WIM+AI – Module 7 – Lesson 1. More Character Depth

[Monica Arisman]

Subject: Monica Loves Character Depth!

VISION: I am a very successful screenwriter who has had multiple movies made.

What I learned from doing this assignment is using these tools effectively to elevate characters in a draft.

2. Use each of the Character Depth Tools to discover what you can.

• Depth Tool 1: Lay out your character storylines and elevate.

Emily – Protagonist

1. Paul drags Emily to an AA meeting because her drinking is out of control.

2. Emily receives another rejection letter for her novel and starts to drink.

3. Due to the rejection letter Emily writes a suicide note, downs a bottle of Advil, and continues drinking.

4. Emily has a near-death experience in which she finds herself in a large Library and meets God.

5. The After-Life is nothing like religion tells us. There is no judgment only love. God has a special mission for Emily but first, she must meet Donahue, the Guardian of the Library.

6. Emily awakes in the hospital and is excited to get her mission going.

7. Paul takes Emily to their childhood home where he has renovated an apartment for her and gives her, a puppy!

8. Emily visits the library in her dreams and encounters one of the souls of forgotten writers who has been trapped in a book apparently by Donahue.

9. Donahue finds Emily in the library and has her first assignment for her.

10. Back in her apartment Emily looks over the assignment but its directions are gibberish. A book falls out of the ether to help her translate the directions.

11. Emily’s anxiety returns and she sneaks down to the drawing room to get a drink of alcohol.

12. As Emily pours herself a drink she catches her reflection in the mirror and turns away.

13. Emily finishes writing and takes the puppy outside where she encounters a shadowy figure watching her from the woods (need to explore this!).

14. Emily makes her nightly trip to the library where she discovers universal truths that haven’t been taught in the world’s religions and that the real Guardian has been imprisoned. Also, during her trips, she opens more books and sends the souls of the trapped writers to the others.

15. After her discussion with the writers in the After-Life Emily sits down at her computer to discover the keys typing themselves.

16. Donahue visits Emily in her apartment to review the article and rewrite it.

17. Donahue tries to give Emily an elixir to make her successful but she throws it in his face.

18. Emily enlists the help of the writers because Donahue’s changes to her article will cause chaos on Earth.

19. The writers help Emily and she publishes the article.

20. Donahue visits Emily enraged and tries to kill her puppy but she summons her power and hurts Donahue.

21. Against her better efforts Donahue still got his way and unleashed hell on Earth by manipulating Emily’s article – she blames herself.

22. Emily and the writers meet and free the imprisoned Guardian.

23. After the chaos, Emily writes another article to calm the masses.

24. Emily visits the library and her computer comes with her. Her power is increasing.

25. Donahue catches Emily visiting the library and he vows to destroy her and send all the writers back into their book prisons.

26. Emily weaves a story to wound Donahue but it fails sending her and her computer crashing back to her apartment where Emily is tempted to drink.

27. Emily sits down to write another article when the souls of the forgotten writers pop out of books in her apartment.

28. Emily and one of the writers work on magic to get rid of Donahue once and for all.

29. Emily and the writers summon an Archangel to deal with Donahue. A great battle ensues between Donahue and the real Guardian of the library.

30. Emily is tasked with choosing a new guardian.

31. Emily achieves her dream of being a successful writer.

To elevate this Character

A. Have Emily struggle more with her alcoholism. Maybe even introduce smoking dope to eliminate the cravings.

B. Have Emily recognize that Donahue is in over his head and needs help to move forward.

Donahue – Antagonist

1. Donahue is the Guardian of the Library and he believes he’s ruler of the After-Life.

2. Donahue wasn’t appointed by this God and he has silenced those who know by trapping them in the books in the library.

3. Donahue gives Emily her assignment and warns her to stay out of the library.

4. Emily is thwarting Donahue and he throws a hissy fit which is witnessed by God who warns Donahue to act like a guardian or face the consequences.

