by Will Dunne
6. Morality. Lincoln and Booth have defined their personal morality to suit their needs. Lincoln used to be a con artist-a three-card monte dealer-who saw his partner get shot and killed in front of him. This experience scared Lincoln into giving up the cards and trying to make an "honest living." Booth, on the other hand, is a petty thief with no qualms about stealing what he wants or hustling others out of their cash. Are your characters morally similar or different? For each character, identify a key moral stance.
7. Extra special talent. This is something at which your characters excel that could possibly affect what happens in the story. Lincoln is the best three-card monte dealer around. He has a magical gift for "throwing the cards." Booth has a knack for shoplifting or, as he calls it, "boosting." He can steal anything that will fit into his deep pockets or under his coat. Think about the special gifts of your characters and how they compare. For each of your characters, identify an extra special talent.
8. Extra special lack of talent. This is something which your characters cannot do well at all that could possibly affect what happens in the story. Lincoln has a hard time holding on to what he has managed to acquirewhether it's the Chinese takeout "skrimps" he had intended to eat for dinner, his job at the shooting arcade, or his wife Cookie. Booth has a dream of being a three-card monte dealer, but no dealer skills to back it up. His attempts at the three-card monte routine are "studied and awkward." In effect, he is unable to realize his dreams on his own. For each of your characters, identify an extra special lack of talent.
What the character cannot do is sometimes more important-and more telling-than what the character can do.
9. A distinguishing personal asset. This is a trait that you haven't already identified; it defines something important about your characters and gives them a clear advantage in certain situations. Lincoln's troubled past has left him with a wisdom that enables him at times to transcend the trials of his existence. Even when he is working as a target in a shooting booth, he can muster up a sense of peacefulness and meaningful contemplation. Meanwhile Booth has drive and purpose. When life defeats him, as it often does, he always manages to get back on his feet. He's the type who never gives up. For each of your characters, identify a distinguishing personal asset.
io. A distinguishing personal liability. This is a trait that you haven't already identified; it also defines something important about your characters and puts them at a clear disadvantage in certain situations. Though Lincoln has sworn off the cards, for example, he is still addicted to them. Their presence in the room is a constant source of temptation despite the danger they pose. Booth's liability is his explosive temper. His inability to keep it in check may explain many of his problems with women as well as his feuding with his brother. For each of your characters, identify a distinguishing personal liability.
i i. Greatest single virtue. Lincoln and Booth are alike in their loyalty to each other. Despite their rivalry and bickering, each has come to the other's aid in times of trouble. What is the greatest virtue of each of your characters?
12. Greatest single vice. Lincoln and Booth are also alike in their jealousy of each other. Despite the brotherly tie, they both constantly try to best the other. What is the greatest vice of each of your characters?
13. Greatest life ambition. Before the play begins, Lincoln's greatest ambition is to earn an honest living that will bring him the simple pleasures of life, such as a bed of his own. Booth's ambitions are loftier. He wants "topdog" status in society so he can live high on the hog with his ex-girlfriend Grace at his side. Think about what your characters want most out of life as your story begins. For each of your characters, identify his or her greatest ambition so far.
14. Greatest fear. Lincoln fears the dangers of the hustling world so much that he has given up the thing he does best: throwing the cards. Booth fears being alone. He would rather retreat to fantasies inspired by pornography rather than face the fact that his ex-girlfriend no longer wants him. Think about how your characters compare and contrast. What is each one's greatest fear?
15. Greatest anger. Lincoln and Booth are alike in the ire they feel toward being betrayed by a loved one, especially each other. Their anger stems from being abandoned by their parents. What most angers each of your characters?
16. Greatest secret. Interesting characters tend to have interesting secrets-some of which are revealed during the story and some of which are not. What your character chooses to hide from everyone or from most people reveals much and can be a powerful source of story ideas. One of Lincoln's biggest secrets is that he has become sexually dysfunctional. One of Booth's biggest secrets is that he knows about Lincoln's problem because he, Booth, slept with Lincoln's wife. What is the greatest secret of each of your characters?
17. Most unusual fact. Among the unusual facts that make Lincoln and Booth unique are the names they have had to carry through life, with Lincoln named after president Abraham Lincoln and Booth named after the assassin John Wilkes Booth. What's particularly odd is that their father gave them these names as a joke. What is most unusual about each of your characters?
HOW YOUR CHARACTERS SEE THEMSELVES
Now switch to the subjective-and not necessarily accurate-viewpoint of each character in self-reflection, and answer in their unique voices, as if writing dialogue. In a few sentences for each character, sum up the following beliefs:
i. Philosophy of love. When the story begins, what important conclusions has each character drawn about love?
2. Family philosophy. What has each character come to believe about family based on his or her experiences before the story begins?
