The Transformational Character Arc Part 14 Stick a fork in it!

Stick a Fork in it!

Whew… I was starting to think that I’d never finish this series but I think I’ve pretty much covered everything you need to get you started on creating a transformational character arc for your Protagonist. If you don’t believe this is important to your story and your screenplay, no problem… I tend to think this happens to be what’s wrong with most screenplays today.

So last but definitely not least, let’s go over the series and see if we can make just a little more sense out of all this garbage…

In part one, we kinda talked about the importance of your Protagonist undergoing a transformational character arc. Most screenwriters like to use the phrase, “character arc” but I like “transformational character arc instead because the MORE I think of my Protagonist’s journey this way, the MORE I am hyper aware that I want him or her to be transformed by the end of the story. Saying it and THINKING IT somehow keeps me writing TOWARD it.

Make sense?

Something else that’s been discussed in the comments and that I’ve hit on within the series a bit is how I personally like to slide the transformational character arc in under the radar instead of hitting the reader (and hopefully and audience) over the head with the transformation. Again, my thinking here after watching THOUSANDS of movies and taking them apart piece by piece is that the movies where the Protagonist’s transformational character arc is not nearly as obvious by the end of the story are the movies that resonate with ME the most. Again, simply my perspective and many will probably have a different take on it. Ultimately, YOU gots to do what YOU gots to do.

I would also say that if you walk away from this series and this blog with absolutely NOTHING ELSE… Walk away with this… Give your Protagonist a transformational character arc… We, the audience WANT to get on board the character train. We want to enjoy the ride… We want to ponder out the windows… We want to walk around the train… Feel it moving. We want the experience. We want to eventually get off the train and remember the train ride so please give it to us! Transforming your Protagonist by the end of the story gives us, the audience, hope that we too can overcome adversity. That we too can conquer the obstacles that keep getting in front of us in our daily lives… That we too can eventually transform into a new and improved human being.

Consider your Protagonist’s motivation as you weave your story… This motivation is perhaps, the main key to your Protagonist wanting to somehow become a better person by the end of the story… And remember, somehow becoming a better person depends on YOUR truth which should also be your Protagonist’s truth. What YOU BELIEVE about LIFE.

Your Protagonist may start out going after what they want but consider making them discover what they truly NEED as part of your story’s structure. Two goals… OUTER and INNER. Outer is what they want… The tangible goal that we can SEE them attain and by so doing, they simultaneously achieve the inner goal of what they NEED to become a better person.

Don’t worry about trying to develop your characters in the first act… If you do this, you can often end up writing predictable stuff. Let us keep discovering new things about your Protagonist as he or she travels through your story. Using your Protagonist’s emotional reaction to action i.e., their decision making and resulting action and dialogue are your tools to help us discover more and more about your Protagonist as they climb up shit mountain.

Try to define your Protagonist as much as you can before you start writing… Character bios. Backstory. Personality types and character traits. Do whatever works for you to really know your characters… The better you know your characters, the more apt they are to whisper in your ear as you write… Make your characters REAL to YOU and you’ll go far in making them real to us. You should know your characters at least as well as you know a member of your family or a close friend.

In , we went into the 23 Personality Types. This can give you a starting point with your Protagonist. Most likely, you already know enough about your Protagonist to find out which personality type they fit into… Cool. Give us MORE! Knowing your Protagonist’s personality type can help you create a out of him or her and keep their emotional reactions to actions consistent with their character and no… That doesn’t mean make them predictable. LOL.

Parts , , , , , and of the transformational character arc series delved a little into the character traits of the 23 personality types… Just enough information to get you started so you kinda have an idea where to take your characters when it comes to behavior.

of the transformational character arc series discussed HYPER-REAL CHARACTERS, giving them dimension and making them multi-dimensional by knowing their personality type and character traits… Again, just enough to get you started on your own journey of discovery. Seek out more information. Invest in a book or two that go into the subject with even more depth. How many times can I say it? The better you know your characters, the better your story is going to be.

In , we talked about your Protagonist’s decision-making process i.e., his or her emotional reaction to action and how it works… Your Protagonist’s ACTION and DIALOGUE should drive your plot instead of your plot driving your Protagonist. Because your Protagonist’s motivation i.e., they want, need, and desire something both OUTER and INNER; they move or ACT through your story via ACTION and DIALOGUE. Your Protagonist’s emotional reaction to action is the beginning, middle, and end of the transformational character arc. He or she comes across an obstacle that you’ve thrown at them which causes them to make a decision which causes them to act and that act should reveal a little more about them as a person. Their action as a result of their decisions throughout your story are those layers you often hear about that you should be continuously PEELING back for us.

