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Depth-charging your characters PART 2

Posted on January 19, 2007 
Filed Under Uncategorized

Here we go… The meat and potatoes of DEPTH-CHARGING. Before you get all twitterpated at how extensive this list is – just remember…

THERE ARE NO RULES!

Which means that you can take ALL or PART of this list and do what you will with it. Whatever works for YOU is best. Before I give you the list however, it might be a good time to talk psychology. Whether you like it or not, as a screenwriter, we end up becoming amateur psychologists. Like it or not, we’re dealing with characters on the written page and the sooner you get on board with this, the better your screenplays are going to be.

Unfortunately, all the lists in the world aren’t going to make your characters ON THE PAGE any better unless you understand some very BASIC psychology about human beings. That’s right… You, me… Human beings. I’m at the point in my life (and I’ve been there for quite a long time) where nothing people do really surprises me anymore and once you begin to really truly understand human beings, this will probably begin happening to you as well… Don’t confuse not being surprised anymore by what people do with characters in movies being predictable or not doing anything surprising… These are two different animals but being comfortable with that premise allows you to DEPTH-CHARGE.

I certainly don’t have enough room OR TIME to post a huge insightful cheat sheet on psychology but I can sure as hell point you in the right direction…

ABRAHAM MASLOW

For those of you who have actually taken a psychology class, Maslow is probably not new to you. Many of his theories have been publicly disagreed with and that’s fine… We’re not attempting to BECOME psychologists or psychiatrists… Feel free to argue Maslow’s theory with somebody who gives a shit… LOL.

We’re simply trying to understand the psychological characteristics of human beings and more importantly… The CHARACTERS we write on the pages of our screenplays.

All in all, if I had to create a cheat-sheet to refer to when it comes to CHARACTER PSYCHOLOGY, I can’t think of one better than Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

 

Again, I don’t want to get into a theoretical discussion of his theory… All I can say is that it WORKS for me. If you think it could work for YOU, then read on…

To SUMMARIZE the basic theory, Maslow was basically saying that human beings start out at the bottom of the pyramid and work their way UP the pyramid as they fulfill each need.

Cool.

I don’t care whether or not it’s true… I don’t care whether or not the psychological community agrees with it or not… I don’t care if humans don’t actually follow the theory… What I do care about is that the pyramid works when it comes to creating characters written on the page…

If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, maybe you’re read what I’ve said about having your characters constantly climbing up SHIT MOUNTAIN. LOL. Well I look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid as the SHIT MOUNTAIN of LIFE.

This is also where your character’s GOALS come into play… You’ve heard and read about the OUTER and INNER GOAL of your protagonist, right?

The outer goal being that tangible thing that your protagonist needs to achieve by the end of your story… The inner goal is your protagonist’s transformational arc they achieve by the end of your story…

THE THIRD GOAL

Third goal? THIRD GOAL????? Are you fucking crazy, Unk? They didn’t put that in the screenwriting books I bought. What the FUCK are you talkin’ about?

There it is in living color… THE SHIT MOUNTAIN OF LIFE! No matter what your character’s outer or inner goals are, they need to be KICKED in the ass by the Shit Mountain of Life. The Shit Mountain of Life governs the outer and inner goal of your characters. The outer and inner goals are not the end of the rainbow… The end of the rainbow are the character’s LIFE GOAL(S)… The fulfillment of the entire pyramid.

Think of your screenplay as ONE LEG of your character’s LIFE JOURNEY because that’s what it is… It is no more important and NO LESS IMPORTANT than any journey he or she’s made before or after the journey you’ve put your Protagonist through unless he or she DIES by the end of your story and even so… You always STRIVE to make THIS LEG the most EXCITING leg of your Protagonist’s life journey.

Are you thoroughly confused now?

DESTINY

Do your characters believe in destiny? Mine do. Always. Even the characters that do not believe in destiny believe that IS THEIR DESTINY. In other words, what is your character’s purpose for being alive? We know what YOUR purpose is for your character being alive… It’s your story and screenplay but what about the character? Does HE or SHE have a say? If not, WHY NOT?

