“Character patterns”

In this post the other day — Rod Serling talking about character motivation — Zach asked this in comments:

Terry Rossio talked about the idea of Character Patterns in a recent interview…Scott or anyone else know what a Character Pattern is?

That would be Terry Rossio of the screenwriting duo Elliott & Rossio fame (Aladin, Shrek, The Mask of Zorro, Pirates of the Caribbean), as well as co-host of the excellent screenwriting website Wordplay.

I Googled “Terry Rossio character patterns” and found this:

“I will also add that many screenplays out there seem woefully deficient regarding character patterns. That issue makes up the largest category of screenplays that demand rewrites. Great stories examine evolving and interesting character relationships; the character interaction patterns are as important, or more so, than the plot patterns. Too many writers, I think, don’t even consider their stories from this point of view — too bad, because more than anything else, that’s the part of the work that will be judged, by the studios, producers, actors, directors … and the audience.”

It’s an excerpt from a lengthy interview with Rossio that I featured on GITS last year here.

But about this business of “character patterns,” before I start mouthing off with my conjecture, let me first ask GITS readers — particularly those of you who have frequented Wordplay and may have interacted with Terry — do you know what Rossio means in this above excerpt?

I’ll give folks about a day to comment, then update with my thoughts. But clearly a subject worth understanding if, as Rossio suggests, “that’s the part of the work that will be judged, by the studios, producers, actors, directors … and the audience.”

So “character patterns.” What say ye on the matter? What is Rossio talking about?

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