5. Donahue visits Emily to review the article and to make changes.

6. Donahue tries to give Emily an elixir under the guise of it making her successful but so that he can control her.

7. Donahue is enraged because Emily changed his changes to the article.

8. Donahue confronts Emily and tries to kill the puppy to teach her a lesson.

9. Donahue unleashes hell on Earth.

10. Donahue discovers where the souls of the forgotten writers have been hanging out.

11. Donahue hurts Emily.

12. Donahue is confronted by the writers and Archangel Michael.

13. Donahue must fight the real Guardian to see who stays guardian of the library.

14. Donahue is defeated and banished to be retrained.

To elevate this Character

A. To elevate this character, Donahue must have some fear he is hiding, discover it, and use it against him.

B. In my character profiles, I made Donahue a lesser demon (living in Heaven!) who is protecting some of the juicier stories from escaping – when he doesn’t get his way he releases a couple of these stories.

• Depth Tool 2: What are they hiding from me?

What is Emily hiding from us?

• Her addiction isn’t just to alcohol but also drugs which she has hidden very well. But the withdrawal symptoms are getting worse.
What is Donahue hiding from us?

• Donahue is hiding that he’s gone over to the dark side. To keep souls in line, especially the souls of forgotten writers, Donahue threatens to release stories they wrote that would have been controversial for their time period.

• Donahue fears he will be found to be a lesser demon instead of a heavenly being.

• Depth Tool 3: How can this story trigger the character?

Emily Trigger: smelling some of the outside staff smoking weed. Reaction: Steals a joint from them and smokes it.

Trigger: More stealing and smoking dope. Reaction: She gives the outside staff money to get her some weed. As she writes she has a joint hanging out of her mouth.

Trigger: The man in the woods used to be her partner but they broke up. Reaction: When she discovers this she steals some alcohol from the drawing room and gets drunk.

Trigger: Donahue’s aggressive behaviour towards her. Reaction: Abuse valium.

Write these in and have Emily be found unconscious in her vomit and she has to start again.

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  Monica Arisman. Reason: Formatting

[Edward Lusk]

ED loves character depth.
MY VISION is to be a bankable, reputable, and industry go-to writer who’s demonstrated how to entertain and hold an audience’s attention through unforgettable characters and stories that are as enjoyable to write as they are to watch.

What I learned doing this assignment is by charting out my character's story path I discovered; that some events/scenes are too similar and lacked a more imaginative and entertaining way to tell their journeys. I found ways to alleviate the duplicity and create new scenes that introduce more of the character's depth and greater interest in the story for them and the audience.

I’ve not final yet on the real “what are they hiding from us,” reason. I’ve dug deeper and found this identification to be useful in improving dialogue and conflict. I believe once I find that big, true “hide” their motivations and thus the actions will change for the story. It’s a big deal knowing this part I just need to finish getting there.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu Loves Character Depth!

My Vision: I’m a successful produced writer who specializes in female-led thrillers.

“What I learned from doing this assignment is… to elevate the character storylines and identify what they are hiding and looked at story triggers for the characters.

Changes made:

I laid out the character storylines and found places to elevate the journey and escalate.

I was able to look for what they are hiding underneath and found ways that the story could trigger them.

I added two scenes that could bring out the hidden traits and escalate a wound that I had established for one of the connected characters but then completely dropped off for the rest of the story.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by  Sunil Pappu.

[Pat Fitzgerald]

Pat Loves Character Depth

My vision is to have fun completing this course with a contest-winning script that will establish me as a courageous and original writer.

What I learned from this assignment and what aided me in elevating my characters was the importance of discovering what they've been hiding from me. I thought that I knew them about as well as was possible until I looked into their deeper layers.

I discovered that my antagonist delights in controlling the protagonist and that she's very capable of doing so. I also learned that she's a jealous and possessive person, who can't tolerate the protagonist's attraction to the man whom she considers to be her boyfriend. These revelations caused triggers of revenge that I had not seen before.

I also learned that my triangle character is adept at pitting the protagonist and antagonist against each others. Learning this led to a deeper chism between the two women, even though they consider each other besties. But their relationship is very much a love/hate situation.

