by Will Dunne
i. Demographics, or basic identifying facts about the character, such as name, age, gender, and address. If the story spans many years, or if the character has a sex change or moves to a new location, you might have a level 3 change in this category. Otherwise, you are more likely to be at or close to o. Compare the After to the Before. Rate the demographic transition and give an example of how the character has or hasn't changed. For example, if there is o change, the key fact might be "He never left New Jersey." If there is a level 3 change, the character may have gone from "living in New Jersey" to "living on Mars."
2. Physicality, or health, genetics, appearance, body type, or anything else biological about the character. Compare the After to the Before. How much has your character changed physically by the end of the story? Rate the change in this category and give an example.
3. Sociology, or your character's traits in relationship to individuals, groups, and institutions. This category includes the family, friends, community, and society at large. For the purposes of this exercise, it excludes romantic relationships, which will be looked at separately. Compare the After to the Before. Rate the change in this category and give an example.
4. Romance, or your character's love life, sex life, and related traits, qualities, and behaviors. Compare the After to the Before. How much has the character changed romantically? Rate the change and give an example.
5. Career, or your character's work habits, job status, professional reputation, or anything else related to job or career. How much has the character changed professionally? Rate the change and give an example.
6. Economics, or your character's relationship to money, the status of his or her financial assets, or anything else economic in nature. How much has the character changed economically? Rate the change and give an example.
7. Politics, or your character's political beliefs, relationship to political movements, and traits or behaviors in power-oriented situations. How much has your character changed politically? Rate the change and give an example.
8. Morality, or your character's sense of right and wrong, value system, and ethical standards as well as innocence or corruption. How much has your character changed morally or ethically? Rate the change and give an example.
9. Psychology, or your character's inner world, mental health, fears and complexes, strengths and weaknesses. How much has your character changed psychologically? Rate the change and give an example.
io. Spirituality, or your character's beliefs in God or other higher powers, the afterlife, and organized religion. How much has your character changed spiritually? Rate the change and give an example.
HOW THE CHARACTER HAS CHANGED AND NOT CHANGED
Use what you have learned so far in this exercise to answer these questions:
i. Key Change That Occurs. Think about your character's most defining traits and qualities. These are what make your character unique. Some are positive, some negative. Some are changed by story events, some not changed. When all is said and done, what is the most significant character trait, quality, or condition that is transformed by the dramatic journey? This is one big positive or negative change that unfolds step by step through the story. Briefly identify the Before and After of this change-for example, the character changes from being dishonest to honest, or vice versa.
2. Key Change That Almost Occurs But Doesn't. Think again about your character's defining attributes. What is the most significant trait, quality, or condition that is nearly changed-it is seriously tested, threatened, or challenged during the story-but survives intact in the end? For example, the character's fidelity to a romantic partner is almost undone but saved at the last minute.
3. Key Constant. Among your character's traits, some are so fundamental, so set in stone, and so much a part of his or her identity, that they simply cannot be changed. Whether strengths or weaknesses, they are at the unshakeable core of who your character is. Despite whatever opportunities or problems arise, what significant trait, quality, or condition of your character is least resistant to change? For example, the character is an unswerving optimist, no matter what.
WRAP-UP
By exploring the Before and After of your character, first broadly and then in detail, you may better understand the dramatic journey and what it needs to accomplish. Your answers in the last part of the exercise suggest the big picture of this journey and its impact on the character. As you continue to work on your story, be sure to keep in mind the most significant change that your character will experience, the most significant trait that will be shaken but not changed, and the most significant trait that will defy all challenges.
THE QUICK VERSION
Work within limits to explore key story events
BEST TIME FOR THIS
After you have completed a draft or are well into the story
STORY AS ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER
Story is the chain of events that occurs when a character sets out to achieve an important but almost unreachable goal. These events come in different sizes and shapes and may be positive or negative in nature. Each changes the world of the story in an important way. Events may center on a discovery, revelation, decision, or action. Some are successes that move the character closer to the goal. Some are failures that push the character away. In most dramatic stories, most events are caused by the main character in pursuit of the goal. Inevitably, however, some events are caused by outside forces beyond the character's control.
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
While all of the events of the dramatic journey maybe important, some are more important than others. This focusing exercise asks you to look at your story from different angles, find some of the events that matter most, and identify each in twelve words or fewer. This word limit is designed to help you simplify and prioritize your story ideas. Use either your main character or a principle character as a focal point for your responses. As you do this, interpret qualitative terms such as "positive" and "negative" any way you wish, and remember that their meaning is relative to your unique character.
