Lesson 20

[Ronald Neustrom]

Ron Neustrom – Lesson 20 Character Relationships

What I learned doing this assignment was … very little is not on the chopping block. You begin writing a story with an interest, a character, a situation, or ? But as you progress through your writing you see ways to make it better…improve it. Reading Truby’s book…he was the first one to introduce me to the possibility of the main character not being the most interesting character. I’d never considered that. But as it began to sink in, I realized you can change your character trait(s), elevate conflict, contrast more with other characters and ideas. Intuitively I understood. But Hal is my hero… I love the way he is walking us through the process and demonstrating how to elevate and control your characters, conflict, and story. I learned the tools and methods to elevate my writing. Amen.

Vivian – Empathetic, Driven, Wounded, Competitive
Jewel – Intelligent, Fearless, Defective, Vengeful
Kaye – Deceptive, Antagonistic, Forward Thinking, Controlling
Frances – Helpful, Patient, Unwavering, Principled

VIVIAN / JEWEL

These two characters were designed to be in conflict but eventually come together. Vivian’s competitive, driven traits in the end will help with Jewel’s Intelligence, fearlessness to be effective together when they overcome their initial wounds. Getting past Jewel’s vengeful and defective nature will cause conflict with Vivian’s wounded trait. As sisters nobody can push the sword deeper. Conflict, subtext, and competition will be the result. *I changed one trait of Vivian from anger to competitive. This elevated the sister relationship in conflict and competition.

VIVIAN / KAYE

Vivian is empathetic and makes her an easy target for Kaye’s deceptive and forward-thinking nature. However, Vivian’s completive and driven traits will become trouble for Kaye as she causes his controlling nature to be challenged. When her wounded trait meets his antagonist trait, she becomes vulnerable, and he can resort to emotional abuse. When her driven and his forward thinking come together, they are capable of rapport. So rapport, conflict, and subtext can describe their relationship. *I had Kaye as one of the main antagonists for Vivian and a colleague but by adding some rapport I think I improved their arc so when his deception and betrayal is revealed it is more of an emotional jolt for Vivian.

VIVIAN /FRANCES

Frances is Vivian’s guardian and mentor. Together they were designed to be a great team but Vivian’s trait of wounded and Frances as unwavering will shake their solid foundation. Frances’ trait of Principled will challenge Vivian to push her of her comfort zone. So like a parent scolding a child these emotions can linger and sting for both these women. Their relationship will be based in rapport, but there will be contrast, conflict and subtext. * This relationship was designed as an ally and mentor for my main character so changing Vivian from anger to competitive will add more subtext and competition to their relationship.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 1 week ago by  Ronald Neustrom.

[Diane Keranen]

I see you have a lot of internal conflict. I’ve been working with the same thing and it’s so challenging to find the most fitting way to externalize that internal conflict so the audience (the script reader and hopefully eventually a film viewer) to be able to effectively interpret the external action as the sought-after internal conflict. This class is so good at giving exercises to help us find the ways to do that. Cheers!

[Diane Keranen]

Diane’s Character Relationships

What I learned doing this assignment was that some of these changes I examine here have been part of my thinking about these characters as I wrote the script. I learned that by give the characters more variable traits, I may be able to develop more drama into the characters as well as the story. Right now, I’ve been too afraid to shake up my characters in a dramatic way and this exercise is pretty exciting.

CHARACTER: Stewart
TRAITS: Strong-willed, Suspicious, Protective, Volatile to Open-minded

CHARACTER: Matt
TRAITS: Personable, Anxious, Over-reactive, Angry to Demanding

CHARACTER: Claire
TRAITS: Easygoing, Restless, Tolerant to Daring, Blunt

CHARACTER: Sara
TRAITS: Conformist to Open-minded, Sentimental, Assertive, Impatient

Stewart / Matt
Their rapport is tension-filled as they have had a mostly estranged relationship throughout Matt’s life. The estrangement stemmed from combat-trauma that made it difficult for Stewart to be the kind of father he wanted to be and Matt always wanted more than Stewart could give and this lead to a constant conflict between them. In contrast, Matt is very personable and out-going where Stewart keeps his life in order by keeping as few relationships as possible. The two men do not have a competitive nature between them other than Matt believes he can win his father’s respect by serving in the military the same as his dad did. Their subtext is that they want a working relationship between them but each has a different image of what that looks like.
CHANGE: Stewart is protective of his loved ones but if I change Matt’s angry trait to demanding, this puts him in conflict with Stewart who sees Matt as better off if the estrangement continues but Matt demands to resolve it.

