My last post was about the three-dimensional characters. So what is the three-dimensional character? As I mentioned before, is a character with many different points to view. It means is not flat, is not only what you see.
When we build the character we need to give him not only a physical shape but also all of the background of his life. The more we give the better will be. Lets take an example:
Bernard, 25 years old, over-weight, works as a youth worker.
So we have Bernard as a flat character. That's all the information we have about him. This is what many aspiring scriptwriters build about their characters. Then they had a Mary, 23... Frederick 27... whatever. A list of flat characters they intend to put in the story.
Now I'm going to ask you something: How these characters react to each other? How they speak? What they think? Why Bernard works in a youth center? Can you answer any of these questions? just like that... right now... Can you?
Maybe not. Certainly not.
Lets take Bernard again. Now we are going to add him some extra details:
Bernard, 25 years old, over-weight, work as a youth worker. Bernard lost his father when he was five years old. Because of that he started to have some nervous dispositions which led him to have an eating disorder. He puts weight, become a pre-obese children and starts to be bullied at school. In other way, Bernard receives all the support from his mother during his childhood and crosses those difficult years until he goes to college and completes' his studies in a good way.
In this second characterisation, we have much more details about Bernard. This details can be part of the story we telling, but also we may never mention them at all. The important thing is that we know WHO IS BERNARD.
Knowing Bernard as a several layers character gives us information to help to create how he behaves in different ways. Why he work with youths? maybe because he knows how difficult can be for some of them, and his own experience make it easier to advise the children.
When we create three-dimensional layers on a character, we are building the necessary information for the reactions of that character.
One last exercise about Bernard: Think about how he will react when he is on the Youth office. Now, think about how he will react when he is at home? How he will react outside of his comfort zone? Finally think about this situation... One day Bernard spots a kid bullying another one. All his own bad moments come back to his memory when he suffered all that bad emotions. He is now a grown adult, stronger and experienced. What he is going to do? Can he have his moment to revenge his past? or he will use his own experience to solve it in a peaceful way? This is your own decision, its your story. But with a good character's background it will be much easier for you to write about it.
Build a character with as much information as possible.
For a main character, it's normal to write about one page or one page and half just for the characterization, including physical and emotional details, family, friends and enemies, hobbies, sports, everything that is important for the story even if we will never going to mentioned it.
You can write character descriptions as a practical exercise. Observe someone in the bus and create a PERSONAGE based in just what you see. That could be fun if you are in a two hours commute train. But don't stare at him/her! It's weird and you can be arrested!
CYA!
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