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✍️Screenwriting II

✍️screenwriting ii review

8.3 Examining Character Development in Acclaimed Scripts

3 min readLast Updated on August 9, 2024

Character development is the backbone of compelling screenplays. By examining acclaimed scripts, writers can uncover effective techniques for crafting multidimensional characters that resonate with audiences and drive engaging narratives.

This section explores various character roles, arc types, and conflict sources. Understanding these elements helps screenwriters create rich, evolving characters whose journeys captivate viewers and elevate the overall story.

Character Roles

Primary Character Types

Top images from around the web for Primary Character Types
Top images from around the web for Primary Character Types
  • Protagonist drives the story forward through their goals and actions
  • Antagonist opposes the protagonist, creating obstacles and conflict
  • Supporting characters enhance the story by providing assistance, complications, or additional perspectives to the main characters

Functions of Supporting Characters

  • Confidants offer emotional support and serve as sounding boards for the protagonist
  • Mentors guide and teach the protagonist, helping them grow or overcome challenges
  • Comic relief characters lighten the mood and provide contrast to serious moments
  • Love interests create romantic subplots and influence character motivations
  • Foils highlight certain traits of the protagonist through contrast or similarity

Character Development

Character Arc Fundamentals

  • Character arc traces the internal journey and growth of a character throughout the story
  • Positive arcs show characters overcoming flaws and becoming better versions of themselves
  • Negative arcs depict characters succumbing to their worst traits or circumstances
  • Flat arcs maintain a character's core beliefs while the world around them changes

Motivation and Backstory

  • Character motivation stems from desires, fears, and past experiences that drive their actions
  • Backstory provides context for a character's behavior, beliefs, and relationships
  • Childhood experiences shape a character's worldview and emotional responses
  • Traumatic events in a character's past can create lasting impact on their decisions and interactions
  • Cultural background influences a character's values, traditions, and social dynamics

Transformation Process

  • Inciting incident disrupts the character's normal life and sets them on a new path
  • Rising action presents challenges that force the character to confront their flaws or limitations
  • Pivotal moments (turning points) push characters to make difficult choices that reveal their true nature
  • Climax tests the character's growth and resolve, often requiring them to apply what they've learned
  • Resolution shows the lasting impact of the character's journey on themselves and their world

Character Conflict

Internal Struggles

  • Moral dilemmas force characters to choose between conflicting values or beliefs
  • Self-doubt undermines a character's confidence and ability to achieve their goals
  • Inner demons (addiction, trauma, fear) create obstacles the character must overcome
  • Conflicting desires pull characters in different directions, creating tension and indecision

External Challenges

  • Interpersonal conflicts arise from clashing goals, personalities, or ideologies between characters
  • Environmental obstacles (natural disasters, hostile settings) test characters' resilience and resourcefulness
  • Societal pressures (discrimination, expectations) create external forces that characters must navigate or resist
  • Antagonistic forces actively work against the protagonist's goals, creating direct opposition

Relationship Dynamics

Key Terms to Review (35)

