Cracking our Character – Part 2
Once we decided we wanted to write a horror novel we began with a premise or “a statement of belief about what will result from a particular universal value placed into conflict.” Then we built our characters physically, socially, and psychologically. Now let’s crack ‘our character ’em!
In my debut film Eat the Rich my premise was freedom America means different things depending on our socio-economic status.
Therefore I needed at least two characters from different socioeconomic classes to create this character conflict. Inspired by both the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the mandates imposed during the 2020 Covid19 pandemic, I researched stories about conflict about compliance. Restaurants seemed to be the frontline of the conflict. People mistreated wait staffs attempting to comply. That was my opening scene.
I needed a waiter and a customer so I created the sociological and philosophical backgrounds for Evelyn “Evie” Elkins and Indiana State Congressman Jim Richardson. Physiology wasn’t necessary for the film, but opposing backgrounds was essential for character conflict. I had a scene, perhaps a short story, but I still needed a feature length.
Eat the Rich was my 20th feature length screenplay and up to my 16th ( which is the one I am currently adapting: What Happened in Story) I had primarily used Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat” series to outline my scripts.
I’ll explore “Save the Cat” (STC) and how to beat out the major plot points in Part 5, but for now I want to talk about how character conflict cracks the entire story.
Cracking our Characters
For years the best I could do with a character arc was run them through the plot points and hope that they came out different at the other end. Sometimes I got lucky, but most of the time I wasn’t even close. Then I learned how to crack the character arc with The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting by Jill Chamberlain.
Jill does a much better job explaining how to crack a story through characters than I can, so hop over to screencraft.org and read her STORY LESSONS FROM GET OUT USING THE NUTSHELL TECHNIQUE then come back here.
As you saw, Jill provides a checklist for cracking the story, but I’ll show you the order I use them in.
- Flaw and Strength
- Set-Up Want
- Point of No Return
- Catch
- Crisis OR Triumph
- Climactic Choice
- Final Step
From FLAWS to STRENGTHS and STRENGTHS TO FLAWS
We take our character(s) and determine their FLAW that best fits our premise then decide whether or not they will remove toward its opposite (STRENGTH). Notice I have CRISIS or TRIUMPH? Jill does as well in her book. That determines if the character is going to arc upward (Comedy/Crisis) or downward (Tragedy/Triumph). There’s the arc!
What’s the Catch?
Jill explains every story is a version of “be careful what you wish for.” Whether the character arcs up or down we still have to set them up.
We start with the Set-Up Want. It can be practically anything, but it’s relationship to the Point of No-Return and the Catch is what’s important.
The character wants something, gets it, but there’s a catch.
In Eat the Rich, Evie takes a smoke break after dealing with Jim Richardson. She tells her best friend and co-worker Mark that “things have got to change.” She feels trapped. She wants a change.
Isn’t there a FLAW?
Wait, what is Evie’s FLAW? Aren’t we supposed to start with that?
Throughout the film Evie is never satisfied. Her FLAW is discontent (her STRENGTH is satisfaction). As a daughter, a single-mother, an ex-wife, and a friend, she is never satisfied. She wants change. But when change arrives, there’s a serious catch. Because her love interest Adam Beard (played by Kharn Alexander) brings chaos.
Now what?
Now it is through Act 2 where we see if Evie learns to be satisfied (CRISIS)or continues to be discontent (TRIUMPH). If she’s to change (CRISIS) she’ll have to make a Climactic Choice and then take her Final Step.
The character’s choice is directly connected to the POINT OF NO RETURN. Adam changes everything for Evie by kidnapping Jim Richardson. Her world is now chaos. Is this what she really wants?
Study the Nutshell Technique so you can crack your character and next week I’ll show you how to use it to fill the beats on a Save the Cat beat sheet. Then we’ll look at “Butt Sewing” with the creators of South Park and I’ll conclude this series with the most important thing every writer needs: voice.