How do you do characters note?

[diego80]

hello everybody:

I had taken the decision of giving up those books about screenwriting (which mainly focus on structure issues) and starting writing my script.

after a few pages, I felt like something more was necessary on the character side,
so I came back to those books,characters-building centered this time:

-linda seger, which is unbeliveably boring and another by rib davis

--btw such books share in may opinion a basical fault: they don't dare leaning towards a personal view of the matter (as blake snyder did for instance accounting on his personal experience): they expose a commented list of things they have come across along their personal experience, but rarely say something new and peculiar --

the basic felling is that on the one hand I would like to write but, on the other hand, I fell still not ready and unprepared for the task, because I fear I might only depict shallow characters and rather plain situations and conflicts.


you could tell: well, write and dare make some mistake! that's the only way to start: true: but I don't have all this time for writing during the week and know that it will be hard for me to rewrite over my script a second time for radical changes ..

what do you suggest?
what is your exeperience?
do you use to do character notes

how sharply were your characters traited before you started writing? as deeply as te stoty was?

[emily blake]

Just write. There's only so much you can read before you have to start getting into it. Of course it won't be perfect. It will probably be terrible.

This first script is for you to learn with. Go ahead and tell yourself it will suck and you will not sell it, but you will learn how to write with it. If you can do that, you'll have fun and learn.

[Todd Karate]

No matter how well I know my characters beforehand, they always change after I've started writing.

On most of the things I've written, somewhere in the middle of the second act my protag does something and I stop and stare for a minute, then think "Oh, ****. THAT'S who this guy is." Then I need to go back through the script and weave that in...

So I agree with Emily: just write.

[F.Scott.Frazier]

No matter how well I know my characters beforehand, they always change after I've started writing.

On most of the things I've written, somewhere in the middle of the second act my protag does something and I stop and stare for a minute, then think "Oh, ****. THAT'S who this guy is." Then I need to go back through the script and weave that in...

Absolutely. This happens to me so often, it sometimes scares me. When I go into a first draft, I'll know basic stuff about my characters (age, job, disposition, what they love, what they hate) and just start writing. Interesting, "deep" characters slowly emerge through action and dialogue over the course of many drafts.

And I'll say it again, because it is the most important: just write.

[carcar]

Oh, and then rewrite.

[Patrick Sweeney]

Often in writing a first draft a character will just pop out with something that I don't have planned. I always keep these, even if I have no idea where it's going or how I'm going to come back to it later in the story. It almost always works out in the end.

[wcmartell]

You may be putting too much pressure on this script - it's just a bunch of typing. It's a rough draft. You will fix any mistakes later - you don't need to fix them in advance.

So - what Emily and carcar said: write, then rewrite. Fix the flaws later.

First drafts don't have to be good, they just have to be finished.

- Bill

[diego80]

thansk very much for your answer

as soon as I can I'll manage for a complete answer

what I can say now is that, according to my character and sensibility,

starting to write without a sharp set of ideas in mind would be equal to a lack

of craft, professionality..

I 'll take your advice anyway and start writing


thanks