Sure, we meet people every day of our lives who don’t believe in destiny… They drone on with their lives and that’s cool because hey… We have free will. But remember… The characters in our screenplays are NOT real people and guess what? The audience KNOWS that. LOL. They know that but they STILL come to watch your character’s journey and HOPEFULLY, climb on board for the rest of the ride… i.e., they are CHARACTERS WE WANT TO BE!

There, I said it… It’s true. The audience wants to find a character they can get behind… A character that they can empathize with… A character that carves a path through life for others to follow… Namely, your audience! Destiny or a PURPOSE for being alive… Or, to go back to Maslow’s Hierarchy… Self-actualization as our desire for self-fulfillment to become everything we are capable of becoming. Characters like that are exciting. Characters like that are the kinds of characters we like to watch and remember… Even a character with a WARPED sense of destiny (as long as they have it) can be just as exciting to watch.

Self-actualizing characters normally place higher value on satisfying their ultimate needs. They make tremendous sacrifices to fulfill those needs… Even to the point of DEPRIVING their lower-level needs.

On the other hand, you might have characters in your story that are just struggling to stay alive… Find something to eat… Looking for a job. You can pretty much create a STARTING POINT with any character at some level of the pyramid and go from there.

I like to think of Hitchcock’s films when it comes to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs… It helps me put this entire theory into some kind of perspective… We start out with a character… Let’s say, Roger Thornhill from NORTH BY NORTHWEST… Where does he start out on the pyramid? Hmmm. I’d have to say he starts out on the 4^th level since he’s an advertising mogul. He’s got it all at the beginning of the film, doesn’t he? At least HE THINKS he does… LOL. However, as soon as what he does have becomes threatened, he’s all over the pyramid trying to get back to where he started… But at some point, once he realizes that Eve Kendall works for the government, that he’s in love with her… He seems to aspire to greater things doesn’t he? All of a sudden the 4^th level is NO LONGER good enough and as he strives to reach the top of the SHIT MOUNTAIN of LIFE, he saves the day.

My point in bringing up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is to simply give you a STARTING POINT of basic SCREENPLAY CHARACTER psychology – not real people… I leave that for others to argue. LOL. Once you realize that your characters possess these needs and strive to achieve them one by one, with the top level of the pyramid more or less guiding the overall journey i.e., a SET OF IDEALS… You can then begin to create multi-dimensional characters that we are gonna fucking love. And remember, it’s just a TOOL.

*NOTE: I should probably let you know that others have changed and adapted Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to include additional levels of NEEDS… Those being:

 

• Cognitive needs

• Aesthetic needs

• Transcendence needs

This creates a slightly different pyramid now but no less important… Remember, you start from the bottom and climb up to different levels… But here’s the actual order starting at number one:

1. Physiological: air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

2. Safety: protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

3. Love/Belonging: work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.

4. Esteem: self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

5. Cognitive: knowledge, meaning, etc.

6. Aesthetic: appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

7. Self-Actualization: realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

8. Transcendence: helping others to achieve self actualization.

I personally like to keep it as simple as possible so I like the original five levels… And, one could argue that on the modified pyramid, levels, 5, 6, 7, and 8 could easily fit into the original level 5 – Self-Actualization. So whatever works for you… Go forth and WRITE!

 

THE DEPTH-CHARGING LIST

• NAME: Nickname?

• SEX

• AGE

• DOES THIS CHARACTER LOOK THEIR AGE?

• NATIONALITY

• MARITAL STATUS

• CHILDREN

• EDUCATION LEVEL

• IQ

• CURRENT RESIDENCE: City, State

• OCCUPATION: What does this character do for a job? How many years there? Previous employment? Does this character want to do this job for the rest of their life?

• INCOME

• POLITICAL PARTY: Does this character vote?

• EYE COLOR

• GLASSES OR CONTACT LENSES

• UNUSUAL HEIGHT, WEIGHT, OR BOTH

• DESCRIBE HOW THIS CHARACTER DRESSES ON A TYPICAL DAY: Accessories?

• DESCRIBE THIS CHARACTER’S HAIRSTYLE ON A TYPICAL DAY

• DISTINGUISHING MARKS, SCARS, OR TATTOOS

• MOST PREDOMINANT FEATURE

• WHAT KIND OF POSTURE DOES THIS CHARACTER HAVE?

