Lesson 2

[Kristina Zill]

KZ’s Solved Character Problems!

Vision: To master screenwriting so that I can turn my many ideas into scripts that sell, and then work with producers to get them made into movies.

What I learned doing this assignment is… how to analyze the script for character problems.

Generic lead characters.

We haven’t seen these characters before. Wendy is a combination of tough-as-nails with a powerful need to be loved. Darwin is a combination of tough negotiator who is under the thumb of his mother.

Weak protagonist or antagonist

Is it okay to write a young professional woman whose inner need is love? Or will that be considered “weak” because she’s relying on a man? I hope to thread that needle just right.

Protagonist too good or Antagonist too bad

I have given them both faults and virtues

Weak character intros

I did have that originally, but had already changed it in the first draft so that the opening is more compelling.

Characters not in action

My scenes are pretty active. If I can write the scenes well enough, the negotiations should be suspenseful, even though they characters are sitting at a table.

Protagonist journey not strong

Wendy goes from someone who has steeled herself against life, to being affected by a metta meditation, to falling in love

All the characters seem the same

Fortunately, my characters are all unique

Lead characters not present

Until the midpoint, one of my leads is in every single scene.

Once they’re on the train, we sometimes break away to Myra and Lewis.

[Paul McGregor]

Paul’s Solved Character Problems.

4. Vision of success from this program: I want to write scripts that become movies that change people’s lives.

5. What I learned from this assignment is that it helped me focus in on potential weaknesses. It has helped me identify a core problem in the Protagonist/Antagonist relationship. As I fix this, it could be an opportunity to give more depth and twists to my story.

Now, although I feel I’ve ticked most of the boxes with my characters, it’s possible I am being blind to what will seem bland to the reader.

3. Improvements:

I possibly have problems under: D, F and H.

D. Weak character intros.

Thanks to the structural change I made in Assignment 1, my Protagonist does now have a more powerful introduction than in Draft 1. She is in a challenging situation, acts according to character and there is a Twist at the end. What I have to do is bring out the Old Ways more clearly.

F. Protagonist’s Journey and the requirement that the Antagonist makes their life hell.

In my draft, the Protagonist has the upper hand most of the time. She has abducted the Antagonist’s son and is holding him hostage till the Antagonist at least retracts his very public statements about her daughter.

Through a Reveal, we discover that the Antagonist is actually the Protagonist former lover, and he did make her life hell before the movie even starts. He left her without leaving a forwarding address and ruined all her dreams of a new life in the US.

Nevertheless, I will try to find twists in the plot so that the Antagonist continues to make life hell for my Protagonist.

H. Lead characters not present.

In Act 1 there are several scenes in which neither the Protagonist nor the Antagonist is present. This is the party at the Senator’s house when Marisol dies of a drug overdose, and then the abduction of the Senator’s son and his crossing the border into Mexico.

In the other Acts, this is not a problem.

END