UFTS: Step 3

3. Protagonist

I'm pretty sure that after I get my Concept and Thematic Arguement, the next absolutely essential step will be this one.

And according the Karl Iglesias -- who interviewed A BUNCH of successful screenwriters for his first book THE 101 HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL SCREENWRITERS -- discovered that many of those highly successful screenwriters ask themselves 5 questions to get to the essence of their Protagonist.

1. Who is my main character?
Now, this question is much more complex than it seems. Iglesias breaks it down to the following 4 sub-questions:

a. Type - Is my Protagonist a Hero type, an Average Joe, an Underdog or a Lost Soul?

b. Traits - Iglesias emphasizes the fact that all-good or all-bad is boring, as is a character with only a few traits. I'm thinking the key may be to come up with maybe 5 traits each in the following catagories: Emotional, Psychological, Intellectual. And of those traits I want to make sure that those traits are a mix between positive, nuetral, and negative traits. [I'm not trying to be lazy with the traits; in the past I've bogged characters down so much with traits that I didn't really have a sense of who they were. But I may up the number in the future if this guestimation turns out to be stingy.]

c. Values - Here I want to make sure that my Protagonist has a strong point of view and real beliefs. And I want to keep Joss Whedon's characters in mind, as well: Whedon characters can be sociopathic without being inhuman, or even immoral. Deep emotional wounds don't have to immobilize a person, and can give them a depth that makes them interesting to be around.

d. Flaws - This goes along with the above. Iglesias reminds us that we love flawed family members and friends, so there's no reason my Protagonist has to be perfect. In fact sometimes the flaws accentuate the strengths, or at least make them more interesting.

2. What does she want?
Keep in mind this needs to be visual.

Robert McKee defines story as the gap in between a character wanting something and taking action to get it, and the character either definitively and irreversably getting it or not getting it. So my Protagonist needs to really, really want this visual thing in order for the story to be exciting.

3. Why does she want it?
McKee also points out that we, humans, tend to excert the LEAST amount of energy to attain a goal. So to get my Protagonist to jump from rooftop to rooftop or dodge whizzing bullets or whatever I'm going to be putting her through, that character has to believe that attaining this goal will make her life better in some way.

In what way is the Goal going to make my Protagonist's life better? Or at least, in what way does she THINK attaining the Goal will make her life better?

Several screenwriting gurus point out that in the best stories, the Goal isn't going to better the Protagonist's life the way she thinks it will! And as she's out questing after her own personal Holy grail, she stumbles across what she REALLY needs to fix her life.

So what does she REALLY need?

And is there any way to put what she needs in conflict with what she wants? 'Cause that produceses a really, really good Act III!!! McKee says that a choice between a positive outcome and a negative outcome is no choice. But a choice between two equally positive outcomes, or two equally negative outcomes IS a COMPELLING choice!

So if I can make my Protagonist choose between what she WANTS and what she NEEDS, I have a compelling and hard-to-predict story!

4. What happens if she fails?
One method I've heard or read about to help this process is to make a list of everything it truly important to my Protagonist. Then figure out (a) how much of it is jeopardized by her not attaining the Goal, and (b) how I can put the rest of it at risk.

The stakes have to be raised at the story progresses, and one way to raise those stakes is to take more and more away from my protagonist as the story prgresses, meaning that she HAS TO succeed or else she looses EVERYTHING.

Also, I should keep in mind my stakes as I'm actually writing the story. If my audience isn't clear about or forgets about what's at stake, the story just isn't that exciting for them.

5. How does she change?
John Truby suggests that Protagonists begin the movie with a moral flaw. At the beginning og the movie, my Protagonist IS hurting someone else in some way. Maybe they don't realize it, they most likely aren't doing it intentionally. But when the movie begins they are in the process of hurting someone else in some way, and it's part of their Need -- the think they need to learn in order to live a more fulfilling life.

A good Protagonist deals with life -- as we, real people do -- on several levels. What does my Protagonist WANT TO change about her home life? Her personal life? Her work life? Her place in society in general? And what does she NEED to change about her home life? Her personal life? Her work life? Her place in society in general?

Finally, what are the best ways to SHOW (NOT tell) this change taking place?
___

There it is. Step 3. I figure out all this information and (theoretically) I've got a character that's interesting enough to have her own story.

Plus, I feel comfortable with the probability that this is the inevitable next step, because any futre steps are going to deal with structure stuff, and I won't be able to answer them until I know all this stuff.