• DOES THIS CHARACTER LOOK LIKE ANYONE SPECIFIC?

• ANY PAST ILLNESS OR INJURIES?

• ANY CURRENT ILLNESS OR INJURIES?

• DOES THIS CHARACTER POSSESS GOOD HEALTH, AVERAGE HEALTH, OR ARE THEY UNHEALTHY?

• ANY ADDICTIONS, PAST OR PRESENT?

• DID THIS CHARACTER COME FROM A POOR, MIDDLE CLASS, OR WEALTHY BACKGROUND?

• WHAT DID THIS CHARACTER’S PARENTS DO FOR A LIVING?

• ANY BROTHERS OR SISTERS? If they are important to your story, EXPAND

• DESCRIBE THE ENVIRONMENT THIS CHARACTER CAME FROM?

• CURRENT SOCIAL CLASS

• DOES THIS CHARACTER GENERALLY LIKE PEOPLE? IF NOT, EXPLAIN

• WHAT “ONE WORD” BEST DESCRIBES THIS CHARACTER?

• RELIGION

• SEXUAL DRIVE

• TEMPERAMENT

• SUPERSTITIONS

• PHOBIAS

• BAD HABITS

• GOOD HABITS

• ANNOYING HABITS

• CHARACTERISTIC MANNER OF SPEAKING

• VOICE: Deep? High? Monotone? Lots of inflection?

• CATCH PHRASE: What phrase would this character be heard saying fairly often?

• DESCRIBE THIS CHARACTER’S RESIDENCE: House? Apartment? Rent? Own? Homeless?

• FAVORITE MUSIC?

• ANY PETS GROWING UP?

• CURRENT PETS?

• WHAT WAS THIS CHARACTER’S FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD?

• WAS THIS CHARACTER EVER TEASED AS A CHILD? IF SO, WHAT WAS THIS CHARACTER TEASED ABOUT?

• DOES THIS CHARACTER EVER HAVE FUN? IF SO, WHAT DOES THIS CHARACTER CONSIDER FUN?

• HAS THIS CHARACTER EVER SUFFERED A PERSONAL TRAGEDY?

• IS THIS CHARACTER KEEPING ANY SECRETS?

• WHAT IS THIS CHARACTER’S GREATEST OBSESSION?

• WHAT IS THIS CHARACTER’S GREATEST FEAR?

• WHAT IS THIS CHARACTER MOST ASHAMED OF?

• WHAT REALLY ANNOYS THIS CHARACTER?

• WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS CHARACTER?

• WHAT DO YOU HATE ABOUT THIS CHARACTER?

• WHAT DOES THIS CHARACTER CARE ABOUT MOST?

• DID THIS CHARACTER HAVE ONE OR MORE ROLE MODELS? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• DOES THIS CHARACTER WANT TO IMPRESS ANYONE? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• HOW IS WHAT THIS CHARACTER CARES ABOUT, THREATENED?

• HOW DOES THIS CHARACTER REACT TO PRESSURE?

• IS THIS CHARACTER MAKING ANY MISTAKES WITH HIS OR HER LIFE?

• WHAT WAS THIS CHARACTER’S HAPPIEST MOMENT IN THEIR LIFE?

• WHAT WAS THIS CHARACTER’S SADDEST MOMENT IN THEIR LIFE?

• WHAT IS THIS CHARACTER’S FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK?

• WHAT IS THIS CHARACTER’S FAVORITE HOLIDAY?

• IS THIS CHARACTER SELFISH? Expand.

• IS THIS CHARACTER GENEROUS? Expand.

• WHAT OTHER PERSON IN THIS CHARACTER’S LIFE HAD THE MOST INFLUENCE ON HIM OR HER?

• ANY ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS PAST OR PRESENT?

• DID THIS CHARACTER EVER HAVE A “DREAM?” IF SO, WHAT WAS THAT DREAM?

• STATE THIS CHARACTER’S STORY GOAL IN ONE SENTENCE

• EXPLAIN THIS CHARACTER’S TRANFORMATIONAL STORY ARC IN ONE SENTENCE

• DOES THIS CHARACTER’S TRANSFORMATIONAL STORY ARC END UP BETTER OFF THAN WHEN THEY STARTED OUT?

