by Will Dunne
WRAP-UP
As you write the scene, keep conflict ever present. Let it grow and change as the action develops and turns the story into new and unexpected directions. Some conflicts will be resolved. Some won't. Either way, new problems and obstacles will emerge and make life increasingly difficult for the main character. If conflict drops out, the story will begin to feel talky and wooden. Scenes tend to work best:
• When conflict equals the objective. If the problem is too small or too large, we predict the outcome and lose interest in the story because we're way ahead of the character. We know that a simple problem will be easily solved and that an impossible problem will never be solved. However, if there is a slight chance that a difficult problem might be solved, we remain engaged to see what will happen. To create strong character objectives, create strong conflicts. If a character objective seems weak, you may need to strengthen the problem.
• When conflict slowly rises rather than leaps to a crisis. In drama, things build-from small to large, from ordinary to extraordinary. If the drama starts in crisis or peaks too early, it will have nowhere to go after that and will have to keep repeating the same dynamic. We will lose interest in the story because it's more and more of the same. By starting small and letting the forces of conflict rise slowly, you can allow plenty of room to build tension and to keep moving the character-and us-into new territory. Often a story will begin with a minor problem of the main character or a major problem of a minor character.
In addition, we can't read the character's mind unless you explain it to us. But drama is not the realm of explanation. Ideally, we observe the character's behavior and make inferences about what the character feels and thinks. We need time to watch the character in action and understand his or her motivations. This lets us participate emotionally in the transition to crisis. Ideally, conflict does not leap to crisis so quickly that we don't understand what happened. Instead, it slowly builds, step by step, so that we can stay with the character the whole way.
• When conflict leads to action, not inaction. Dramatic characters, particularly main characters of stories, know what they want and have high stakes behind that need. Conflicts are stimuli that cause these characters to take new and often unexpected courses of action. To keep us emotionally engaged, dramatic characters do not compromise or give up their objectives. They do not become passive-at least not for long. The most interesting person in the story is usually the one who is most active.
• When conflict generates a variety of behavior. It is often conflict that forces a character's strategies to change. Conflict becomes static when characters stay too long with a strategy that clearly doesn't work. Obstacles give characters a reason to keep changing strategies, and this creates different units of action. In combination with the scenic objective, conflict creates the beats, or units of action, of the scene.
THE QUICK VERSION
Give your characters compelling reasons to pursue their objectives
BEST TIME FOR THIS
When you want to heighten the conflict of a scene
BATTLE OF THE GOOD GUYS
In drama, one of the most common sources of conflict is the other character. When that character wants something contrary or contradictory to what this character wants, and when they both have something vital at stake, conflict is inevitable. In myths, fables, action stories, and other genres that present the world in simple, larger-than-life terms, one of these characters is often a hero and the other a villain. Their interaction becomes a battle between a "good guy" and a "bad guy."
However, two characters with opposing needs do not necessarily have to fit this mold. In fact, the most dynamic and complex conflict often results when both characters see themselves as right, and act with the best of intentions. Their interaction becomes a battle between a "good guy" and a "good guy." While the characters may not agree on what "good" is, the desire to achieve their version of it can fuel a conflict of dramatic proportions.
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
Use this exercise to write or revise any scene where two or more characters face a common problem, but have opposing views about how to solve it. For example, a family has outgrown its home. The father wants to sell the house and buy a larger one, but the mother wants to stay and build an addition.
The goal is to create a confrontation between the characters by making sure that each one's objective is not only important and urgent, but also-from the character's perspective-good and right. If their motivations are strong enough and noble enough, the characters will find themselves locked together in the problem. Neither will be willing to compromise or give up, and the conflict will rise to a dramatic level.
To begin, choose a scene to write or edit. In order to explore character motivations in the scene, you need to know who the characters are, what problem they face here and now, and what each character wants from the other as a result of the problem.
UNDERSTANDING CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS
To create the strongest conflict, give each character something good to fight for-or at least something each perceives as good at this particular time in the story. Use these questions to help you explore your character motivations.
I. Review character objectives. Look at how you stated the objective for each character. For best results, be sure that each goal is positive. Suppose a man wants to convince his wife to move to a new house, but she does not want to leave this one. The latter objective is stated as a negative-"does not want"-and becomes dramatically stronger when restated as a positive that gives the character something to work toward: she wants to convince her husband of what a wonderful home they already have. If either of your characters has a negative objective, restate it as a positive.
Imagine a man in the ocean being hunted by a shark and swimming frantically toward land. If the man is a dramatic character, he will gain the most power not from a negative objective-to get away from the shark-but from a positive objective-to reach the shore.
