All this theory. All these terms. All of it can really get in the way of writing a great story. And isn’t that why you bought that laptop and that screenwriting software in the first place? To share with the world your own personal viewpoint on life?
Guess what? You can throw it all away…as long as you incorporate these three things into your story.
An Impact Character
Have at least one character who stands in opposition to the Main Character. Not towards the Main Character’s outwardly goals or desires - but in direct opposition to the Main Character’s deep-seated problem.
He is there to shock the Main Character out of his own personal darkness
Think of the Main Character as one of your friends that you know very intimately. In fact, you understand this friend so well, that you know that if he would just change this one aspect of his life or start doing something different, that he would be better for it. You’ve now become an Impact Character.
That’s all an Impact Character is - a solitary personal viewpoint that presents an obstacle to the Main Character’s personal growth. And it doesn’t have to be an in-your-face Ben Kenobi sort of deal. It can be subtle - it can be small and insignificant. The Impact Character doesn’t even have to acknowledge the Main Character’s presence. All that matters is that he is there to shock the Main Character out of his own personal darkness.
A Relationship Throughline between the Main and Impact Character
You would think just having the Impact Character in there would imply some kind of relationship, but not always. Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp) has his Impact Character in Kim (Winona Ryder) but their relationship is almost non-existent. There is insufficient development in their romance to qualify for a complete throughline. And you can feel it.
Check this image out. Even the marketing department wanted some kind of relationship throughline! This particular image never happens in the film. It feels so out of place, doesn’t it? You keep wanting them to spend more time together like this, to build up a relationship, but it never really happens. And then when the end comes, you feel sad, but not as much as you would if perhaps the two of them had more on the line. It’s a tragic ending, but not a very fulfilling one.
Develop some kind of relationship between the two principal characters and make it as important as the overall plot is. A man and a woman can be starting a small business together, but it is their marriage that is the heart of the Subjective Story (Relationship Throughline). Is their marriage growing? Or is it dissolving into bitter divorce? Or is it dissolving into an amicable divorce? It doesn’t matter which direction - as long as it is there.
Some Kind of Limit
The characters are either going to run out of time or run out of choices. Pick one, stick with it, bring it up once an act, and then have it be responsible for bringing about the climax. Cars gives Lightning McQueen a week before the big race (Timelock). In The Prestige, there are only so many ways the two magicians can keep escalating their vengeful attacks on one another before one of them ultimately will be killed (Optionlock).
With the latter, the reminders of the limit are subtle. The attacks grow in scale over the course of the story, allowing the audience to synthesize on their own when the end will come about. With Cars, the reminders are in-your-face TV news reporters reminding the audience every 30 minutes or so of the ticking clock. Either way, both work to let your audience know that yes, this story does in fact have an ending. With that bit of info safely tucked away, the audience can actually appreciate the scope of your dramatica argument.
So there you go. The big three of dramatic storytelling. You can spend days and weeks filling out all 350 of the Story Guide Level 3 questions or you could just make sure you covered the three listed above.
Get that trio in there and leave the rest to your intuition.
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1 Impact Character Video Montage // Apr 12, 2007 at 3:53 pm
[...] mentioned before in earlier posts, the lack of a solid Impact Character is one of the primary flaws in stories that don’t work. Having a character with a consistent viewpoint that prevents a Main [...]
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