Explore Your Characters Through Dramatic Contrast

A guest post from Tom Benedek, screenwriter (Cocoon) and co-founder of Screenwriting Master Class:

In screenwriting and TV writing, conflict is always being brought up as an essential. It helps to look at scenes and ask where and what the conflict in the scene might be.

A teacher I studied with, Joan Scheckel, emphasizes the focus on contrast instead of conflict.

In TV, contrast between characters functions as a nuanced, ongoing exploration of character. How one character reacts to another over time in numerous situations may drive plot or just stand on its own as character story.

In feature films, there may not seem to be enough to stop and just explore how various characters contrast with each other. The best feature scripts do this systematically.

We understand the characters and delight at watching the react to each other in expected and unexpected ways.

The explosion in TV viewing will only make this more important in feature writing.

Just remember: Dramatic tension doesn’t always mean conflict. Try to think about scenes in terms of character contrast instead of conflict and see what happens to the actions in that scene.

Doing some TV writing can be a great help for future feature writing. Family of Characters. Story Engine. Internal Dissonance. Dramatic Contrast. These are concepts worth exploring for all writers.

Consider joining me in PAGES TV: WRITING THE ORIGINAL PILOT SCRIPT.

Tom’s class begins Monday, February 8. For more information, go here.