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The Transformational Character Arc Part 10

Emotional-reaction-to-action

Begin with an individual, and before you know it you have created a type; begin with a type, and you find you have created – nothing.
–F. Scott Fitzgerald

I’m posting this quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald simply to clarify that the Personality Types are something you figure out after you’ve been creating your characters…

Begin by breathing LIFE into that character. Everyone does this differently in fact, some of do it differently for each character. Some start by giving their character a name right off the bat. Others start by placing that character inside your idea for a story. Do whatever works for you but DO IT.

Having said that, I’ve been getting a few emails from readers asking the proverbial question which reminds me of the obvious proverbial questions:

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does it matter? How will knowing the answer to this question impact your life TODAY?

So here’s the question:

What do I come up with first, character or plot?

Again, does it matter? Just come up with one and then the other. There, question answered. LOL.

To be fair, these questions came from people attempting to write screenplays but seem to be CONFUSED by all this talk about character and the transformational character arc.

Don’t be confused. PLEASE. Do whatever works for YOU! Hell, YOU’RE THE FUCKING SCREENWRITER! Am I being too hard on you?

Good.

Somebody’s gotta be.

Whatever you come up with first means that you’ve eventually got to come up with the other or you won’t have anything anyway!

Character is plot — Plot is character.

Does that make sense? Within the context of writing and having a screenplay, one without the other means, YOU AIN’T GOT SHIT.

But AFTER you’ve got both…

Your plot should be planned, designed, and created around not only what your Protagonist wants but also around whatever obstacle you drop in front of him or her. Drop that obstacle smack dab in the middle of your Protagonist’s want and the result is CONFLICT. Conflict should bring about some kind of emotional turmoil within your Protagonist. This emotional turmoil should in turn bring about some kind of ACTION from your Protagonist. Action can be solid action, reaction, or dialogue.

ACTION DRIVES YOUR PLOT i.e., your character(s) want or desire SOMETHING. Your character(s) ACT toward that want or desire. You throw an obstacle at them and the result is conflict.

STOP!

Now before you go ahead and simply plot some basic action by your Protagonist to thwart that obstacle, STOP and give your Protagonist’s response some real thought…

Why?

Because you want your audience to jump on the Protagonist train and ride all the way to the end of the line, right? If you’re not saying RIGHT, then I’ll say it for you:

RIGHT!

This is perhaps one of the places where so many screenwriters get it wrong. This is perhaps where so many MOVIES get it wrong. This is perhaps one of the key elements that will start the TRANSFORMATIONAL CHARACTER ARC BALL rolling.

How your Protagonist RESPONDS to each and every obstacle (conflict) that you throw at them reveals something about their character and if you keep revealing something new or at least something a little different than what you revealed with each obstacle/conflict PRIOR, your audience will not only board the Protagonist train but they’ll quickly find a seat and start looking out the windows all the way to the end.

In other words, it’s your character(s) response to conflict that creates empathy within your audience or .

The MORE your audience identifies with your characters AND ESPECIALLY WITH YOUR PROTAGONIST, the better chance you have of writing a screenplay that succeeds.

It’s your Protagonist’s emotional reaction to action that is the seed of the transformational character arc… Each emotional reaction to action causes this seed to germinate, sink in roots, and grow… Grow into a new BEING.

The emotional reaction to action within the transformational character arc is a never-ending cycle in its own right…

There are five stages to the cycle or the 5 As:

1) : Your character’s consciousness that change or reinvention of oneself is necessary to respond to the conflict.

2) : Your character’s emotional ability to let go of the old and move on to the new.

3) : Your character’s creative exploration of strategic decisions; leading to and ending with their ultimate decision to act one way or another.

4) : Planning and implementation of plan required to carry out their ultimate decision to act one way or another.

5) : Acting one way or another in response to conflict.

As your characters move through the cycle, they create some kind of change within themselves. Some aspect of their personality and or character traits have to literally die. Kind of like a snake shedding its skin and leaving it behind…

The result is something new needs to be “born.”

Please do NOT get all caught up in this theory… It’s simply a theory of mine and one that I use to write my screenplays. It’s simply the breaking down of a character’s emotional reaction to action — the decision to act in response to conflict. Each time your character goes through this cycle, we should be learning something new about them — good or bad.

Sometimes breaking down story elements like this can cause one to WORRY about every emotional reaction to action that their characters already have i.e., what you’ve already written. Don’t worry. Chances are that you’re already doing it. Chances are that your characters are going through this cycle as they respond to conflict… Yeah, the cycle above can take up as little as a couple of lines of dialogue all the way out to several pages of a scene so DON’T WORRY.

