What makes me tick?
by Jessica Brown
Let’s find out. Do you have a solid and effective character development process that makes developing your plot, theme, conflict and world easier? Start with character.
When I first started studying screenwriting and storytelling back in 2007, I wasn’t sure which camp I would fall in as a writer…character driven or plot driven. And over the years I have gone back and forth as my skills and knowledge have grown. Now seventeen years later I have decided, for me, it is both. But both have to be very strong and well developed. What I have learned in all that time, the best stories start with character development. The plot is easier to develop afterward.
Some of my favorite books on storytelling have the best character development tools that work well for my process. Let’s start with a favorite that I have shared over and over again, The Coffee Break Screenwriter by Pilar Alessandra. Chapter 3 is about Developing Story. I love how Pilar teaches her writers how to think about breaking story and developing it using sequences. This is how I develop my plots but now, also how I develop my characters.
Start with her Ten-Minute Lecture: Story Development in Eight Beats. Pilar shares that “Though each beat tells its own story, it is always connected to the next one in order to reveal the big picture. Each beat tends to “trigger” the next. And by doing so, the story is pushed forward. Here’s a common pattern:
- Character flaw TRIGGERS Conflict
- Conflict TRIGGERS Problem
- Problem TRIGGERS Strategy
- Strategy TRIGGERS Emotional Event
- Emotional Event TRIGGERS Major Action
- Major Action TRIGGERS Misstep
- Misstep TRIGGERS Battle
- Battle TRIGGERS Final Challenge.
This is a great tool to develop your plots. I have used it over and over again. But then I started looking at it in regards to developing the internal conflict arc for my characters. In Pilar’s book she gives the example from The Wizard of Oz walking us through how the triggers work to push that story forward. I love it.
I wanted to see if the triggers would work for the internal character struggle as well. And sure enough it does. I even ran my arc through fellow writers and AI to
see if it creates a cohesive and concrete character arc. And sure enough I struck a vein of gold. My readers and AI loved it. So let’s play with a sample character. This is not anything I am working on or plan to work on. I am making this up as I write this.
I start with a sentence that describes my character taken from Jack Epps Jr.’s book Screenwriting is Rewriting. Love that book too! So many tools to play with.
Jack breaks down the rewriting process by identifying who your character is and what they need to do to fix their internal conflict. You start by figuring out who your character is by finishing this sentence:
It’s a story about a man/woman who must…
Now when you finish the sentence, you are only focused on the internal struggle of the character. You are not describing plot or story. Only the internal struggle should be described in this sentence. So let’s play with this.
It’s a story about a man who has been diagnosed with cancer and feels he can only let go of life once he has experienced his childhood memories one last time.
This tells us the main character is struggling with accepting that he is dying, that he is longing for his childhood days and perhaps feels that he has not leaned into his life.
Once you have written that sentence describing your character’s internal struggle, you then complete by finishing this sentence:
What he needs to do is….
So let’s play with this. If he is struggling with dying and letting go of life emotionally and dying satisfied with his life, he needs to revisit his childhood. Perhaps the places and recreate the events. But what if his childhood was filled with conflict and broken relationships? Perhaps we finish that sentence by saying he needs to make amends and ask for forgiveness with the people from his childhood he has hurt before he dies to turn his childhood memories into happy ones.
So the complete description would go like this:
It’s a story about a man who has been diagnosed with cancer and feels he can only let go of life once he has experienced his childhood memories one last time.
What he needs to do is locate and connect with the people in those memories to ask for forgiveness and make amends to turn those memories into cherished relationships as he faces death satisfied and complete.
Now we have two sentences that give us a solid character arc. We know where our main character starts, what he/she is struggling with, and where they need to end up emotionally to have a satisfying ending to the story. This is all character driven. I have not included anything from the plot or story thread in the description.
So once we have the basic high-level character arc, let’s break it down into sequences so we can figure out what his internal conflict arc will look like across the story using Pilar’s story development triggers.
We start with Flaw.
Sequence 1 will be about our MC (main character’s) flaw. In this case it might be anger. We all empathize with someone who has been diagnosed with cancer. Your world is turned upside down as you face death with no options. In the opening of our story we will have our MC angry at the world, at his doctor, his family, his employer and even the people that mean the most to him.
