional change your goes through by the end of your story.

The transformational character arc is one of the most daunting story elements we have today… Many many screenwriters attempting to break into the business know that they need it but once again, those that are out there attempting to teach us this stuff haven’t done their homework…

What I mean by that is they (the ) almost always tell YOU; the girl or guy that just plopped down $300, $350, $500, (and an equal amount or more on screenwriting books) that you need to make sure that your Protagonist has a character arc.

Uh, thanks.

Let me also say that I don’t really mean this toward ANYONE in PARTICULAR but suffice to say, I’ve been to every guru’s workshop, pretty much buy every screenwriting book that comes out (even bad ones), read articles like they are going out of style and still…

No meat and potatoes when it comes to the character arc. *NOTE: I do however, have several new screenwriting books coming from Amazon.com that may change all that? At least that’s what they PROFESS…

We shall see.

I wonder why that is? Could it be that nobody’s ever actually broken it down?

No fuckin’ way… Somebody’s done it somewhere… Hell, I know I have.

MaryAn, of fame made an outstanding comment in a previous post… i.e., “My take: motivation is what propels characters towards goals.” A simple little sentence but OH SO MUCH POWER.

I bring this up because of the importance of … i.e., it is in fact this motivation that you’ve so deftly fleshed into your story that also drives your character to be BETTER than he or she was before they started out on their journey but REMEMBER…

However your Protagonist acts; whatever your Protagonist says or thinks that he or she WANTS (GOAL), could very well be DIFFERENT from what they TRULY WANT i.e., their MOTIVATION.

Often, the Protagonist simply goes after what they THINK they want and, through their own decision making, emotional action and reaction, they end up discovering what they really want and when they discover what they really want, BAM! They WAKE THE FUCK UP because until now, they’ve been fooling themselves just trying to get along… Now that they’ve SEEN the new end of the rainbow, they can’t do without it hence, the new GOAL and hence, MOTIVATION.

I guess that’s why I go fucking crazy when it comes to my characters… Without characters… Scratch that. Without GREAT CHARACTERS, the audience is going to have a really hard time climbing on board the sympathy/empathy train.

I read a lot of screenplays where the screenwriter tries to develop all the main characters before the first act is complete… To me, that’s exactly one of the problems in pulling off an outstanding transformational character arc… Give us the character as a lump of clay in the beginning. BE THE ARTIST and let us watch you mold that clay throughout the entire story…

In other words… Bring in your characters and quickly give them dimension… Go ahead and develop them JUST ENOUGH to hook us so we can get on board the sympathy/empathy train for the rest of the story. Get rid of all their clichés, kick them in the ass, and get them going on their journeys… Then, as time goes on, continue to develop them… Continue to give them more through their actions and dialogue.

Another problem I see a lot are characters that are simply NOT FUCKING CAPABLE of undergoing a transformational arc. Remember, your main character i.e., your Protagonist needs to be a character CAPABLE of undergoing transformation. If you give us the PERFECT CHARACTER right up front, FUGHEDABOUDIT. We’re gonna be bored and bored people FORGET to jump on the sympathy/empathy train.

Along this line of thought…

If we’re bored by your characters, then it is very likely that your characters are also . Nobody wants to read and watch … We already have way too much in our lives… Please do not inundate us with even MORE! I can’t tell you how many people NOT in the business make the comment (or something similar), “Well that’s another two hours of my life that I’ll never get back.”

As a screenwriter, please be HYPER-AWARE that before you ever give your script to someone to read, you’re asking that person or persons to GIVE YOU about two hours of THEIR LIFE to read your screenplay. To me, that’s one of the most ULTIMATE GIFTS anyone could ever give to me and so many fucking screenwriters NEVER EVER stop to consider what a wonderful gift that is to begin with… Assuming that this is a wonderful gift, don’t you at least OWE your reader two hours of instead of boredom? And, if that is true, don’t you also owe it to your prospective MILLIONS of AUDIENCE MEMBERS out there waiting to see your eventual movie, two hours of excitement?

Don’t ever forget WHY we go to the fuckin’ movies… To !

Boredom is not escape.

Give us main characters as big as life! … Characters capable of being transformed by the end of your story. As audience members of your prospective movie, we want to see different sides of your characters… We want to see their . We want to see their . We want to see how they EMOTIONALLY react to the other characters in your story. We want to see them make EMOTIONAL decisions. We want to see them make based on the obstacles you throw at them. We want to see them fuck up. We want to see them climb up SHIT MOUNTAIN.

The of your characters (the ones YOU WRITE of course) serve to develop them, create dimensionality within them, and if done correctly, make them BELIEVABLE. Just remember that believable characters do not have to be boring.

Dimensionality serves to delineate your character(s) to your audience… The transformational character arc that your character achieves by the end of your story, DEFINES your character. In other words, we really don’t know what to expect but hopefully, we’ll enjoy the ride… Your character(s) however, will keep revealing bits and pieces of his or her emotional make-up and if done correctly i.e., with tension, conflict, rising action, etc., KEEP US ON THE TRAIN.

That brings us to DEFINING YOUR CHARACTER.

Which is why it’s so important to KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS. I’m not going to say this is a RULE but knowing your characters WELL can certainly make giving him or her a believable and exciting transformational character arc a lot easier than NOT KNOWING YOUR CHARACTER WELL.

ATTITUDES and PHILOSOPHIES

One of the easiest ways to give your Protagonist a believable transformational character arc is to start them out with fairly DEFINED and then, as you take them through your story, TEST those attitudes and philosophies, causing them to DISCOVER new attitudes and philosophies that are different from the ones they started out with.

As your character(s) tackle the obstacles you’ve placed before them, their attitudes and philosophies begin to SHIFT, DEVELOP, and CHANGE into new attitudes and philosophies. Going to the extreme OPPOSITE of the beginning attitudes and philosophies makes us feel or sense the transformational character arc of your Protagonist.

Another way to make this a little easier for you is in KNOWING YOUR CHARACTERS. Did I say that already? Fuck yeah, I did! If you know your characters well enough… i.e., their attitudes and philosophies about LIFE, PEOPLE, etc., then it can be easier to plot out an extreme opposite change in attitudes and philosophies ahead of time, add that to your structure so you know WHERE your Protagonist is headed. He or she doesn’t necessarily have to follow your road map either… The better you know your characters, the easier it is for them to surprise you on the way.

The following is rather old information and very basic when it comes to MEN and WOMEN but very valuable to know before you begin to create your characters… Everyone knows that men and women are different and I’m not talking about being different physiologically… We COMMUNICATE differently from each other and KNOWING the basics of that communication before you even start to create a character will really help you with your Protagonist’s ultimate transformational character arc.

Let’s get into the BASIC difference between …

March 12, 2007 | Filed Under Characters

34 Comments 

← Previous Page — Next Page →