With each successive decision to ACT, your Protagonist needs to go DEEPER… Revealing just a little more about themselves with each new emotional reaction to action. These are the “peeling back of the layers” that we so often hear about.

And while the above cycle can result in any kind of emotional reaction to action on the part of your characters, it can and often should be challenging and painful for your Protagonist.

The deeper the change, the more layers peeled back… The more your Protagonist lets go… The more profound and deeply embedded is your Protagonist’s resistance.

Unk

P.S. Have I totally lost you now?

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Thursday: 26 April 2007|1946|Under Characters

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9 Responses to “The Transformational Character Arc Part 10”

  1. Daniel Medley on Friday: 27 April 2007|1051

    First off, I’m new to this soirée. Very interesting and informative.

    For me, I’ve found taking a premise, adding a character imbued with a vague reference to a type, and then asking a profound “what would happen” or “what if” seems to be a starting point for unique, complex characters. Inevitably, the singular “type” begins to take on complexity and unique personality. From this come each character’s wants and needs. The difficult part is coinciding supporting characters “what ifs” with that of the protagonist so that everything fits together nicely, retaining story focus.

    At the risk of rehashing much of what you’ve already said on this topic, I find great stories not only affect profound change upon the protagonist but that the protagonist’s actions affect profound change upon ancillary characters and the world within which the story takes place.

    Granted, my point of view is an admittedly inexperienced one.

  2. Christian Howell on Friday: 27 April 2007|1332

    And to think you don’t even charge for this. But then it is not something that is easy to understand if you don’t have the aptitude.

    I may start a blog to share my insights. I’m not produced as a screenwriter but have written popular short stories in college.

    I’m at the stage now where “formula movies” aren’t fun anymore so I try to do more emotional, poignant “people” stories.

    Though I do like to blow things up sometimes and CGI makes it possible to envision ANYTHING.

    Keep writing as writing is the revealing of the soul.

  3. suburban screenwriter on Friday: 27 April 2007|1454

    Good post Unk…as to be expected. Perfect timing with all this too because I’m soaking it all in as I am re-envisioning my characters again (some of the old some of the new) so thanx for the boost of needed energy to help with that.

  4. Clive on Saturday: 28 April 2007|0149

    Hey, you know you’ll find no arguments from me when it comes to the character/plot question — there is no separation.

    I think where many people get confused about this, is they use the word plot to mean story.

    I know for me, most of the time my screenplays start with a story idea… a “what if” scenario. This gives me an idea of the what the story is… but it doesn’t give me a plot, because the plot is formed from dynamics set up between my characters.

    The way the story unfolds is completely dependent on the way my characters react to any given situation — at the end of the day, all I’m looking for in initial character development is a way of understanding how those people will react when presented with the circumstances of the story.

    This interaction IS the plot.

    Sorry to bang on about this, but that’s the reason I don’t develop characters in isolation, but as an ensemble. It’s only when you put conflicting character types together in the same story that life starts to breath into a script.

  5. Moviequill on Monday: 30 April 2007|0826

    I tend to create my characters fairly generic and cliche on the first run-through. Give them a few situations and some pattern dialogue, see how they handle it. Then I go back, strike my Rodin pose, curse that my coffee went cold again, and look for ways to twist, flip, distort that cliche and give them a uniqueness.

    Example, just yesterday I was going over one of my characters who likes to laugh. I added in the element today that when she does, she holds a hand over her mouth in a shy-like gesture.

  6. nicolle c jones.com » Blog Archive » I love Doctor Who - but that has nothing to do with this post! on Wednesday: 2 May 2007|1351

    [...] been posting some gold in the form of his Transformation Character arc stuff and I couldn’t agree with him more without resorting to some very naughty and [...]

  7. The Transformational Character Arc… Part 11: The Protagonist's Fatal Flaw » The Unknown Screenwriter on Thursday: 10 May 2007|0553

    [...] is WHY I've added this discussion of the Protagonist's fatal flaw AFTER the Protagonist's Emotional Reaction to Action. In discussions of the Protagonist's transformational character arc, I think it's better [...]

  8. The Transformational Character Arc Part 12 Theme me up Scotty... » The Unknown Screenwriter on Saturday: 26 May 2007|0413

    [...] agree with you, they seem flat, unbelievable, and simply reactionary instead of having an emotional reaction to action that essentially reveals bits and pieces of their character/inner/fatal flaw and then eventually [...]

  9. The Transformational Character Arc Part 11: The Protagonist’s Fatal Flaw | on Thursday: 24 July 2008|1245

    [...] is WHY I’ve added this discussion of the Protagonist’s fatal flaw AFTER the Protagonist’s Emotional Reaction to Action. In discussions of the Protagonist’s transformational character arc, I think it’s [...]

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