• DESCRIBE ANY CHANGES THIS CHARACTER HAS GONE THROUGH IN THE LAST 5, 10, 15, AND 20 YEARS

• HOW DOES THIS CHARACTER DIFFER OR CONTRAST OTHER CHARACTERS IN YOUR STORY?

• DOES THIS CHARACTER INTERACT WITH ANY OTHER CHARACTERS IN YOUR STORY? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• DOES THIS CHARACTER CONFLICT WITH ANY OTHER CHARACTERS IN YOUR STORY? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• IS THIS CHARACTER KEEPING ANY SECRETS FROM OTHER CHARACTERS IN YOUR STORY? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• DOES THIS CHARACTER CONTRAST WITH ANY OTHER CHARACTERS IN YOUR STORY? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• HOW DOES THIS CHARACTER “FEEL” ABOUT THE CHARACTERS HE OR SHE INTERACTS WITH?

• DO THESE FEELINGS WITH ANY OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS CHANGE OR EVOLVE INTO OTHER FEELINGS AS THE STORY PROGRESSES? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• DOES THIS CHARACTER KNOW ANY OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS BEFORE THE STORY EVEN BEGINS? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• EXPLAIN THE HISTORY OR BACKSTORY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE OTHER CHARACTERS

• DOES THE HISTORY OR BACKSTORY HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE CURRENT RELATIONSHIP? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• DOES THIS CHARACTER HAVE ANY MISUNDERSTANDINGS WITH ANY OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE STORY? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• DO THESE MISUNDERSTANDINGS HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE CURRENT RELATIONSHIP? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• DOES THIS CHARACTER ACT DIFFERENTLY WHEY THEY ARE AROUND ANY OTHER CHARACTER IN THE STORY? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• IF THIS CHARACTER FOUND SOMEONE’S WALLET, WOULD THEY KEEP THE MONEY OR TRY TO FIND THE OWNER?

• HOW DOES THIS CHARACTER FEEL ABOUT BABIES?

• HAS THIS CHARACTER EVER HAD A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE? IF SO, EXPLAIN

• WHAT IS THIS CHARACTER’S LIFE GOAL?

• WHAT IS THIS CHARACTER’S DESTINY?

By no means exhaustive… Add to the list you already have if you have one and keep adding to it as you come up with more that mean something to YOU. There are no rules!

Before I get any email about the above list… Again, THERE ARE NO RULES! You may or may NOT want to list every item however, I would, at the very minimum, go over the list every so often and AT LEAST ONCE and at least MENTALLY answer the questions/list the traits… Just this ALONE will do wonders for giving your characters dimension.

The idea of the list is to simply allow YOU, the SCREENWRITER to stand in your character’s shoes while you write. Feel the way your character feels. Walk the way your character walks… Talk the way your character talks…

Got it?

BACKSTORY

Finally… When you have WRITER’S BLOCK, always try going back to your characters. Remember the old saying, “THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE” — ? This is true with knowing your characters and getting over writer’s block. You may THINK your writer’s block is about your story… You may THINK your writer’s block is about your lack of plot, twists, turns, etc… And, that may be true to a degree but more than likely, you just don’t know your characters as well as you know yourself… Remember, you need to know your characters BETTER than you know yourself.

When I get writer’s block, I go back to my character’s bio… I’d say at least 50% of the time, doing this is sufficient to get me back to writing… When it’s not however, it’s time to go DEEPER and that’s where backstory comes in…

Let me shout this again from my laptop… This stuff may NEVER make it into your screenplay but it serves to help you develop your characters to the point that you no longer have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to figure out what they’ll do next or what they’ll say next. Having said that, little bits and pieces WILL make it into your screenplay in the form of exposition, dialogue, and most importantly, SUBTEXT.

This list too, is not exhaustive… Take it and add to it for the rest of your life… LOL. How to use it… Easy. Pick something from the list or brainstorm something different from the list and write a short story about the event as it happened to your character… Write it in first person, third person… Whatever trips your trigger. Whatever WORKS.