My protagonist was hiding the fact that, despite she had no problem putting three husbands "out of their misery" just for financial gain, that she did have a love of her life. But this didn't stop her from framing this man for murder, so she wouldn't have to go to jail.

I also learned that I had relegated two featured characters, who play big in a side plot, into characitures. I had to look deep into their personalities and how they fit into the protagonist's pst in order to make them more realistic. And one of them ended up being the trigger that led to my protagonist's transformational journey.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by  Pat Fitzgerald.

[James Hernandez]

James Loves Character Depth

My Vision: I am a great writer who is recognized by the industry as an exceptional collaborator able to elevate any project into production and have maximum success.

What I learned from doing this assignment is…that my antagonist needs more development. At present, he has only seven major beats leaving room for the creation of more scenes which will add page count and provide more substance in the story. Using the depth tools, I discovered his wound which was caused by being neglected as a child; the protagonist’s pursuit of the love interest triggers this wound.

Depth Tool 1 – Beats for antagonist Max Winger:
1. Max is introduced as a creepy ex-boyfriend who lingers and doesn’t want to let Lily live her life in peace.
2. Max shows up at Lily’s apartment unannounced. He threatens Ethan with empty promises of violence.
3. Max threatens Lily by having a compromising photo of them go viral on the internet. Ultimately, Lily shoves him out the door not heeding the consequences.
4. In his den, Max conspires against Ethan with the intent to ruin him.
5. Max confronts Ethan outside his home. More threats are made as Ethan stands firm with his intent to pursue Lily.
6. Dressed in drag, Max is followed by Ethan to an underground club. This is something Max believes no one knows about.
7. Max is setup by Ethan to show up near a downtown portal to be publicly humiliated causing him to never contact Lily again.

Depth Tool 2 – What is Max hiding from us?
Max wants to secretly become the most visible drag queen on the internet; maintaining his identity private.
• This implies Max is using Lily to serve as his cover in the open world.
• This forces Ethan to investigate Max and bring to light his real persona.

Depth Tool 3 – How can this story trigger Max?
Max does not want to lose Lily to Ethan because he wants his life to appear normal in the eyes of all in his life.
• Ethan is the threat.
• Max’s intent brought to the open ruins his plans.
• Max has a wound of being neglected as a child.
• Max fears he will never reach his goal.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by  James Hernandez.

[Margaret]

Margaret loves Character Depth!

My Vision: To write profound faith-based scripts that are produced.

What I learned: Three tools to increase character depth.

Changes I made: Disclosed hidden fault in protagonist, wrote in deeper reactions to triggers, and wrote a new scene to bolster the storyline for character depth.

[Michael Collado]

Mike Loves Character Depth!

My Vision is to write an original screenplay, make a couple of calls to pitch it, to start a bidding war.

From this lesson, I learned how to add more depth to my characters.

Jocinda
Changed the scene where Jocinda’s Captain gives her help to stop Mr. Black with his experiments to his denying help
because of the lack of evidence.
This allows me to show Jocinda going back to her old ways.
This also allows me to show Jocinda’s wound.

Mr. Black
Bringing in a new Chimpanzee to simulate Sandy Kofax gives me a new character to elevate a dull scene with mystery sounds to be revealed later. This also gives me a way to help Jocinda escape being shot.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by  Michael Collado.

[Kathryn Gould]

Kathryn Loves Character Depth

I choose to be a highly creative and energized writer who makes big movies and loves her life working with the most creative people in the world.

What I learned was that looking at these elements again can lead to breakthroughs.

Changes:

I decided to have Japheth’s tech starting to fail so that by the end he has to shut it down and lose his powers. I also decided to try out how it feels for Lila to betray them twice. It fits what I’ve done with the beginning, I’m just a little worried that it won’t be believable if they forgive her twice.

I’m going to have Japheth torture Langdon a bit more for what he did to Olly. Not enough to make it feel like he’s gone to the dark side, but enough to feel satisfying to the audience.