Stewart / Claire
Stewart and Claire get along very well considering they’ve been living apart for 30+ years without divorcing. The only conflict they have is that Claire has always wanted to move back to the cabin with Stewart, but he has never agreed because the time has never been right. By way of contrast, Claire believes they can live together again even though Stewart fears he could hurt her (both emotionally and physically) even though he wouldn’t do it intentionally. The competition between them is over whose way will win out as the way the family exists from this day forward. Their subtext is that they love each other, respect each other, but want a different living arrangement.
CHANGE: Claire has been very accepting of the distance Stewart insisted upon to feel he was keeping her safe, so by changing her trait of tolerant to daring, she becomes a point of conflict between her and Stewart as she pushes him to be open to helping Matt.

Stewart / Sara
Sara is Stewart’s daughter-in-law and he has no real relationship with her other than through Claire. The conflict between these two is that Sara is less accepting of Matt needing different social practices than Sara sees as “normal.” The contrast between them his sharp. Sara cannot understand why her husband won’t just leave the war behind and forget about it. The subtext between these two is that they are forces pulling in opposite directions on Matt’s goals. Matt can’t live in both of their worlds.

CHANGE: Sara is very conformist and does not want to upset the social norms that make life challenging for combat-trauma-affected veterans. If I change her conformist trait to open-minded, the conflict between these two could be lessened.

Matt / Stewart (see above but for a trait change)
CHANGE: If I change Stewart’s trait of volatile to responsive, these two men could have more interactions to figure out what kept them apart for so long and figure out how to overcome some of what they’ve missed over the years to develop a new kind of relationship.

Matt / Claire
Matt and Claire have a very good rapport. She raised him and they can discuss anything regarding Stewart and the estranged relationship. There has been conflict between them over Stewart due to her telling Matt that his father loves him dearly, but Matt never saw it that way. In contrast, Claire’s ability to be patient with these two men is frustrating to watch because she gave up closeness with her husband to raise Matt. She loves them both with all she has, but they don’t realize what she’s given up to see their needs met. I don’t see there is competition between Claire and Matt normally, but for the story in this script, Claire sets Matt up to accept a generous gift of her house for his family to live in. Their subtext is a want to have a closer family bond.
CHANGE: If I change Claire’s tolerant trait to daring, she creates more conflict between all of the family members. She takes a chance of losing the chance of ever having the family bond she’s long wanted.

Matt / Sara
Their rapport is mainly surface quality. They avoid deep, emotional conversations because these cause tension. The conflict between them arises when Sara wants Matt to stay home for his son so they don’t end up estranged like him and his father, but Matt hasn’t had fatherly role-modeling other than estrangement. The contrast between them has to do with Matt’s inability, thus far, to integrate back into society after a deployment and Sara not understanding why it’s so hard for him. They have a sort of competition that revolves around Stewart. Sara wants Matt to avoid becoming like his father, but Matt needs his father’s respect before he can come be a father himself. Their subtext is that their relationship hangs by a thread.

CHANGE: By changing Sara’s conformist trait to open-minded, there’s more room for Matt and Stewart to explore their relationship and for Matt to discover what it means to be a father for him.

[Diane Keranen]

No feedback is needed on this assignment.

[Ronald Neustrom]

Diane,

I love your ideas and thoughts and concept of your story. When we first started taking the class you gave a synopsis of this idea and I wanted to hear more. I was interested. Keep pushing…it sounds to me like you have the relationships ironed out. They are set up for some powerful scenes. This could be a real good screenplay. Keep pushing…these ideas are important and the family dynamics are setup for a page turner. There are a lot of emotional elements at play here. Good Luck! – Ron

[Diane Keranen]

Thank you, Ron. I’ve been working on this script for many years. I think this class will help me get to the finish line.