Dispatch From The Quest: Sandy Leviton

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers. I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.

Today: Sandy Leviton uses the metaphor of “puzzle” in relation to developing characters:

Puzzles. Brainteasers, riddles, and mind tricks. I love them all. I was that girl who would go to the bookstore (back when they existed) and go straight for the riddle books. I’d then be up all night reading, thinking about them, and ultimately waiting to drop my newfound “trick” knowledge on an unsuspecting soul. Riddles like: “I can make you lighter, or cause your death. Some are afraid of me, but I’m also loved by many.” would keep this ten-year-old girl up at night. (The answer is “water” by the way.) So what does this have to do with The Quest? This week, quite a bit. This week we dove deeper into the pool that holds our characters captive and dissected the various different archetypes (protagonist, nemesis, attractor, mentor, and trickster). We analyzed our own stories, deciding which character fits into each role and then switched it up completely, allowing us to see our story from a completely different point of view. As we are still figuring out our story, this was a fantastic and fun exercise for Miranda and I. I think we both feel like our story just located some of its missing puzzle pieces. Back to the story of my childhood geekdom… That was how my obsession began. These exercises helped re-open that Pandora’s box and reignited the puzzle spark. Once we played with the pieces of our own story puzzle, I got motivated…borderline obsessive about this exercise. I started applying it to other films I watched (which was also part of the assignments this week). But instead of stopping at one, I started doing it to everything I watched. I even started making up archetypes for people I encountered. It’s become my new favorite puzzle game to play. I get to see the bigger picture, break it down to see where the pieces fit, and then pull it apart to make something new. In some cases, I earned a new respect for the film or TV show I was analyzing. In others, it knocked it down a few notches. For example — Miranda and I went to see the To Do List earlier this week (It was a company screening. We were totally working, I swear.) — I loved it. Miranda was more mixed. I saw its flaws, but what can I say, I am a sucker for teen coming of age stories set in the 90’s. This movie was tailor made for me. Anyways, I started applying the exercise to the film — who’s the protagonist, the attractor, the trickster? Some answers were super easy — Brandy Klark (Audrey Plaza) is the protagonist! But then others weren’t as clear. Was Cameron (Johnny Simmons) or Rusty (Scott Porter) the attractor? And if Rusty is the attractor, then can he also be the trickster? Clearly, Brandy’s sister, Amber (Rachel Bilson) is the mentor….no wait. Her mom Mrs. Klark (and what? No first name?!) played by Connie Britton, is the mentor. There are so many different answers to the same question. And while there can sometimes be multiple answers to each archetype, you can see where this started to get confusing and sadly, ended up leading me down a rabbit hole that made me realize this story may not have been constructed as well as it could’ve been. I still love the movie and completely enjoyed it and will recommend it to people, but I will not be using it as a learning tool anytime in the future for myself or with my clients. All of this is to say, I enjoyed this week immensely. Changing character perspectives is one of the most stimulating exercises a person can do — in life as well as writing. It’s one of my favorite brain games. Diving into characters and living in their shoes is the backbone of this industry. It’s why we consume and create stories. It’s why I dreamed of making movies as that same ten year old. This week, working on our character puzzles, brought me back to that time. There’s something encouraging in knowing that riddles still keep me awake at night.

Character as puzzle. I like that. That suggests several things:

• Mystery: What archetype best fits their core essence? What are all these ‘pieces’ (aspects of their psyche)? How do they fit together?
• Game: There should be some fun to the character-discovery process and fitting together their ‘pieces’ can an enjoyable endeavor.
• Curiosity: Perhaps the single biggest key to the mystery and game is to get inquisitive about each character, using questions to find out who they are.

What about your characters as puzzles and riddles? What mysteries lie within each of them? Get curious, have some fun and discover what answers they have waiting for you.

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.

About Sandy: Bostonian that learned how to pronounce “R’s” upon moving to LA. A lefty that loves the unusual. Dreams of owning a taxidermy dodo bird. @scriptchix & @lil_sjl.


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