3. Political philosophy. How would each character sum up his or her political beliefs when the story begins?
4. Spiritual philosophy. What does each character have to say about God, religion, spirituality, or the meaning of life?
WRAP-UP
Think about how your two characters compare and contrast. How similar or different are they? Think also about how they fit or don't fit together in the story. When all is said and done, do you see them primarily as friends or foes? You can analyze your findings in many ways, as long as they make sense to you and serve the story. A few thoughts to keep in mind about your findings:
• If your characters are mostly friends, do they have enough similarities to form a believable union, and enough differences to make them each distinct? Even if opposites attract, there are usually some points of commonality that explain how two individuals fit together. If your characters seem too different, you may need to get a better understanding of them and how they connect. If they seem too much alike, you may need to rethink some of their traits, qualities, and beliefs to make them each more unique and interesting.
• If your characters are mostly foes, do they have enough contrast to fuel the conflict between them, and enough similarity to explain why they have to deal with each other? If the characters are too similar, you may need to focus more on the differences that contribute to the problems between them. If the characters are too different, you may need to focus more on the commonality that has trapped them in this adversarial relationship.
THE QUICK VERSION
Hone and contrast the unique voices of two characters
BEST TIME FOR THIS
Any time you need to know a character better
SPEECH: A KEY TO CHARACTER IDENTITY
Imagine three characters talking in a room: Nora Helmer from A Doll's House, Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire, and Hester La Negrita from In the Blood. Even if the room suddenly went dark, we would always know who was speaking, because each of these characters has such a distinct voice. "Voice" here refers not to vocal quality but rather the manner in which a character expresses personal thoughts and feelings.
Ideally, your characters do not all talk the way you do. Nor do they all talk like one another. Each has an individual voice-a unique way of saying things-that like a fingerprint identifies the character and sets him
or her apart from everyone else in the story. This voice grows out of who the character is and finds its shape through the word choices, figures of speech, references, and other language strategies that the character uses consciously or subconsciously in speech.
How distinct are the voices of your characters? One measure is the ease with which you can take a set of lines from one character and give them to another character during editing. If dialogue can be easily reassigned, you have not yet found the voices of your characters.
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
Though speech is its focus, this exercise is not about writing dialogue so much as getting to know your characters. Ideally, a unique and consistent voice will emerge from each of them as you develop your story. Several factors will shape this voice. Some are long-term factors that affect the character at the story level. Some are short-term factors that affect the character at the scenic level.
Use this exercise to explore such influences on any two of your characters. By focusing on two characters rather than just one, you may gain a better sense of the contrast-or lack of contrast-between them. The greater the contrast in character voice, the greater the differentiation in character identity. Begin by choosing two characters whose voices you wish to explore in more depth.
LONG-TERM FACTORS THAT CAN SHAPE A CHARACTERS VOICE
Among factors that influence how characters talk, some are so deeply part of the character's identity that they usually don't change over the course of the story. First and foremost, the character's unique traits and basic values will color most of his or her dialogue, including how the character communicates with others, what subjects the character stresses or ignores, and how the character explains or describes things. Within each character's deep identity, any or all of the following long-term factors can influence how the character talks:
I. Ethnicity. Your character's racial and cultural background may affect the character's voice in many ways. For example, the character may speak in a certain dialect and use cultural idioms and references. Voice also may be affected by whether the character is speaking in his or her native language.
2. Age. Children tend to speak differently from adults. Elders tend to speak differently from teenagers. Does the character's age have any bearing on his or her art of expression?
3. Geography. Some terms and expressions, especially slang, are regional or local in nature. In the United States, for example, the vocabulary, style, and rhythms of a southerner might be different from those of a northerner.
4. History. The events that have happened or not happened during the character's life may also affect personal expression, particularly in the use of slang and local references. If your story takes place in a different time period, country, or planet, you need to consider how these elements may affect the character's voice.
5. Attitude toward life. Does your character tend to be an optimist or pessimist? This general attitude can affect what topics the character chooses and how positively or negatively the character describes them.
6. Education. A high-school dropout tends to speak differently from a PhD. Your character's word choices and syntax may reveal the character's educational background without your having to explain it.
7. Occupation. Your character's work life may include jargon and technical terms that affect the character's word choices and use of metaphors or similes to describe life outside of work. For example, a banker might speak differently from a rock musician, or undertaker, or prostitute, or computer technician.
8. Lifestyle. Language choices can be affected by how easy or how hard life has been, how hip or not hip the character may be, and other personal lifestyle factors. If the character belongs to any social subcultures, such as a drug subculture, racetrack subculture, or sexual subculture, he or she may use terms and metaphors common in these microworlds.
9. Special interests. Hobbies and other special interests can affect how your character sees others and communicates with them. For example, a sports enthusiast might tend to use sports terms and analogies to express ideas and feelings.
