“What have I learned about my characters?”
Just get the damn thing done! That’s where you started your first draft many weeks ago. And while it seemed a daunting task when you had just typed FADE IN, you’re way past that, right? Sitting on P. 90 or even 100, there’s no doubt you’ll reach FADE OUT.
So as you prepare to celebrate finishing the draft, it’s time to start thinking about the rewrite. This week, a series of questions to jump-start that process.
Today: What have you learned about your characters?
So much of the first draft process is a journey of discovery. Even if you went through an immersive prep-writing phase to the point of a comprehensive outline, once you start dancing with your characters in the page-writing part of your adventure, you will surface hidden truths, make connections, see nuances and dynamics.
In other words, your characters are coming alive. And that is a tremendous thing. They exist. They have lives. They have histories. They have personalities. The more you learn about them, the more you story benefits from that knowledge.
Even if they veer you away from your outline.
So even now as you wrap up your first draft, start thinking about the rewrite. Ask yourself:
“What have I learned about my characters?”
I encourage you to head to comments to discuss today’s questions. And for a related discussion on The Black Board, check out this discussion: More about character design & development.
The Quest” has entered Week 24 — the last week! 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!
Today and every Monday through Friday for the last 10 weeks, I have used this slot to post something inspirational as GOYOQ participants pound out their first drafts.
Why not use the structure of this 24-week workshop to Go On Your Own Quest? That was an idea that gathered energy among many members of the GITS community which I described here.
For more information on Go On Your Own Quest, go here.
Plus you can join The Black Board, the Official Online Writing Community of the Black List and Go Into The Story, another free resource to help keep you inspired and on target at you Go On Your Own Quest from FADE IN to FADE OUT on the first draft of your original screenplay.
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