Go On Your Own Quest — Week 3: Character

“The Quest” has entered Week 3! And so did Go On Your Own Quest, an opportunity for anyone to follow the structure of “The Quest” to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write a first draft [Pages — 10 weeks]. It’s a 24-week immersion in the screenwriting process and you can do it here — for free!

This week, we are reflecting on the subject of Character, mirroring the content the Questers are engaged with in Core III: Character. They are working through six lectures I have written building off the 3rd Essential Screenwriting Principle: Character = Function.

For those of you who plan to Go On Your Own Quest, we began our week-long discussion on Character yesterday asking this question: Are you more comfortable writing character or plot? You can read that discussion here. Today another question:

* What techniques do you use to develop your characters?

Techniques like biographies, questionnaires, interviews, 1st person monologues, etc. How do you dig into, understand and bring to life your characters?

This week, you can do some serious reflection about the nature and importance of a screenplay’s characters. If members of the GITS community really engage in a wide-ranging conversation about the subject, there’s no telling what insight each individual can gain, perhaps even a critical key to unlocking your understanding of the subject.

I strongly encourage you to Go On Your Own Quest. First off, you can’t sell a script unless you write it. Second, you can’t get better as a writer unless you write. Third, if you don’t write that script now, when are you going to write it?

So consider this your very own Call To Adventure. Will you heed the call?

I will be teaching the 1-week online writing course Core III: Character beginning August 20.

For background on “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” go here and here.

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