To. Political beliefs. Politics can also influence how characters express themselves, the reverence or irreverence with which they speak about institutions or society, and the terms they use. Is the character conservative or liberal? Politically correct or incorrect? Racist? Sexist? Ageist? Homophobic?
i I. Religious beliefs. The character's spiritual beliefs or lack of them may matter as well. Does the character use religious references and analogies to express ideas and feelings? How otherworldly or worldly is the character's speech?
SHORT-TERM INFLUENCES ON A CHARACTERS VOICE
Some of the factors that influence a character's voice are short-lived: they come and go with the dramatic moment, sometimes on a moment-bymoment basis, such as:
i. Who the listener is. Characters tend to speak in different ways to different people. How the character addresses the boss at work, for example, might be quite different from how the character addresses an intimate friend, an attractive stranger in a single's bar, or a door-to-door salesperson. The current relationship with the listener may also matter. Are they on good terms or bad terms?
2. Current physical state. The character's physical condition can affect word choices, expression, and sentence construction. Is the character healthy, or under the weather, or deathly ill? High or sober? Tired or alert?
3. Current emotional state. How your character feels may influence personal expression as well. For example, fear, anger, surprise, suspicion, joy, sorrow, and other emotions affect how efficiently or inefficiently, how verbose or terse, how friendly or cold your character will be.
4. Current mental state. Your character's intellectual abilities and psychological functions are dynamic and can become impaired under stress. This factor can affect how well or poorly your character communicates with others and how interested or uninterested the character may be in certain subjects.
5. This particular setting. The immediate environment may affect how characters express themselves to others, just as characters in a funeral parlor tend to speak differently from characters at a football game, or characters in the bedroom tend to speak differently from characters in church.
6. This particular time. The time of day, such as early morning or late at night, and other circumstances, such as just before a political revolution or just after one, all can affect word choices, sentence constructions, and use of metaphors and references to express ideas and feelings.
7. This particular topic. The subject at hand is often a key influence as well. The character may speak passionately about some subjects and dispassionately about others. Some topics may be easy to discuss and others, very difficult.
8. Dramatic elements now at work. The character's current objective, problem, motivation, and strategy also affect how things are said or not said, and can change from scene to scene or from moment to moment within a scene.
HOW YOUR CHARACTERS' VOICES COMPARE
Get ready to translate ten generic statements into the unique voices of your characters. Translate each statement twice: first into Character i's voice and then into Character 2'S voice. You can imagine the characters in the same situation or different situations speaking to the same listener or different listeners. The focus here is on how they each talk, not on how they share experiences. Look for as much contrast between their individual voices as possible, using these three steps for each generic statement:
i. Read the generic statement and think about what it expresses. Imagine this statement as subtext for a single line of dialogue or a monologue.
2. Imagine the character in an appropriate situation from your story or backstory and identify an appropriate listener. Think about what's going on in the situation you chose. Remember that the listener may be an onstage or offstage character, friend or foe, close relationship or stranger.
3. Think again about the long-term and short-term factors that can shape the character's voice. Then translate the generic
statement into a speech that reflects the unique voice of each character. Depending on what's appropriate for this character in this situation with this listener, this speech may range from a word or two to an in-depth monologue.
TEN STATEMENTS FOR TRANSLATION
LISTENING AGAIN TO EACH CHARACTERS VOICE
In the last section, you focused on two characters, how they express themselves and how their voices contrast. As a last step:
i. Go back and read all ten speeches that you wrote for Character i. Listen for continuity in this single voice. Do all of these lines really sound as if they're coming from the same character? If any speech does not seem true to this character, why not? How might the speech be changed?
2. Do the same quick analysis for Character 2.
If you have already begun to use these same characters in your script, you can try this same type of analysis with a scene in which they appear. First read only Character i's speeches, then only Character 2's. How strong are the two different voices that emerge?
WRAP-UP
Ideally, each character's voice is so distinct that it would not make sense coming out of anyone else's mouth. Finding this voice is an important and ongoing part of the character development process. As you write and edit your script, continue to listen to your characters and how they distinguish themselves from one another in their speech. If their voices at times seem to blur, you may need to rethink the long-term and short-term factors at work and make some of these factors matter more.
THE QUICK VERSION
Analyze a character from three different points of view
BEST TIME FOR THIS
After you have a working sense of who the characters are
THE VALUE OF CHARACTER OPINIONS-RIGHT OR WRONG
When characters look at themselves, one another, or the world around them, they may or may not reach similar conclusions about what they see. Each has a certain opinion that reflects the character's unique identity, life experience, needs, problems, feelings, and present circumstances. Few characters are always right or always wrong. Most have some ability to be accurate or mistaken, to embrace the facts or flee from them, to uncover truths or foster delusions. Right or wrong, their perceptions say a lot about who they each are and how they fit together.