Writing Characters That FASCINATE – The Ultimate PDF Guide

The key is writing characters that – crucially – fascinate

 

Writing great, multi-dimensional characters is one of the hardest – and most important – facets to successful screenwriting.

The Holy Grail of characterization – beyond writing empathetic characters, or entertaining characters, or even original characters – is writing fascinating characters. When one examines lists of the greatest TV and film characters, those that fascinate are very well represented indeed.

Writing characters that fascinate the script reader, is your fastest route to screenwriting nirvana…

writing characters

In the 2nd instalment (click here for the first) of our ULTIMATE Screenwriting E-Book series, we dive into the deep, dark depths of character, and the psychology of fascination.

Read on for an excerpt and download the full, FREE 40-page investigation by clicking one of the links below.

Read on for an exclusive excerpt from guide OR…

DOWNLOAD the full 40-page E-Book below…

 

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eBook Excerpt…

 

“Everything changes. There’s a deep irony at the very heart of truly fascinating characters. Culturally, especially in the post-modern world, stasis is seen as boring. We are all continuously told that in story, characters must arc.

They must change.

Change is good, right?

Change means lessons learned, relationships healed, redemption gained. But here’s a perverse fact: change is ordinary. It’s the rule, not the exception.

The philosopher Heraclitus summed it up best in two words of Ancient Greek: “panta rhei” – everything changes. So, counter-intuitively, it’s actually change that is boring, whether it’s for good or bad.

To be genuinely interesting, to swim against the tide, to fascinate, a character needs either to:

  • stay exactly the same, or (the main exception)
  • become the character who does not change (the origin story, which means we must either already know, or be confident that we’re going to get to see, what they “become”).

Our lives of quiet, or in the post-Internet world, broadcast desperation (and because everyone is broadcasting their desperation the net effect is the same) are also lives of continuous compromise. And compromise is change.

For most of us, existence is merely death by a thousand compromises. The end of Vic Mackey’s story perfectly articulates (and symbolically embodies) this contradiction. Over seven seasons of THE SHIELD, Vic doesn’t change at all.

At the end of the show’s final season (once the rest of the Strike Team have already by turns been murdered, arrested and suicid-ed) he is forced to work and live in desperation, just like the rest of us. It’s the perfect ending for the psychopath cop who applied his personal brand of morality to everyone but himself.

All characters that fascinate have one core attribute in common: they refuse to compromise.

Whether they are making or dealing drugs, building an empire, “protecting” their family or killing murderers, characters that truly fascinate either refuse to change, or are simply unable to.

Changing would mean giving-up, acquiescing, surrendering, throwing-in the towel. These characters are only stopped by death (though often they aren’t stopped by death either). Fascinating characters are on a mission and nothing can be allowed to stand in their way.

Why can’t they change and still reach their goal?

Because their psychology is what drives them toward that goal.

As soon as they change, the drive would disappear.

writing characters that fascinate - gustavo fring

Indeed, the controlling idea of complex characters that fascinate could be rendered as: someone wants something, won’t stop till they get it, will defeat all obstacles in their way and even then will still want more.

There is an important distinction to make between film and TV narratives.

Within a feature narrative – even if it’s episodic and runs for three hours – any genuine change by an uncompromising character can undercut their monomania (and even with films that cover decades of a character’s life, this rule still applies because for the audience the time span of their narrative engagement is still three hours).

In long-form television, it is possible for a monomaniacal character to undergo some change, though such change needs to start deep in and take serious time to occur – which means it usually takes at least five seasons to make this work.

The end of Don Draper’s story in MAD MEN is a great example (with a twist). The debate still rages about whether Don actually changed – or whether he simply co-opted the 60s Zeitgeist to sell more stuff…”


fascinate

  1. attract the strong attention and interest of (someone).
    “I’ve always been fascinated by computers”
     

END OF EXCERPT

 

 

As this brief excerpt has illustrated, writing characters that fascinate is a highly complex art, and is one of the toughest – but most rewarding – challenges in the wider goal of completing a world-class screenplay. And be in no doubt about it – if you can write truly fascinating characters, your screenwriting career is going to accelerate rapidly…
 
So ask yourself —
Could your characters be improved? Are they complex enough? Do their contradictions, tics and idiosyncracies feel organic? Do you wish they were more, well, fascinating?
In our full FREE 40-page e-book you’ll learn about:
 
  • Our 12-Step Process to Writing Characters that Fascinate
  • The Psychology of psychopaths
  • Why the Archetype of Justice Enforcer is so Fascinating
  • The Subtext of Character Needs and Wants
  • CASE STUDIES ON:
    • Daniel Plainview (THERE WILL BE BLOOD)
    • Lisbeth Salander (THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATOO)
    • Gustavo Fring (BREAKING BAD)
    • Gemma Tellow-Morrow (SONS OF ANARCHY)
  • And much more!
writing characters that fascinate - Gemma Teller

 

 

Read on — DOWNLOAD the FREE 40-page Guide to Writing Characters That Fascinate here

 

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8 thoughts on “Writing Characters That FASCINATE – The Ultimate PDF Guide”

  1. Fascinating. The pundits, who probably have never written a successful screenplay in their lives, have this fixation that the protagonist at least must change.
    Did he change in Saving Private Ryan, or Silence of the Lambs?

    Reply
  2. Hello,
    I’m unable to download the first and second installment of Complex Characters.
    Any help gratefully received.
    Thank you.
    Virginia.

    Reply
    • Hi Paul, you should have received the e-book by now – as explained below there was a slight delay from signing up to receiving the e-book, but this should be sorted now. You’ll receive a “confirm your email” message, just click one of the links in that, and the e-book will follow soon afterwards. We do hope you enjoy it!

      Reply
  3. Keep trying to download the PDF Writing Characters That FASCINATE – The Ultimate PDF Guide and it doesn’t come to my email. Checked spam folder and its not there. The other download worked. Should I do something different?

    Reply
      • Hi Bob – we looked into this for you, and you’re all set to receive your free E-Book – you’ve had your confirmation email already and confirmed your details with us, so your book will arrive first thing in the morning. Please look out for it!

        Our email system automatically inputs a lag of one day after the initial confirmation email has gone out, so that’s behind the delay.

        Thanks again for joining us and hope you enjoy the fruits of our research!

        Reply

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