WHAT IS YOUR TWELVE-WORD SOLUTION?
I. Positive discovery. Think about the good things that your character learns during the course of the story. These may be self-realizations or insights about other characters, humanity in general, current events, the world, the universe, or beyond. Whether these discoveries are by design or by chance, and whether they actually prove to be good or bad in the long run, they seem positive to your character at the time. For example, the discovery might be: the test results were wrong and he is actually in excellent health. What is the most positive thing that your character discovers during the story?
2. Negative discovery. Focus on the bad things your character learns. As before, these may be self-realizations or insights about other characters, humanity in general, current events, the world, the universe, or beyond. Whether these discoveries are by design or by chance, and whether they actually prove to be good or bad in the long run, they seem negative to your character at the time. For example, the discovery might be: her husband has been having an affair with her sister for years. What is the most negative thing that your character discovers?
3. Positive revelation. Think about the different types of good news that your character delivers to others: positive or helpful information related to this character, other characters, or the world of the story. Regardless of what others think, and whether or not this news proves to be good in the long run, your character sees it as positive at the time. For example, the revelation might be: she's madly in love with him and wants to get married now. What is the most important positive thing your character reveals to one or more other characters?
4. Negative revelation. Some of your character's revelations may be bad news: negative or harmful information about this character, other characters, or the world of the story. Regardless of what others think, and whether or not this news proves to be bad in the long run, your character sees it as negative at the time. For example, the revelati
on might be a confession: he has been embezzling money from the company every month for years. What is the most negative thing that your character reveals to one or more other characters?
5. Decision to begin. Consider the decisions your character makes to initiate new courses of action or new ways of being. These "decisions to begin" suggest movement toward something: a pursuit of good or what is perceived to be good at the time. For example, the decision might be: she will throw her hat into the ring and run for mayor. What is the most important "decision to begin" that your character makes?
6. Decision to end. Now consider the decisions that your character makes to stop doing or being something. These "decisions to end" suggest a movement away from something: a retreat from what is bad or perceived to be bad at the time. For example, the decision might be: he's the worst and unhappiest salesman in the office and he quits. What is the most important "decision to end" that your character makes?
7. Earned success. Keep your character's strengths in mind and think about the accomplishments that he or she achieves through good decisions or right action. For example, she finally convinces her son to enter rehab and get off drugs. What is the most important success that your character achieves during the story?
8. Given success. Now think about good things that happen to your character: boons or blessings caused by outside forces, such as other people, fate, accident, higher powers, or perhaps good luck. For example, he finds bags of cash in the back seat of his cab. What is the most important success that your character enjoys but didn't actually earn?
9. Caused failure. Keep your character's weaknesses in mind and think about the times that these shortcomings prevent your character from achieving an important goal. These are failures due to bad decisions or wrong action. For example, she's so unprepared for final exams that she ends up not graduating. What is the most important failure that your character causes?
io. Given failure. Now think about the bad things that happen to your character due to outside forces, such as other people, fate, accident, higher powers, or perhaps bad luck. For example, his house is struck by lightning and burns down to the ground. What is the most important failure that your character suffers but didn't directly cause?
WRAP-UP
Working within a word limit, you have now identified some key events of your story: discoveries, revelations, decisions, successes, and failures that matter most. How well have you shown the importance of these events in your script? Have you devoted enough time to them? Are any lesser events stealing focus? How clearly have you shown the impact of each key event on the dramatic journey? You might wish to return to this exercise periodically to see how your twelve-word solutions change as your understanding of your characters and story grows.
THE QUICK VERSION
Clarify your understanding of the main event of the story
BEST TIME FOR THIS
After you have completed a draft or are well into the story
A BIG, OBSERVABLE ACTION SHAPED BY POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FORCES
Regardless of the number of characters, the complications of plot and subplot, and the complexity of ideas and emotions, most dramatic stories can be boiled down to one main event through which all else is revealed. Whether it centers on adapting a book about orchids into a screenplay (Adaptation), saving a marriage on the verge of destruction (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), or saving a whole family on the verge of destruction (Long Day's Journey into Night), this main event unfolds in front of us as a big, observable action shaped by both positive and negative forces.
"Big" here means that what happens overall is of vital importance to the characters and hopefully the audience. It is not an everyday trivial event. Nor is it something sort of interesting that happened. Rather, it is the kind of event we find at the edges of human experience: a major turning point which, scene by scene, strips away the main character's superficialities, reveals who the character really is, and typically changes the character in a fundamental way.
