The Art of Creating Great Characters! How To Develop Layered Resonant Characters

One of the key components of a good story is the motivation of its characters. Get that wrong and your characters will be one dimensional and unattractive, and your story won’t work or be very satisfying. Doors will close for you as a writer or producer.

Let me show you one of the most productive ways to develop character motivation and layers:

Premises.

People do things for a reason. A wife might want revenge on her husband because he cheated on her and made her feel worthless. Or a man might volunteer to fight for his country as a soldier because he loves its freedom for himself and his family.

In both cases, these reasons to act are ideas or beliefs that these individuals hold and choose to act on. In this psychological context, these ideas and beliefs are premises. In short, premises are motivating ideas.  

One essential way to give a character layers is to first develop his basic goal of WHAT he wants and then to dig deeper to find the basic premises/beliefs underlying this goal. That is, to uncover WHY this characterwants that specific value or goal.

For example, why in An Officer and a Gentleman is Zack a loner?

Because after the influence of a distant relationship with his father, no mother, and a tough upbringing, Zack adopts a dominant premise of not trusting people. Thus he is a loner and a schemer to survive. 

This approach of asking “why” forces the writer to focus on the deeper reasons/layers of a character’s motivation. This focus makes that character a clearer, more rounded, and intriguing individual.

The “why” is often the heart of your story.

For example, in Casablanca, why is Rick so bitter towards life and people? Why does he refuse to join the war or to tell Ilsa that he loves her? And most importantly story wise, why does he change? The answers to these why questions are the real story and heart of this most popular of films. 

Further, in An Officer and a Gentleman the real story that deeply grabs the audience is Zack choosing to change himself from a loner to a truster and lover. 

Actionable Creative Takeaway

If you want deeper layers in your characters, give them deeper premises. One practical way to do this is to ask these questions of your characters:

1)     What high value goal does he want?

2)     Why does he want this goal?

3)     Then keep asking why of each new answer.

The more whys you ask and answer the deeper you will get into your character’s soul.

Make your characters distinct and captivatingby giving them intriguing, even original, premises. Don’t be lazy and cliched. Dig deep into yourself and your characters and get those layers of motivation.That is what the good professional writers do and what the great stories have.

Creating motivated, layered characters who captivate an audience is intensely hard. A creative needs to not only know that he must do this. He also needs to learn the ideas and techniques of how to do it.

If he can’t do it, he needs a story consultant who can help him. I read way too many scripts that have characters with only one layer of motivation. He wants X. That’s it! That’s not very interesting and the sign of a new or amateur writer and a poorly developed script. If you want a highly marketable script, you must add depth to your writing and stories by giving your characters layered motivations.

Giving your characters layers can be a great door opener.

If you want support with developing your characters, DM or email me.

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Scott McConnell is a story consultant and for producers and writers.

 “Scott McConnell is an excellent Script Editor.”                                    Snorri Þórisson,  CEO Pegasus Pictures 

                             “Stories are ideas in action!”

© COPYRIGHT SCOTT MCCONNELL