Character Backstory Screenwriting -
Make It Power Your
Emotional Plot
Character backstory screenwriting begins and ends with emotional needs.
Or it should do.
It's not about dreaming up events and episodes from the past that you can 'tack on' to your character's life. You have to explore the possible impulses behind what he or she feels, what they do and want they want. Character backstory screenwriting has to be mostly about the emotional past life of a character because the story being told in this screenplay now is (or should be) driven by impulses already set in motion. Your character's backstory should feel to you that it doesn't 'end' where the story proper begins. It needs to be still there, under the surface. And if it's strong enough it will help immeasurably in creating a powerful screenplay. But only if it functions as a hidden power for most of the script. It may surface in hints, suggestive moments, and when it does come out more in the open, it has to be treated with subtlety. No clunky exposition. A moment that reveals backstory can make for a powerful dramatic impact.
The basic Character Profile
like the one I created for myself when I started out screenwriting is important. (Click on the link above for this). I've been reluctant to include it because lists always look as though the only thing you have to do is tick the items on it. But also because it can encourage people to think up 'tags' to hook onto a character.
But I like to think the ideas I've come up with can be useful, with the proviso that creating a backstory for your characters involves much more.
To be a truly powerful force in your screenwriting, character backstory requires you to dig deeper.
Standard screenplay character profiles can be too generalized. They can encourage screenwriters to create a merely superficial set of 'characteristics'.
Tim Robbins in The Player.
Screenwriter: Michael Tonkin. Director: Robert Altman.
Avenue Pictures. Spelling Entertainment.
Brown/Addis Wechsler Pictures.
Emotional Plots
Are Subterranean Engines Driving
The Surface Plot
What's needed is to find ways to particularize the aspects of a character, and the single most important way to do this is to imagine the emotional life of the character. Great screenplays have powerful emotional plots that are like subterranean engines driving the surface plot. A weak emotional plot may be fine for an action blockbuster thriller where the suspense plot is paramount. But writing a movie intended to offer something more thought-provoking, needs to focus much more on the emotional trajectory of the character.
Penelope Cruz in All About My Mother.
Screenwriter/Director: Pedro Almodovar.
There are all kinds of ways to give strength in your screenwriting. Character backstory can be approached in different ways. One way I have found particularly fruitful is to play around with imagined scenes from a character's life before the action of the story starts.
Click here for ideas for character backstory screenwriting.
And take a look at
digging deep into your character - the toughest challenge
and discover why it's all about what lies beneath.
Go To Character Backstory Screenwriting Part Two
Go to Screenwriting Character - The Toughest Challenge
Return to Unique Screenwriting Home Page
|
