Script Analysis: “Nomadland” — Part 3: Characters

A week-long analysis of this Oscar-nominated screenplay. Download. Read. Discuss.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Characters.

Characters are the players in our stories. They participate in scenes, move the plot forward through action and dialogue, influence each other, evolve and change. Each has their own distinct backstory, personality, world view, and voice. When a writer does their best, digging deep into their characters, tapping into their souls, the players in our stories magically lift up off the printed page and come to life in a reader’s imagination.

But there’s this: In a screenplay, characters exist for a reason. Hence my principle: Character = Function. Writers can shade and shape a story’s character in limitless ways. But if you dig down deep enough, you can find each character’s narrative function, and that can become a lens through which you develop the players in your stories.

Same thing with script and movie analysis: Look at each character and think about why they exist and what their function is.

This week: Nomadland. You may download the script here.

A list of the key characters in order of appearance:

Fern

Linda May

Bob Wells

Dave

Swankie

Derek

James [Dave’s son]

Dolly [Fern’s sister]

Screenplay written and directed by Chloé Zhao.

Plot summary: After losing everything in the Great Recession, a woman embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

Writing Exercise: Think about each character. What’s their respective narrative function?

Major kudos to Anthony Jackson for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown , go here.

Here is an interesting article on the backstory of the movie Nomadland.

For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown discussion, go here.

For Part 2, to read the Plot discussion, go here.

To access over 100 analyses of previous movie scripts we have read and discussed at Go Into The Story, go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Nomadland.