Guest Post: Tom Benedek on one secret of Joss Whedon’s writing

A guest post from Tom Benedek, screenwriter (Cocoon) and teacher:

It’s the little things we grab onto about the characters we love. What we choose to consider important about their lives is what makes them live in the minds of our readers or audience. We all have a few small things which make us unique. Most people never really know what they are. As writers, that is our job. Look around, pick someone in the room right now or who just comes to mind. Identify those little things. People are amazing. Celebrate that goodness, uniqueness in each of your characters as you paint their personalities on the page, sketch them in two lines of character introduction. Even in a giant superhero extravaganza like Avengers: Age of Ultron, which opens this weekend, those little things will be there.

Joss Whedon, the fantastic writer-director, knows how to do that so well. They won’t allow anyone to see the script ever, but when you watch Ultron, check it out. Those little things about the characters which mean everything to the movie will be there — delighting the audience, keeping us engaged emotionally.

We will be talking about that movie next week in my Joss Whedon Character Intensive Workshop — a one week online class beginning Monday May 4 at Screenwritingmasterclass.com.

Have a Marvel-ous weekend!!

Little things can elevate characters, just like Whedon does in moments like this:

For more information on Tom’s class, go here.