BACKSTORY LIST

• Your character lost her virginity when she was 13

• Your character lost his virginity to his mother’s best friend when he was 16

• Your character stole money from his or her employer

• Your character got arrested for driving under the influence

• Your character had an affair with someone at work

• Your character is a recovering alcoholic

• Your character is a recovering drug abuser

• Your character was in the military

• Your character picked up a woman in a bar one time

• Your character picked up a man in a bar one time

• Your character had cancer and recovered from it

• Your character lost a child

• Your character lost a spouse

• Your character lost a sibling

• Your character stalked a celebrity once

• Your character robbed a liquor store once

• Your character intentionally ran someone off the road once

• Your character picked up a hitchiker once and spent several days with him or her

• Your character ran up their credit cards and had to file bankruptcy

• Your character followed an attractive member of the opposite sex home one day

• Your character asked a stranger to have a drink at a bar

• Your character asked a stranger to have dinner with them

• Your character had an argument with their parent(s) and never sees them anymore

• Your character had an argument with their sibling(s) and never sees them anymore

• Your character had sex with their sibling’s spouse or significant other

• Your character gave up a child for adoption

• Your character had a homosexual experience

• Your character cheated on a very imporant test

• Your character knows a real gangster

• Your character knows a real celebrity

• Your character was penpals with a convict in prison

• Your character accidentally burned someone’s house down

• Your character intentially burned someone’s house down

• Your character killed somebody once

• Your character maimed somebody once

• Your character terrorized somebody once

• Your character used prostitutes at one time

• Your character was a prostitute at one time

• Your character used to grow marijuana professionally

• Your character hijacked a car once

• Your character hitchiked across the country once

• Your character hitchhiked across Europe once

• Your character was addicted to porn for a while

• Your character had 3 or more boyfriends or girlfriends at the same time

• Your character was married to two people at the same time

• Your character was a member of a cult

• Your character was a professional athlete

• Your character was a college athlete

• Your character had an affair with his or her college professor

• Your character used to work in the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.

• Your character was a cop on the take

• Your character was a cop that was hurt in the line of duty

• Your character was a prisoner of war

• Your character was kidnapped once

• Your character was carjacked once

• Your character was raped once

• Your character was mugged once

• Your character sold drugs for a time in his or her past

• Your character has hundreds of unpaid speeding tickets

• Your character has collectors hounding him or her for money owed

• Your character had a child that was kidnapped and never found

• Your character had a child that was murdered

• Your character had a child that was raped and tortured

• Your character went through the divorce from hell

• Your character beat up the judge that gave his or her spouse everyting during the divorce

• Your character never gets to see his or her children because of the divorce

• Your character had a roommate that was also a criminal

• Your character volunteered at a homeless shelter until a homeless friend died

• Your character tried to rehabilitate a homeless person but failed

• Your character was homeless for a time in their life

• Your character was a nymphomanic for a time in their life

• Your character ran for political office and lost

• Your character’s spouse cheated on them

• Your character was attacked by a wild animal once

• Your character went to a psychiatrist for a few years

• Your character was seduced by their psychiatrist

• Your character was involved in a scandal

• Your character was the victim of a stalker

• Your character was the victim of a con man and lost their life savings

• Your character was the victim of a house fire and lost everything

• Your character was into sadomasochism at one time

Need I go on? Hopefully, you get the idea… Adding to the list is as easy as watching movies, television shows, reading articles, books, etc… Hell, I’m sure there’s more than a few of us that can actually add our very own events to the list…

The point?

Always go BACK to your characters EVEN when everything tells you it’s SOMETHING ELSE. Give your characters a chance to bail you out… They want to so let ‘em try… Pick something from the list or add something to the list and write a little one to five page short story about the event… What really works for me is to DEFINITELY go over the character’s bio just before writing about a backstory event that occurred in your character’s past… Write the backstory while keeping the bio in mind and just have fun with it. There are no rules.

Last but definitely NOT LEAST… Here’s a list of character traits that I’ve been working on for years… If I see the words, handsome, attractive, blah, blah, blah; one more time in a character description, I’m gonna turn my lunch over… LOL. Pick SOMETHING from the list that we’ve not been inundated with… PLEASE!

Out for the weekend…

Unk

Tags: character traits character trait list list of character traits depth-charging your characters character backstory Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs multi-dimensional characters The Unknown Screenwriter

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