2. Look at the situation again through Character is eyes:
• Think about Character i's objective. Why is this a good thing to fight for at this time? Define the logic that leads Character i to perceive the objective as a positive goal.
• Think about what's at stake for Character I. Why is the objective not only good, but also important? In other words, what will make compromise or surrender seem impossible?
3. Look at the situation again through Character 2's eyes:
• Think about Character 2'S objective. Why is this a good thing to fight for at this time? Define the logic that leads Character 2 to perceive the objective as a positive goal.
• Think about what's at stake for Character 2. Why is the objective not only good, but also important? In other words, what will make the character want to fight to the finish to achieve this objective?
4. Establish urgency. To create a battle of "good guys," you need to make sure that your characters cannot avoid the conflict. Why must this scene driven by these characters with these objectives and these motivations take place here and now? In other words, why is the situation urgent? Why can't the characters avoid each other or put this whole thing off until later?
S. Create a three-word summary of the scene. For each character, find one word to identify the "good" that he or she will fight for in the scene. Then add the word "versus" between the two "goods" so that you have a threeword summary of the scene-for example, "Comfort versus stability," or "Freedom versus security," or "Pleasure versus health."
6. Write the scene. Use your summary as a guide to develop the scene around opposing characters who each have good intentions. If the situation is important and urgent, the characters will now fight to the finish for what they see as right.
WRAP-UP
Even the most heinous of acts can be driven by a good intention. For some, an act of destruction may be seen as an act of justice. An act of deception may be seen as an act of protection. An act of punishment may be seen as an act of salvation. No
matter what they do, characters always move toward what they perceive as good at the time-even if they later change their minds and regret what they have done.
Find the right balance between motivation and objective. If the motivation feels too small to justify the objective, the character's actions may seem silly or melodramatic: "He had no real reason to go to all that trouble." If the motivation feels too big, the character's actions may seem illogical or unbelievable: "With so much at stake, she would have tried harder."
To understand the good your character is after, try to see the situation truly and fully through the character's eyes. Know what deep needs are driving the struggle to achieve that good, and make sure that the stakes are high enough. If you find that you need to raise the stakes in a scene, try one of the following:
• Reach for a higher good. In great drama, high stakes are at risk, such as friendship or health. When the stakes don't feel high enough, you can up the ante by endangering a higher good. For example, instead of friendship, try putting love at risk. Or, instead of health, try putting survival at risk.
• Make a good more valuable. Stakes that are great in quality, scarce in quantity, unique in nature, first of a kind, or last of a kind tend to be extra valuable and give characters more steadfast reasons to fight for them. In Romeo and Juliet, what's at stake is not only love but great love. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, what's at stake is not only a sacred artifact but the one and only Ark of the Covenant that housed the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
• Broaden the impact. Motivation often increases when more people may be affected by the gain or loss in question. In Cape Fear, a man fighting against a maniac for survival is engaged in an important struggle, but it is even more critical since the lives of his family are at risk as well. In Erin Brockovich, a legal clerk works to expose a big corporation as the cause of contaminated water in the area. Her fight is valiant, but its importance soars when it means justice for hundreds of people whose health has been affected.
THE QUICK VERSION
Begin to develop appropriate strategies for a character pursuing a scenic objective
BEST TIME FOR THIS
During scene planning, writing, or revision
ONE OBJECTIVE, MULTIPLE STRATEGIES
Once you know a character's objective, conflict, and motivation for a scene, you are ready to explore the strategies that he or she will employ in this particular situation. The result is a dramatic action plan that the character may try to work out in advance but is mostly improvised as certain strategies fail or produce unexpected results. The need to keep revising the plan is fueled by the character's commitment to achieve the objective as well as any subconscious desires at work.
Because different strategies are usually needed to achieve an objective that is important and difficult, the "how" of action is dynamic: it keeps changing as the character is forced to manage the unexpected and try something new. One scenic objective, therefore, does not confine a character to one subject or one type of behavior. Instead, it can be the fountainhead for a complex variety of topics and actions. In the end, these changing strategies are the very stuff of the story itself: the behavior we observe and dialogue we hear.
For example, in scene r5 of The Elephant Man, a play by Bernard Pomer- ance later made into a film by David Lynch, Merrick-the physically disfigured title character-is visited by Ross, who once employed him in a sideshow. Since their last encounter, Merrick has become a celebrated figure in London and friend of the rich and famous, while Ross has sunk into oblivion. The main character of the scene is Ross. His objective is to strike up a new business relationship with Merrick. This will not be easy, however, since Ross has proven to be a despicable person who kept Merrick in a cage, treated him like an animal, and then robbed him and left him to die when the sideshow failed. What's at stake for Ross now is his own well-being.