Antagonist: An antagonist is a character or force that opposes the protagonist, creating conflict and driving the story forward. This opposition is crucial in shaping the narrative's tension, character development, and overall theme, as it challenges the protagonist's goals and desires, often leading to growth or transformation.
Antagonistic Forces: Antagonistic forces are opposing elements within a narrative that create conflict and drive the plot forward. These forces can manifest through various characters, circumstances, or internal struggles, presenting obstacles that the protagonist must face in their journey. Understanding these forces is crucial for analyzing character development and the dynamics of conflict in acclaimed scripts.
Backstory: Backstory refers to the history and background of a character that informs their current motivations, behaviors, and relationships. This narrative element provides context for a character’s journey, influences their decisions, and shapes their development throughout the story, making it essential for crafting compelling character arcs, motivations, and subplots.
Character Arc: A character arc is the transformation or inner journey of a character throughout a story, showcasing their growth, change, or development as they face various challenges and experiences. This journey often aligns with the narrative structure and helps to drive the overall plot forward by highlighting how characters evolve in response to their circumstances.
Character Motivation: Character motivation refers to the driving forces behind a character's actions, desires, and decisions in a story. It is essential in creating believable and relatable characters, as it shapes their arcs and development throughout the narrative. Understanding character motivation helps in balancing their internal struggles with external conflicts, ultimately influencing how they evolve and interact with other characters and the plot.
Childhood experiences: Childhood experiences refer to the significant events, relationships, and environments that shape an individual's formative years, influencing their development and future behavior. These experiences can deeply affect personality traits, emotional responses, and social skills, which play a crucial role in character development in narratives. In storytelling, childhood experiences are often used to provide context for a character's motivations and choices throughout their journey.
Climax: The climax is the turning point in a narrative where the main conflict reaches its peak intensity, leading to a decisive moment for the characters involved. It’s often the most exciting part of a story, where everything that has been building up comes to a head, affecting the outcome and direction of the plot.
Comic relief: Comic relief is a literary device used to provide a humorous break from the seriousness or tension of the narrative. This technique helps to balance the emotional weight of a story, allowing audiences to laugh and relax before returning to more intense moments. It can enhance character development by revealing different facets of characters and also contribute to the overall tone of a screenplay.
Confidant: A confidant is a character in a narrative, often a friend or trusted advisor, to whom the protagonist reveals their thoughts, feelings, and secrets. This relationship plays a significant role in character development, as it allows the audience to gain insight into the main character's internal struggles and motivations, and it can also influence the protagonist's decisions and growth throughout the story.
Conflicting desires: Conflicting desires refer to the internal struggles characters face when they have opposing wants or needs that create tension within their motivations. This dynamic is crucial for character development, as it drives their actions and decisions, leading to growth or change. In storytelling, these conflicts can reveal deeper aspects of a character's personality and set the stage for emotional resonance with the audience.
Cultural background: Cultural background refers to the social, ethnic, historical, and geographical influences that shape an individual's identity and perspective. Understanding a character's cultural background is essential for creating believable and relatable characters as it affects their motivations, beliefs, and interactions with others. It plays a significant role in character development and dialogue, helping to create depth and authenticity.
Environmental Obstacles: Environmental obstacles are challenges and conflicts that arise from the physical surroundings and external conditions affecting characters in a story. These obstacles can range from natural disasters and harsh climates to societal pressures and cultural norms, all of which can impact character development and decision-making throughout the narrative.
Family relationships: Family relationships refer to the connections and dynamics between individuals within a family unit, including biological, legal, and emotional ties. These relationships play a crucial role in shaping character development and motivations within narratives, often influencing characters' decisions, conflicts, and personal growth throughout the story.
Flat Arc: A flat arc refers to a character arc where the protagonist undergoes minimal personal growth or change throughout the story. Instead of evolving into a different person, the character remains largely consistent in their beliefs and traits, often serving as a stabilizing force for others around them. This type of arc can highlight the contrast between the flat character and others who experience significant transformation, thereby underscoring themes of integrity and steadfastness.
Foil: A foil is a character who contrasts with another character, usually the protagonist, in order to highlight particular qualities or traits of the main character. This literary device enhances the narrative by creating deeper character development and can influence plot dynamics, particularly in character-driven stories.
Friendships: Friendships are deep connections between characters that often reveal their personalities, motivations, and emotional states. These relationships can drive the narrative forward and create conflict or support, shaping character development in crucial ways. Through interactions with friends, characters often experience growth, face challenges, or undergo transformations that impact their arcs.
Inciting Incident: The inciting incident is a pivotal moment in a screenplay that sets the main story in motion by introducing a conflict or challenge faced by the protagonist. This event disrupts the balance of the character's world, compelling them to take action and propelling the narrative forward into the rising action.
Inner demons: Inner demons refer to the psychological struggles or conflicts that characters face within themselves, often manifesting as fears, regrets, or unresolved issues. These internal conflicts can drive a character's motivations, influence their decisions, and shape their overall arc, making them essential for authentic character development in storytelling.
Interpersonal conflict: Interpersonal conflict refers to a disagreement or clash between individuals that arises from differences in values, beliefs, or interests. This type of conflict often plays a crucial role in character development, as it reveals deeper layers of a character's personality and motivations, while also driving the narrative forward through tension and resolution.