Part of the Transformational Character Arc series got into your Protagonist’s FATAL FLAW and how to use this flaw to lead your Protagonist through to his or her transformational character arc. discussed using THEME to also guide your Protagonist to emotional growth as a new being using your TRUTH about LIFE as the “inner light” at the end of the Protagonist’s tunnel. It’s what your screenplay is ULTIMATELY ABOUT.

And finally, talks about using EXPOSURE THERAPY on your Protagonist to eventually get him or her over their greatest fear and become TRANSFORMED.

I’ve had requests from more readers than I can mention to stick this series up in the download section so expect to see it there in a day or two. I hope it helps you out… I hope it’s made you realize how important this element is to your story and ultimate screenplay. I hope you understand that OFTEN, it is this element and the way you ultimately handle it that can make or break your spec when it finally comes to the marketing.

Like everything here on the site, this is just the way I do things… I don’t claim to be an expert… Hell, I learn something new every day and I often change my way of thinking as I learn new things. Sometimes I’ll read an article and change my opinion — sometimes I simply watch a movie that changes my opinion but it’s always just MY OPINION so take that for what it’s worth and more importantly, come up with YOUR OWN OPINION! Read articles. Scour the web… Go back to your screenwriting books and re-read the parts about giving your Protagonist a character arc. The more familiar you are with this story element, the better your screenwriting is going to be.

And as if you didn’t already have enough to read, I recently found several articles about the Kubler-Ross Model. It talks about the 5 Stages of Grief or what is known as the Grief Cycle:

Coping with Loss: Guide to Grieving and Bereavement

The above articles don’t have anything to do with screenwriting per se but I think they definitely apply to the Transformational Character Arc series so definitely check them out and tell us what YOU think. It’s interesting to note that your Protagonist goes through a similar if not identical transformation cycle… Or SHOULD. LOL. In my opinion, the most important aspect of these articles are the actual 5 Stages of Grief:

Kubler-Ross 5 stages of grief cycle

Prior to the cycle, you have a normal-functioning person… Then, something happens that throws their world out of whack… They now begin the cycle:

Stage 1: Shock and Denial

Stage 2: Anger

Stage 3: Depression and Detachment

Stage 4: Dialogue and Bargaining

Stage 5: Acceptance

With the cycle now complete, this person returns to a meaningful life having been TRANSFORMED and experiences the following:

If you’ll notice, you could ALMOST structure an entire screenplay based on these 5 stages and while I’m not advocating exactly that, I’m almost positive that by learning just a little more about this model, you’ll go a long way toward creating believable characters and have your Protagonist TRANSFORMED by the end of your story…

Food for thought.

Unk

EDIT: The Transformational Character Arc series is available for download on the Download page.

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June 12, 2007 | Filed Under Characters

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The Transformational Character Arc Part 13 Exposure Therapy for your Protagonist!

Exposure Therapy for Your ProtagonistExposing your Protagonist’s fear has so much to do with that I thought I’d go into it a bit with this post… Your Protagonist’s FEAR runs DEEP. We’re not talkin’ Indiana Jones’ fear of snakes here… What we’re talking about is an emotionally deep rooted secret fear that your Protagonist continuously REFUSES to face. A burden that your Protagonist carries with them everywhere… i.e., your Protagonist’s GREATEST FEAR and it’s completely internal even though you’ll need to manifest it visually.

Having said that, your story should ultimately force your Protagonist to face this very fear by the end of the story… Your Protagonist can and will of course face off with your Antagonist but it’s NOT THE ANTAGONIST that your Protagonist fears. No… It’s what your Antagonist symbolically represents to your Protagonist… That emotionally deep rooted fear that he or she’s been carrying around inside of them since it became their greatest fear.

What’s interesting here is that your screenplay works not unlike a treatment known as :

“Exposure therapy is a type of behavior therapy in which the patient confronts a feared situation, object, thought, or memory. Sometimes, exposure therapy involves reliving a traumatic experience in a controlled, therapeutic environment.”

The controlled therapeutic environment being your screenplay of course… LOL. And just like exposure therapy in the real world with real world patients, YOU are now the psychiatrist. You keep exposing your Protagonist to his or her fear a little bit at a time until they finally reach, face, and conquer their GREATEST FEAR!