This combination of elements produces a series of different strategies for Ross: he asks for Merrick's forgiveness, proposes the idea of being his manager with a io percent commission, tries to make Merrick feel sorry for him, goes back to selling the deal, offers to help Merrick find a prostitute, grovels in a more desperate attempt to win Merrick's sympathy, and finally offers to reduce the commission to 5 percent. Though his action plan fails, it creates a rich, multibeat scene that shows much about both characters and the different worlds they have come to inhabit.
Ross's action plan is unique to him but illustrates a structure that is typical in dramatic stories. The first action is what the character sees as either the least demanding or most timely step. For Ross, a desperate man who has behaved badly, the most timely step is to bridge the divide between Merrick and himself. Until Ross can put the past behind them, he will have no chance to even pitch his idea, let alone convince Merrick to accept it. Ross must begin by apologizing. This is also his easiest job in the scene, since his apology consists only of words, not real remorse, and since, as it turns out unexpectedly, Merrick has already forgiven him.
The second step of action is what the character perceives to be the next easiest or next most timely thing to do after the success or failure of the first step. For Ross, this means dropping the subject of the past and getting to the reason for his visit: the great deal he has to offer. This step is more difficult than the apology, because the stakes have gone up: this is something that Ross really cares about.
As Ross steps from trying to promote his business scheme, to admitting that he's old and sickly, to offering himself as a pimp, to confessing his fear of dying in the poorhouse, his strategies continue to become increasingly difficult. Each new step is a greater personal challenge with more at stake. By the time he reaches the final step-the offer to shrink his commission to 5 percent-he has exposed the full, humiliating truth about himself: he is not a shrewd businessman with a profitable deal but a lost soul willing to settle for any crumb that anyone will throw his way.
We learn a lot about characters by how they try to achieve their objectives: what strategies they choose and don't choose, how well they execute these strategies, how they manage the unexpected, and how they think and act under rising pressure. Ideally, if you give two characters the same objective and put them into the same situation, you will end up with two different action plans, because each will draw from-and reflect-a unique set of values, beliefs, and life experience. Think about what your character wants in the scene you are working on now. How will your character attempt to get that? What will this process reveal about him or her?
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
To do this exercise, you need to have made some basic choices about the main character of your scene. You should know this character's objective and motivation, and have a sense of the conflict that will make the objective difficult to achieve.
Use the following steps to brainstorm possible strategies your character might try in pursuit of the objective. It can be helpful to think about such strategies in advance, but don't plan them in too much detail or attempt to impose your plan on characters who don't want to cooperate after the scene has begun. If you make compelling new discoveries while writing the scene, trust your instinct and see where they lead you instead of forcing yourself to conform to a scenic plan.
As you step through the exercise, remember that a "beat" is a unit of dramatic action in a scene and that a change of beat often reflects a change of strategy. If you are not familiar with beats, see "Thinking in Beats" later in this guide.
YOUR CHARACTERS FIRST STRATEGY
I. Action. Start to think about how your character will try to achieve the scenic objective in this particular situation. To figure out the first step of action, you need to consider who the character is and what he or she would perceive as the least demanding or most timely thing to do here and now. Try to look beyond the generic to find a choice that says something telling about your character.
• Briefly identify the first strategy-for example, to patch things up by asking for forgiveness.
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What does this strategy reveal about your character?
• Can the first strategy be refined or revised to show something more interesting about your character? If so, how?
• Consider your character's unique perspective. What results would this character logically expect from taking this first action in this situation?
2. Reaction. Imagine different possible outcomes of the character's first step. A second strategy will be needed if either of the following happens:
• The first strategy succeeds but is not a final step in achieving the objective. There is more to do.
• The first strategy fails. If this is the case, identify at least one unexpected result of the strategy and why it occurred.
A second strategy is not needed if your character achieved the objective as a result of the first step. The scene is over and consists of only one beat. Choose the outcome that feels right for your scene and, if appropriate, begin to think about the next step of action.
YOUR CHARACTERS SECOND STRATEGY
I. Action. Your character's second strategy is what your character now sees as the least demanding or most timely step after the success or failure of the first step.
0 Briefly identify the second step of your character's action plan.
• How is this strategy different from the first strategy?
• For your unique character here and now, what makes the second step more challenging than the first step? How have the stakes gone up?
• What new information does the second strategy reveal about your character?
• Can the second strategy be refined or revised to show something more interesting about your character? If so, how?
• Consider your character's unique perspective. What results would this character logically expect from taking this second action in this situation?