SQ 1 Flaw = anger
Next we see the anger TRIGGERS conflict. So our MC’s flaw will cause a lot of conflict in his life.
SQ 2 Anger TRIGGERS Conflict
Conflict TRIGGERS slow progress as his doctor tells him his treatment is not going well because of his anger and frustration, it is affecting his body’s ability to fight the cancer and accept the treatment to heal. He is even more conflicted with dying and cries out to everyone near him.
SQ 3 Frustration TRIGGERS Problem
His problem is that he must now go see a specialist to deal with his frustration and anger just as he is getting so sick and tired of doctors and medical treatments. He now has another problem that his frustration has triggered. His
doctor insists that he see a specialist in dying or he won’t treat him anymore. That is his emotional problem: deal with the frustration or die sooner.
SQ4 Dealing with the problem of his frustration TRIGGERS his Strategy Again, we are dealing with what is going on inside of our MC emotionally. He doesn’t want to go see this specialist, but he also doesn’t want to die sooner than later, so he agrees to go see the specialist so his doctor continues to treat him to extend his life. But he goes into the specialist with a list of demands to do it his way. He doesn’t know how the specialist deals with dying, but our MC thinks his own strategy is going to be the best. His strategy? To win the specialist over to agree to lie to his doctor and say he has been coming to his dying sessions so the doctor will keep treating him.
SQ5 The MC’s strategy TRIGGERS the Emotional Event
The MC tries to win over the specialist but finds himself really liking the specialist and his/her technique to confront dying. They are in agreement with our MC reliving their childhood memories but with a twist. They must agree to say I am sorry each time they relive the event. This TRIGGERS an emotional event, a break down as our MC realizes he is not just angry at the cancer and dying sooner than he wants. He has been angry all his life and at all the people he loves. But as he thinks through when his anger began in his childhood, he realizes that it started with a childhood friend that he really loved and admired who gave him one of his fondest memories; a day of fly fishing that he has always carried with him.
SQ6 The Emotional Event TRIGGERS the Major Action
Motivated by his emotional event, our MC searches and finds his childhood friend and travels to see him again. The childhood friend does not want to see him. But our MC decides to meet up with the childhood friend on the river where they use to fish together. Despite his declining health he travels to the secluded location to catch the friend and make amends. This is risky because he doesn’t know if his health or how his friend will respond will work out.
SQ7 Major Action TRIGGERS the Misstep
But when he comes face to face with his friend as he is fly fishing, instead of making amends, his emotional misstep is he becomes angry as he relives the conflict that tore them apart. They shove each other and his friend hits his head on a rock as he falls.
SQ8 The Misstep TRIGGERS the Battle
In this case, the battle to save his friend and their friendship. He uses what strength he has to pull his friend up out of the river and call for help. First Responders fishing nearby hear him and come to his rescue. Our MC asks to speak to his friend before the emergency vehicle takes him to the hospital. Our MC tells his friend he is sorry for what happened years ago and what happened today. His friend forgives him.
SQ8/9 The Battle TRIGGERS the Final Challenge
Our MC is now calmer and more settled and returns to face the toughest part of his cancer treatment but with a calm heart. He shows up for all his treatments and is speaking to his childhood friend about their memories growing up together. The doctor tells our MC that his scans are coming back clean and clear. Our MC books a flight to go fishing with his friend.
This is a rough first stab at the internal character conflict arc for this made-on the-fly story. Sorry about the pun. I couldn’t resist. I can now go back and refine the character’s internal feelings to be more dramatic and flow better. I wanted to show you how you can build that ever important internal conflict arc using this simple trigger method of Pilar’s. It only took me about 30 minutes to do it.
I challenge you to try it the next time you are struggling to figure out your main character’s internal struggle. The tool is very flexible and easy to play with.
I hope this helps and gives you motivation to look at your writers’ tools to see how to use them in different ways to break story, develop interesting characters and solve that next writing challenge. Keep working through your story problems. And make it a game to not let the challenge get the best of you.
Happy August. Happy Writing.
Jess
You can reach me at jessbrown44@gmail.com. If you have used a tool in different ways, I would love to hear about your experience and which tool you used. Always love a good exchange of tools and writing adventures.