How Does A Character's Stage of Life Impact Your Story?

What Stage of Life do you feel you’re currently in, and what kind of experience or situation could force you to change? You need to ask the same of your characters.

I had an idea that in order to help us understand how to finish a script, discussing the basic structure and make-up of the script could be the simplest way to launch this Substack. I have my own method of constructing a script – it’s kind of a birds-eye view approach, and then slowly I swoop down into the details as I go. I’m sure most of you have heard some of what I’ll be talking about in this post and in posts to come, but I feel the need to make a disclaimer before I start. A lot of what I’ll be touching upon will sound like formula, and sometimes formula can be considered a dirty word. It’s completely up to you as to whether or not you want to follow these suggestions and lessons. I really don’t care if you disagree with what is presented here, but I’ve found that if you can learn the formula and master your understanding of the formula, then you can alter it, play with it, and make it your own. Know it first, and then change it up to suit your own creative needs. 

It’s also important to point out that I’m not here to try and convince you that what I’m covering in this Substack is revelatory, groundbreaking, or even in the simplest of terms, new. There are hundreds of writing consultants out there who all teach relatively the same thing; how to write a screenplay. (And really, Joseph Campbell figured it all out well before any of us did.) But there is only one true way to write a screenplay. To sit your ass in a chair and write. But wouldn’t it be quite a bit easier if you knew what the hell you were doing before you started? 

So, to begin, let’s talk about structure. I break down a feature script into 12 sequences. If each sequence is roughly 10 pages long, then you’ll end up with a 120-page script. As you read through the forthcoming posts, you’ll hear me tell you that you should not write a 120-page script. Please don’t. The industry has changed considerably since the 80’s (and it’s mainly because attention spans, especially from young executives, has decreased…to put it lightly). Not every sequence is created equal in terms of length, so don’t worry about the page count. It’s more important to understand why a sequence exists and what each sequence’s purpose is in the overall story. If you’re writing a TV pilot, you’ll quite quickly realize that you can’t write ten pages per sequence – no one will read your pilot if it’s 120 pages long. Still, like I said before, and like I will say again, it is more important to understand what happens in the sequence and what purpose each sequence has in the make-up of your story. Let’s begin with Sequence 1: Main Character Stage of Life. 

 - Establish the Hero in her current state of affairs, but more importantly how she is reacting to and taking action within a very specific set of emotional, and possibly physical states that are either consciously or unconsciously holding back the Hero from living the best version of her life. In other words…show us who we’re dealing with outside of the plot. The 1st Sequence sets the stage for understanding how the character will act and react once they’re experiencing the situation of the 2nd Act. It allows the audience to settle into character first. The stakes will naturally feel higher once the full plot situation is introduced (with pursuit, goal, objectives, and plot stakes) because we will understand, first, what’s at stake personally for your character.

Your first sequence can be considered an “advertisement for the Main Character”. It presents the flaws of your main characters. You have likely heard the term ‘emotional flaw’, but just to be specific and clear, an emotional flaw is more than what is simply wrong or bad about your character. It should inherently create a sweet and sour attribute to your Hero. An example would be something like, “blindly ambitious”. We like it when people are ambitious. This could be considered a positive trait. But when someone is going at it “blind”, they are not considering others while being ambitious. This means that the audience can understand and relate to the Hero, but we also see how they’re kind of fucking up – they’re following their ambition with complete disregard for anyone else and how they might be affected. So we will see scenes and moments of this character that show them wanting something, striving for something, and why that something is so important to them. This is great! The audience can relate to that and will want to cheer the Hero on. But then we will also see scenes and moments with this character striving for that goal, but hurting someone while doing so. And this doesn’t necessarily need to be a physical hurt. It could be that he’s ignoring his wife and children, but not even realizing it. 

Within your first sequence, the character is set in her ways, and likely quite comfortable in those ‘ways’. She doesn’t believe anything is wrong, necessarily – at least not internally. Life is just life, and she’s dealing with it the only way she knows how. 

This is the first impression that the audience will have of your Hero. You’re setting the mood, the tone, and the type of story/film/TV show. Think of this sequence as the “Before” snapshot of your Hero – the person we’re about to follow for the next couple of hours. Consider having an “After” snapshot at the end of the story just to wrap things up in a nice little bow (if you so choose, of course). Sometimes brainstorming an opening image and an ending image can help you determine how far the Hero will go in his/her evolutionary process. How much will your character arc or change? 

Somewhere within the first five minutes or so of your movie there will be a question asked or something stated that shows theme. This is a hint as to the life the character is currently leading and how different the character’s life could be in the end. This is the so-called “entertaining argument”. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY has the perfect example – “Can men and women be friends without the sex getting in the way?” 

