What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

[flightspace]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

This is cool. I like the idea of having a distinctive character in the background, inactive at first, who ultimately becomes a huge part of the story.

Reminds me of the Hitchcock "gun in the first act" principle. You use that character later and people say, "Holy ****, that guy! I almost forgot about that guy!"

You're thinking of Anton Chekhov. Hitchcock was all about the Macguffins.

[Crayon]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

April Rains - an 8-year-old abuse victim who, with ruthless ingenuity, wreaks utter vengeance to keep herself safe harm.

I created her for the April Fool's short script contest here on the DDP forum, and I'm considering expanding her story into a feature length script.

[Jimmy]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

i think it was an old man. when i began writing the story he was a loafer in a shop in a small southern town. sat in a hard chair in a corner all day, didn't say a peep to anyone, ate the lunch the shop owner bought him from tastee freeze at noon, got a ride back to his small cinderblock house in the evening. but as the story really got going, as a character he became more and more interesting, and important. remember writing early on that he kept his top shirt button buttoned, even when it was really hot. i did not know why then. when writing the end of the story, i learned he did it to cover the scar on his neck from a rope that was put around it when he was a younger man. was an interesting character to learn to know.

This is cool. I like the idea of having a distinctive character in the background, inactive at first, who ultimately becomes a huge part of the story.

Reminds me of the Hitchcock "gun in the first act" principle. You use that character later and people say, "Holy ****, that guy! I almost forgot about that guy!"

[Jimmy]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

Hayworth Hill, the protag of my action/comedy feature.

A trailer trash alcoholic who on the surface level, seems unchanged by the increasingly insane events of the story.

He's "himself" all the way through, his "ego" remains but his actions take a turn that suggests his subconscious has been fundamentally rewired by everything he's experienced.

That, and he makes me laugh out loud more than any other character I've written.

Wish I could get a read from Danny McBride's people, I basically wrote with him in mind as a writing tool, but now I can't see Hayworth as any one else.

[flightspace]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

I enjoyed writing my villain too. I based her off this evil bitch I unfortunately know in real life. Master manipulator indeed! You don't want to be her friend or her enemy. She has a personality of an 11 year old narcissist on her worst period, and that's being kind. Hiring people to murder children doesn't phase her, and she cheats on her husband for 18 months...with his sister's husband, who also happens to be her son's Godfather. She has a third child just to collect a heftier child support check should her husband divorce her, which he inevitably does, and she hasn't the time of day for her kids because she's too busy snorting coke and staring lovingly at herself in her skinny mirror, trying to convince herself that she is way hotter than the protagonist.

My protagonist is a badass. She takes the very things that were meant to destroy her and makes her dreams come true, while teaching her many enemies a lesson in respect without having to resort to using violence. All in one seamless, classy fell swoop.

I really like that. I think its pretty fun to turn that whole dynamic on its head and make those kind of characters the protagonists, or even do some like, reverse character development where a person starts a movie a hero and turns into an absolute bastard. I'm actually writing a story right now where one of the protagonists is basically this bubbly super friendly but unhinged lunatic who delights in ponies, rainbows, and murdering people. I just realized i'm totally underutilizing her and i thought to get inspiration i might ask if anyone has seen stories involving really bubbly innocent girls that are secretly completely psychotic under their adorable unsuspecting exterior? I didn't want to make a new thread for that and you guys sound like the right people to ask.

[AnconRanger]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

i think it was an old man. when i began writing the story he was a loafer in a shop in a small southern town. sat in a hard chair in a corner all day, didn't say a peep to anyone, ate the lunch the shop owner bought him from tastee freeze at noon, got a ride back to his small cinderblock house in the evening. but as the story really got going, as a character he became more and more interesting, and important. remember writing early on that he kept his top shirt button buttoned, even when it was really hot. i did not know why then. when writing the end of the story, i learned he did it to cover the scar on his neck from a rope that was put around it when he was a younger man. was an interesting character to learn to know.

[Danigirl]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

My favourite was and still is my first true character. A master manipulator, contradictory, warped, ruthless but with an air of tragedy that gave him his greatest quality; Humanity. Villains are just more fun to write and I enjoyed writing him so much because I could totally sympathise with him. He was what I could become after a few really bad days. I've had plenty of hokey, paper thin characters but the genuine ones stick with me.

I enjoyed writing my villain too. I based her on this evil bitch I unfortunately know in real life. Master manipulator indeed! You don't want to be her friend or her enemy. She has a personality of an 11 year old narcissist on her worst period, and that's being kind. Hiring people to murder children doesn't phase her, and she cheats on her husband for 18 months...with his sister's husband, who also happens to be her son's Godfather. She has a third child just to collect a heftier child support check should her husband divorce her, which he inevitably does, and she hasn't the time of day for her kids because she's too busy snorting coke and staring lovingly at herself in her skinny mirror, trying to convince herself that she is way hotter than the protagonist.

My protagonist is a badass. She takes the very things that were meant to destroy her and makes her dreams come true, while teaching her many enemies a lesson in respect without having to resort to using violence. All in one seamless, classy fell swoop.