By this time, you should of course KNOW your Protagonist pretty well, so sitting down and making a list of ALL his or her fears shouldn’t be too difficult. List as many fears as you can and once you’ve listed as many fears as you can, it’s time to analyze them… i.e., see how they are connected to your Protagonist’s GREATEST FEAR.

Figure out how to connect as many of these smaller fears to your Protagonist’s greatest fear and get rid of the fears that you can’t somehow connect to his or her greatest fear. Your list of smaller fears that you’ve managed to connect to your Protagonist’s greatest fear can now be used to develop obstacles to toss in front of your Protagonist as he or she moves through your story. In fact, it’s often useful to keep this list of fears handy as you write the screenplay… You might end up adding more fears, deleting existing fears, or develop and define existing fears even more.

Remember, your Protagonist is a SLAVE to this fear and until now… i.e., the end of your screenplay, he or she has not been able to deal with this fear, LET ALONE CONQUER IT.

Conquering their greatest fear is the transformational character arc, COMPLETED.

Just like exposure therapy, you can now take your list of fears and begin to develop them. Consider putting them in an order of RISING ACTION with your story events… i.e., start out with the smaller fears — leading into successively larger fears — ending with your Protagonist’s GREATEST FEAR. In other words, KEEP RAISING THE STAKES!

As you kick your Protagonist’s ass up shit mountain and expose him or her to “the trail of fears,” always keep in mind that each fear you ultimately decide YOU WANT in your story needs to be revealed through ACTION and DIALOGUE. Each fear needs to be CONVERTED into rising action and conflict and it’s your Protagonist’s that will reveal the fear(s) and begin his or her transformational character arc. Your Protagonist’s action is motivated by their emotional reaction to action i.e., the decisions they make along the trail of fears. Up shit mountain and along the trail of fears, your Protagonist must STRUGGLE between what he or she wants and what he or she NEEDS.

Also keep in mind that your character has very likely been HIDING these fears and especially his or her greatest fear.

Think about yourself for just a minute… What is YOUR GREATEST FEAR? How many people know what your greatest fear is besides YOU? Chances are not many IF ANY. We don’t normally share our greatest fear with others. It’s too painful. We don’t want to let our guard down. We don’t want to be hurt. We don’t want that greatest fear to be turned against us. We don’t want to be exploited.

IT’S A SECRET.

And as a secret, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t make it too easy for your Protagonist to reveal it to us… Your Protagonist is an expert at hiding his or greatest fear. Hiding that fear has become his or her current state of being. Your Protagonist has that outer wall — that gruff exterior because that’s served him or her so well UP UNTIL NOW.

By exposing your Protagonist to his or her trail of fears, he or she should be just strong enough by the end of the story to finally conquer their greatest fear. When your Protagonist conquers their greatest fear they also fulfill their internal need. The internal need that will make them an entirely new person. This concept goes back to — what you personally believe in about LIFE and what YOU personally believe in about LIFE will be the theme of your story. Once you know the theme of your story, it’s fairly easy to reverse-engineer the theme and come up with fears leading to your Protagonist’s greatest fear. That’s what the first draft is for… To explore all this theme shit. LOL. Sure, you’ll probably have some great obstacles but how much greater will they be if you flesh in your Protagonist’s fears? How much greater will they be if you keep revealing a little more of your Protagonist’s character along the way?

Sure, you can write a screenplay where you simply throw in all kinds of cool obstacles in front of your Protagonist… We see this all the time so why not simply go this route INSTEAD of dealing with all this theme shit?

Good question and one you’re gonna have to answer for yourself…

If you want to simply write PRODUCT that has no real chance to RESONATE with an audience, please be my guest and write product however, if you want the ticket-buying demographic out there to remember your film and tell others about how great it was for the REST OF THEIR LIFE — consider developing theme from by having your Protagonist conquer their greatest fear.

Remember… There is no ONE UNIVERSAL THEME. There is no ONE SIZE FITS ALL.

The theme of your story should ultimately be what you believe in about life an or some aspect of life — GOOD OR BAD. Sure, if it’s something like “LIFE SUCKS” — you’re probably in for a hard sell but again, if that’s what YOU TRULY believe and you write it from that point of view, you might just get lucky. My point being that you can’t simply adopt someone else’s outlook on life and expect to write from a believable point of view. Well, you CAN but you probably won’t be able to pull it off unless at some point, you’ve made that point of view your own.

Unk

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June 6, 2007 | Filed Under Characters

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