Love Interest: A love interest is a character in a story who is romantically involved with or pursued by another character, often serving as a central figure in the protagonist's emotional journey. This character typically influences the main character's decisions and growth, representing both a source of conflict and motivation. The love interest often embodies themes of desire, attraction, and emotional connection, crucial for character development and plot progression.
Mentor: A mentor is an experienced and trusted advisor who guides and supports another individual, often helping them develop skills, confidence, and understanding. In storytelling, mentors play a crucial role in shaping the protagonist's journey, influencing their character arc and development while also driving character-driven subplots and enhancing the narrative tension in action and thriller scripts. Mentors can also highlight themes of growth and transformation, as they often challenge the protagonist to confront their fears and reach their full potential.
Mentor-mentee relationship: A mentor-mentee relationship is a developmental partnership where a more experienced or knowledgeable individual (the mentor) provides guidance, support, and advice to a less experienced individual (the mentee). This relationship is crucial for character growth and development, often serving as a catalyst for the mentee's journey. It highlights the exchange of knowledge and wisdom that can shape the mentee's path and inform their decisions.
Moral Dilemmas: Moral dilemmas are situations in which a character faces conflicting ethical choices, making it challenging to determine the right course of action. These dilemmas often reveal the character's values and beliefs, adding depth to their development and driving the plot forward. They create tension by forcing characters to confront difficult decisions that test their integrity and moral compass.
Negative arc: A negative arc refers to a character's development in which they experience a decline or regression throughout the story, often leading to a more flawed or troubled state by the end. This kind of arc is marked by choices that reveal the character's weaknesses, fears, or moral dilemmas, ultimately resulting in a fall from grace or a tragic outcome. Instead of growth or transformation, a negative arc emphasizes the consequences of negative decisions and reinforces themes of tragedy, despair, or futility.
Pivotal Moments: Pivotal moments are critical events in a story that significantly impact a character's journey and development. These moments often serve as turning points, forcing characters to confront challenges, make important decisions, or experience profound realizations that alter their trajectory. In narratives, these moments are essential for shaping character arcs and advancing the plot, as they illustrate growth and transformation.
Positive Arc: A positive arc refers to the journey of a character who undergoes significant personal growth or transformation throughout a story, leading to a more enlightened or fulfilled state by the end. This character development often involves overcoming obstacles, learning important lessons, and ultimately achieving a sense of resolution or happiness, creating a compelling narrative that resonates with audiences.
Professional Relationships: Professional relationships refer to the connections and interactions between individuals in a work or creative environment, characterized by mutual respect, collaboration, and clear communication. These relationships are crucial in screenwriting, as they influence character development, plot progression, and the overall dynamics of a script, ultimately impacting how stories resonate with audiences.
Protagonist: The protagonist is the main character in a story, often facing challenges and undergoing personal growth throughout the narrative. This character drives the plot forward and usually has clear goals, motivations, and conflicts that engage the audience and create emotional investment.
Resolution: Resolution is the part of a story where the conflicts are resolved and the narrative comes to a satisfying conclusion. It's essential because it ties up loose ends and shows how the characters have changed, reflecting their journeys throughout the story.
Rising action: Rising action is the series of events that create suspense and tension in a story, leading up to the climax. This phase develops the main conflict, reveals character motivations, and introduces obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. By building momentum, rising action engages the audience and deepens their investment in the characters and plot.
Romantic relationships: Romantic relationships are emotional bonds characterized by love, attraction, and intimacy between individuals. These connections often involve a mix of physical, emotional, and social elements, influencing character motivations and arcs in storytelling. In narratives, romantic relationships can serve as pivotal plot points that drive character development, conflict, and resolution.
Self-doubt: Self-doubt is the internal struggle that characters face when they question their abilities, worth, or decisions. This feeling can lead to significant character development as it often serves as a catalyst for growth, conflict, and transformation within a narrative. Characters grappling with self-doubt often embark on journeys that challenge their perceptions and force them to confront their fears, making this theme central to storytelling.
Societal pressures: Societal pressures refer to the expectations and norms imposed by society that influence individuals' behaviors, beliefs, and choices. These pressures can come from various sources, such as family, peers, media, and cultural values, shaping how characters in stories develop and interact with one another. Understanding societal pressures is crucial for analyzing character development, as it reveals motivations and conflicts that drive narratives forward.
Supporting Character: A supporting character is a character who plays a secondary role in a narrative, providing depth to the main storyline and contributing to the development of the protagonist. These characters often have their own arcs and backstories, which enrich the overall story while highlighting the journey of the main character. Supporting characters can also help to integrate subplots, create conflict, and enhance character relationships, making them essential to a well-rounded script.
Traumatic events: Traumatic events are significant incidents that cause physical, emotional, or psychological harm, deeply impacting an individual's life and behavior. In storytelling, these events are crucial for character development, as they can trigger transformation and reveal the complexities of human experience. They often serve as turning points that challenge characters, forcing them to confront their fears, change their perspectives, or take action.
Antagonist
See definition

An antagonist is a character or force that opposes the protagonist, creating conflict and driving the story forward. This opposition is crucial in shaping the narrative's tension, character development, and overall theme, as it challenges the protagonist's goals and desires, often leading to growth or transformation.

Term 1 of 35

Antagonist
See definition

An antagonist is a character or force that opposes the protagonist, creating conflict and driving the story forward. This opposition is crucial in shaping the narrative's tension, character development, and overall theme, as it challenges the protagonist's goals and desires, often leading to growth or transformation.

Term 1 of 35



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© 2025 Fiveable Inc. All rights reserved.
AP® and SAT® are trademarks registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse this website.