So let’s talk about that dirty and at times mystifying word, ‘theme’, for a second, because it’s one of the more difficult elements of a story to truly make clear without being cliché or obvious, or going the route of a Disney princess ending (not that I don’t like Disney princesses). A true theme should be a statement that helps you, the writer, derive active and memorable scenes and moments on screen. Don’t simply bank on some cliché of “love conquers all”. Lame. What does that even mean? If you dive deeper into that theme, you might find something more specific like, “In order to conquer Everest, a man must first conquer his own personal demons and love himself entirely.” Even that is kind of lame, but it at least offers something specific to not only your story (if you’re writing about mountain climbers), but also gives immediate sets of images that can produce moments and scenes that prove the theme.

 - So, ask the questions, “What do I want to say? How do I SHOW it?”

This first sequence is so incredibly important that most initial rewrites take place here. Where would the second most number of rewrites take place? In the middle of the 2nd Act because the middle of the 2nd Act is filled with scenes that challenge everything you have set up in the 1st Act. Those challenges are moments and scenes derived from the emotional flaw of your Main Character – the ways in which your Main Character was cemented in his ways, but now must climb out of that comfortable hole and expose himself. Take 40-YEAR- OLD VIRGIN as a perfect example. In the first few pages of that script, we’re seeing Steve Carrell as a shy loner who paints models and collects action figures, but even more so...he is socially inept. These are active moments that prove what? He has zero self-confidence when it comes to romantic emotions, and the idea of sex terrifies him because of it. All of the scenes and moments where we see him painting his models and being a so-called nerd are merely examples of what’s going on inside of him. Letting the audience use those images as examples of what might be wrong with the character is much more powerful than stating what’s wrong with him or her. The first sequence is all about visuals, imagery, and the occasional line of dialogue that states voice, tone, and the upcoming theme of the adventure, even though we don’t yet know (within the first 10 pages) exactly what that adventure will be or look like.

I know where some of you are going with this. What about the inciting incident? What if I’m writing an action/adventure with a huge story or mystery or plot? I get it. The Denzel Washington movie, DÉJÀ VU, is a good example of how the inciting incident happens immediately, propels the action and story along right away, and gets the audience thinking along the lines of “ooh, I wonder what is going to happen”. This is totally fine and, for certain genres, it’s necessary. But if you’ve seen that movie and remember what happens next, you’ll see that we’re immediately introduced to Denzel Washington’s character after the initial inciting incident; who that character is, how he’s living his family life, and what emotional issues he might or might not have. We get SOME of the plot out of the way, but then instill the more important element – character. Character will always, always, always drive plot.

 - Please don’t rely on plot to drive character. It is the personal stakes of the main character that cause the plot to feel more situational and more challenging.

You may not all agree with me and that’s perfectly fine, but, in my experience, any script (I’m not talking about a finished film), but any script that focuses more on the character and emotional journey, regardless of genre, will become a more rewarding read for the reader. And that is who we are focusing on right now. The readers. Not necessarily the viewers. This could be a whole other topic of discussion, but we have to remember that before a film can be produced and placed on screen, the script needs to go through a torrent and obstacle course of readers. It’s just the way it is (unless you’re Spielberg or Scorcese, but even they have a team of people giving notes on the scripts). 

Just as a basic summary of the first sequence, titled “Main Character Stage of Life, these are the elements we can brainstorm to get the most out of those first 8 to 10 pages:

 - Show the reader the Main Character Stage of Life by presenting them being on the verge of something (about to graduate, just divorced, fired, about to turn 16), Arena (the world they live in). Show Flaws, Traits, Personality, Beliefs, Personal Desires, Living in Their Normal World. There is an emphasis on an unconscious emotional "want", motivation, and/or intention.

As this Substack progresses, you will notice that I like to add a little “quote of the day” at the end. This is merely to keep you inspired and to allow for some of the world’s masters and literary geniuses to remind us why we are doing what we’re doing. I also try and pick quotes that match the theme of the particular post. Read on and enjoy. There is a lot more to discuss. 

Quote of the day: This quote is from the wonderfully ironic and pure genius of Mark Twain. His Tom Sawyer was the first true adventure book I ever read, and I owe just about all of my early storytelling and imagination to that man. So here it is:

 - The two most important days of your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why.

For your own Main Character, and in the first sequence of your story, he/she is being presented to the audience by way of showing how much she still has yet to learn (only she doesn’t know it yet). In other words, this adventure she is about to go on will likely help her figure out the “why” she is here at all. 

So off you go. I hope these newsletters can help you on your journey toward discovering your own personal “why”.  What Stage of Life do you feel you’re in, and what kind of experience or situation could force you to change?

I would love to hear your thoughts on structure and what templates, if any, you use.

And if you haven’t yet…

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