[flightspace]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

My favourite was and still is my first true character. A master manipulator, contradictory, warped, ruthless but with an air of tragedy that gave him his greatest quality; Humanity. Villains are just more fun to write and I enjoyed writing him so much because I could totally sympathise with him. He was what I could become after a few really bad days. I've had plenty of hokey, paper thin characters but the genuine ones stick with me.

Right?? I just started watching house of cards, and i am like, obsessed with the idea of a show that explores that kind of shameless exploitation, unchecked aspiration. I'm writing a series right now that is basically about all the little dark spots of greek mythology everyone skips over. How apollo was a rapist, heracles murdered his family, how the cult of bacchus was involved with political assassinations and basically drowned out these brutal gang rapes with the sounds of drunken cheering. I think that people love to hear about heroes as a sort of wishful thinking, but ultimately its far less believable to them than the dregs of humanity they are intimately familiar with.

[flightspace]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

Dietrich in HARD EVIDENCE (which may be my avatar here, it's been a while since I looked). I wanted to write a completely unpredictable character who did not react to anything the way you might expect. He might slap you for no reason at all. He might laugh when you punch him. He might dance in the middle of an action scene. I wanted someone so unpredictable that he was frightening - he could kill the hero without warning. Wrote the character, thought they were the most fun thing in the screenplay....

And then the script was sold as a USA Network movie. Figured they'd turn the character into some stock TV role, but they cast Colin Cunningham who just nailed the part. It was still a stupid MOW, but great to see the character I wrote on screen.

- Bill

I really like that kind of idea. Like a sort of willful **** you to anyone who would try to analyze your behavior to their own ends. I feel like most people fall into a sort of pattern of predictable reactions so even when they are shaped by their experiences, they're shaped in predictable ways. There is actually a scientist i can't think of that i really wish i could remember who basically proved that people literally have to train themselves to break certain fractal patterns that are engrained in their psyche from birth. People tend to think of themselves and their choices as unique but theres only a small percentage of the population that is even capable of doing so. And when it happens, it is extremely disruptive.

I think there are very many people in our society who would frankly be surprised at which role they would play were another nazi germany to happen in our own culture. I've always been fascinated with what makes the difference between prisoner 147 and all the rest who took part in the stanford prisoner experiment. Ultimately its the difference between having a choice and actually using it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=760lwYmpXbc

[hscope]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

The 'husband' in a raw, honest and confronting short film I wrote with a friend. The character goes through a severe mental meltdown and he was based on people we knew and also on an exploration of our own thoughts and fears about marriage and responsibility.

We were fortunate to get a very good actor who nailed the part and the icing on the cake was when the head of one of the biggest mental health organisations in Australia told us we got it 'spot on."

[wcmartell]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

Dietrich in HARD EVIDENCE (which may be my avatar here, it's been a while since I looked). I wanted to write a completely unpredictable character who did not react to anything the way you might expect. He might slap you for no reason at all. He might laugh when you punch him. He might dance in the middle of an action scene. I wanted someone so unpredictable that he was frightening - he could kill the hero without warning. Wrote the character, thought they were the most fun thing in the screenplay....

And then the script was sold as a USA Network movie. Figured they'd turn the character into some stock TV role, but they cast Colin Cunningham who just nailed the part. It was still a stupid MOW, but great to see the character I wrote on screen.

- Bill

[SBdeb]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

I'm a freakishly optimistic person, so my best character was my opposite-- negative, dark, hopeless. I loved thinking about why someone might be of that persuasion.

Writing for this character was a great exercise in taking off my "rose colored glasses" and walking around in someone else's shoes.

I liked finding this character because I realized that along with their darkness, the character was a survivor, a fighter. Being dark made them somehow stronger, more interesting than I might have assumed.

[Mpimentel]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

You know when you see a beautiful, wonderful girl with a husband who mistreats her? You might think: "Man, i would worship the ground she walked on if she were mine, she should be with me." I wrote that character.

A man who tries too hard to grasp onto something that is not his, and keeps making it worse by doing so. His motives are simple, he feels he can love these people better, and does not want to be alone, but what he does to keep them around is very psychotic.

I really liked that character, because it's an extension of that part of me... I'm single, so if I'm really taken by a girl, in my head I cannot compute why she would not want to be with a guy that's going to treat her right, aka me (in my head). So instead of just being me, it's like I lose control of myself and end up pushing too hard and mess it up. So I like that guy because I understand him... Minus the psychotic part.

[TheConnorNoden]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

My favourite was and still is my first true character. A master manipulator, contradictory, warped, ruthless but with an air of tragedy that gave him his greatest quality; Humanity. Villains are just more fun to write and I enjoyed writing him so much because I could totally sympathise with him. He was what I could become after a few really bad days. I've had plenty of hokey, paper thin characters but the genuine ones stick with me.

[Joaneasley]

Re: What is the best character you ever wrote and why?

I've been watching this question go unanswered. I know I didn't answer it because I've written a lot of characters and I couldn't say which was best. I'm very fond of plenty of them, but each one has to be the right character for a particular story and the journey it entails.