"Observable" means that the action can literally be seen. Internal states are implied by external actions, particularly interpersonal actions: how one character tries to affect another here and now. When writing for the page, you may explain that a man is unhappy because he suspects that his wife has been having an affair. When writing for stage or screen, you need to translate such knowledge into dramatic action that we can watch-for example, a man playing a cat-and-mouse game with his wife in order to trap her in a lie, as in the opening scene of The Real Thing.
The term "action" means that the focus is on what the characters do more than what they say. Since some characters may be intentionally misleading or unintentionally misinformed, the words we hear are not always reliable. To learn the truth about what's really going on, we look instinctively through the dialogue to the behavior of the speaker, especially when that behavior contradicts the dialogue. In the film Gaslight, originally the play Angel Street, for example, a husband says he loves his wife, but actually plots to destroy her. His actions speak louder than his words.
The main event is driven by something "positive." This suggests character objective: a quest to attain something important that the character sees as good-for example, to make a difference in the world before you die (About Schmidt). The main event is also shaped by something "negative." This suggests conflict: the forces of antagonism that rise up to thwart the quest and create a central problem-for example how to overcome the failures and trappings of the past (About Schmidt).
In stories with a single protagonist, the main character and main event are inseparable: they define each other. In stories with more than one protagonist, the same principles tend to apply-the main event is a big, observable action shaped by positive and negative forces-but there are variations on this theme. In The Hours, for example, we are presented with three stories, each with its own main character and main event. These stories reflect and inform one another. In films like Go!, Magnolia, and Five Corners, and plays like The Hot L Baltimore and Waiting for Lefty, the "main character" is not an individual but a group of individuals whose lives intersect through a main event that affects them in different ways.
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
Use this exercise during the revision process to explore the main event of your story and sharpen its dramatic focus. Exercise examples are from the Roman Polanski film The Pianist written by Wladyslaw Szpilman and Ronald Harwood.
THE MAIN EVENT OF YOUR STORY
I. The main character of The Pianist is Wladyslaw Szpilman. Who is the main character of your story?
2. In The Pianist, a Jewish composer and pianist during World War II survives the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. In one sentence, what is the main event of your story?
3. The main event of The Pianist is triggered by an explosion: Nazi artillery blows up the radio station in Warsaw where Wladyslaw is playing the piano on the air. What triggers the main event of your story?
4. As a result of the inciting incident, Wladyslaw realizes that his life is in danger and that he needs to protect himself. This arouses an objective-to survive-that drives the main event of the story. What story objective is aroused in your main character as a result of the inciting incident?
5. The central problem in The Pianist is the lethal Nazi hatred of Jews combined with the Nazi power that has been gained from occupying Warsaw. In your story, what central problem must be resolved to achieve the story objective?
6. What is at stake for Wladyslaw is life-not just his own life, but also that of the Jewish people. What is most at stake for your character?
7. As the main event of The Pianist unfolds, Wladyslaw experiences a number of turning points that each change the direction of his journey. For example:
• The Nazis force his family to leave their apartment and move into a controlled ghetto.
• An ally on the Jewish ghetto police force saves Wladyslaw from deportation to a concentration camp.
• A German woman who was a fan of his music h
elps him escape to a safe house outside the walls of the ghetto.
• A German officer who has discovered his hiding spot spares his life after hearing him play the piano.
• The Allied troops arrive and defeat the Nazis.
In your story, after the inciting incident, what are some of the major turningpoint events that set your character's dramatic journey into new directions? Identify at least three important examples.
8. Wladyslaw does many different things in order to survive. For example:
• He allows his family to sell his piano in order to buy food.
• He asks for help from a German woman who was his fan.
• He hides in a safe house and waits patiently for food that sometimes doesn't come for days or weeks.
• He restrains himself from playing a piano in his hideout for fear that his presence will be detected.
• He plays the piano in his imagination and fingers the air as if it were a keyboard.
Think about what your character does-not what your character saysduring the story. Some of these actions are critical to the quest and reveal important information about the character. Identify at least three important examples.
9. In The Pianist, Wladyslaw is pushed to the limits of human endurance. He must hide in freezing cold, fight illness alone, struggle to get food out of a tin can, and bury himself away from everything he has ever known-all in order to survive. This journey reveals his emotional strength, patience, creativity, and resourcefulness. And it ends as it began-with Wladyslaw playing the piano. However, this is not the same man we first saw. He has become a survivor with a knowledge of himself and his world that he had no need to possess before.
Think about the main event of your story, what this dramatic journey reveals about your character, and how your character changes as a result of what happens. Give at least two examples of what is revealed about your character during the story, and then give at least one example of how your character has been affected by story events.