by The Anatomy of Story- 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (mobi)
■ Problem Rival gang members shoot Michael's father, the head of the family.
■ Desire He wants to take revenge on the men who shot his father and thereby protect his family.
■ Opponent Michael's first opponent is Sollozzo. However, his true opponent is the more powerful Barzini, who is the hidden power behind Sollozzo and wants to bring the entire Corleone family down. Michael and Barzini compete over the survival of the Corleone family and who will control crime in New York.
■ Plan Michael's first plan is to kill Sollozzo and his protector, the police captain. His second plan is to kill the heads of the other families in a single strike.
■ Battle The final battle is a crosscut between Michael's appearance at his nephew's baptism and the killing of the heads of the five Mafia families. At the baptism, Michael says that he believes in God. Clemenza fires a shotgun into some men getting off an elevator. Moe Green is shot in the eye. Michael, following the liturgy of the baptism, renounces Satan. Another gunman shoots one of the heads of the families in a revolving door. Barzini is shot. Tom sends Tessio off to be murdered. Michael has Carlo strangled.
■ Psychological Self-Revelation There is none. Michael still believes that his sense of superiority and self-righteousness is justified.
■ Moral Self-Revelation There is none. Michael has become a ruthless killer. The writers use an advanced story structure technique by giving the moral self-revelation to the hero's wife, Kay, who sees what he has become as the door slams in her face.
■ New Equilibrium Michael has killed his enemies and "risen" to the position of Godfather. But morally, he has fallen and become the "devil." This man who once wanted nothing to do with the violence and crime of his family is now its leader and will kill anyone who betrays him or gets in his way.
TOOTSIE WAS A HUGE HIT because its main character, played by Dustin Hoffman, dressed up as a woman. Right? Wrong. What made that character funny, and what made the entire story work, was the web of characters that helped define the hero and allowed him to be funny. Look below the glossy surface of Dustin Hoffman in a dress and you will see that each character in that story is a unique version of the hero's central moral problem, which is how men mistreat women.
Most writers come at character all wrong. They start by listing all the traits of the hero, tell a story about him, and then somehow make him change at the end. That won't work, no matter how hard you try.
We're going to work through a different process that I think you will find much more useful. These are the steps:
1. We'll begin not by focusing on your main character but by looking at all your characters together as part of an interconnected web. We'll distinguish them by comparing each to the others according to story function and archetype.
2. Next we'll individualize each character based on theme and opposition.
3. Then we'll concentrate on the hero, "building" him step-by-step so that we end up with a multilayered, complex person that the audience cares about.
4. We'll create the opponent in detail, since this is the most important character after your hero and, in many ways, is the key to defining your hero.
5. We'll end by working through the character techniques for building conflict over the course of the story.
The single biggest mistake writers make when creating characters is that they think of the hero and all other characters as separate individuals. Their hero is alone, in a vacuum, unconnected to others. The result is not only a weak hero but also cardboard opponents and minor characters who are even weaker.
This great mistake is exacerbated in scriptwriting because of the huge emphasis placed on the high-concept premise. In these stories, the hero seems to be the only person who matters. But ironically, this intense spotlight on the hero, instead of defining him more clearly, only makes him seem like a one-note marketing tool.
To create great characters, think of all your characters as part of a web in which each helps define the others. To put it another way, a character is often defined by who he is not.
KEY POINT: The most important step in creating your hero, as well as all
other characters, is to connect and compare each to the others.
Each time you compare a character to your hero, you force yourself to distinguish the hero in new ways. You also start to see the secondary characters as complete human beings, as complex and as valuable as your hero.
All characters connect and define each other in four major ways: by story function, archetype, theme, and opposition.
Character Web by Function in the Story
Every character must serve the purpose of the story, which is found in the story's designing principle (see Chapter 2, on premise). Every character has a specially designed role, or function, to play to help the story fulfill that purpose. Theater director Peter Brook, in speaking about actors, also makes a useful point for writers creating characters:
[Brecht] pointed out that every actor has to serve the action of the play.... When [the actor] sees himself in relation to the wholeness of the play he will see that not only is too much characterizing (petty details) often opposed to the play's needs but also that many unnecessary characteristics can actually work against him and make his own appearance less striking.1
Even though the audience is most interested in how the hero has changed, you can't show them that change unless every character, including the hero, plays his assigned part on the team. Let's look at the story function of the major kinds of characters in fiction.
Hero
The most important character is the main character, or hero. This is the person who has the central problem and who drives the action in an attempt to solve the problem. The hero decides to go after a goal (desire) but possesses certain weaknesses and needs that hold him back from success.
All other characters in a story represent an opposition, an alliance with the hero, or some combination of the two. Indeed, the twists and turns of the story are largely the product of the ebb and flow of opposition and friendship between various characters and the hero.
■ Hero in Hamlet Hamlet Opponent
The opponent is the character who most wants to keep the hero from achieving his desire. The opponent should not merely be a block to the hero. That is mechanical.
Remember, the opponent should want the same thing as the hero. That means that the hero and the opponent must come into direct conflict throughout the story. Often this doesn't seem to be the case. That's why you must always look for the deepest conflict that your hero and opponent are fighting over.
The relationship between the hero and the opponent is the single most important relationship in the story. In working out the struggle between these two characters, the larger issues and themes of the story unfold.
By the way, don't think of the opponent as someone the hero hates. He may be, or he may not be. The opponent is simply the person on the other side. He can be a nicer person than the hero, more moral, or even the hero's lover or friend.
■ Main Opponent in Hamlet King Claudius
■ Second Opponent Queen Gertrude
■ Third Opponent Polonius, the king's adviser
Ally
The ally is the hero's helper. The ally also serves as a sounding board, allowing the audience to hear the values and feelings of the lead character. Usually, the ally's goal is the same as the hero's, but occasionally, the ally has a goal of his own.
■ Ally in Hamlet Horatio Fake-Ally Opponent
The fake-ally opponent is a character who appears to be the hero's friend bur is actually an opponent. Having this character is one of the main ways you add power to the opposition and twists to the plot.
The fake-ally opponent is invariably one of the most complex and most fascinating characters in a story because he is usually torn by a dilemma. While pretending to be an ally of the hero, the fake-ally opponent comes to actually feel like an ally. So while working to defeat the hero, the fake-ally opponent often ends up helping
the hero win.
■ Fake-Ally Opponents in Hamlet Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern
Fake-Opponent Ally
This character appears to be fighting the hero but is actually the hero's friend. The fake-opponent ally is not as common in storytelling as the fake-ally opponent, because he is not as useful to the writer. Plot, as we will see in Chapter 8, comes from opposition, especially opposition that is hidden under the surface. An ally, even one who appears at first to be an opponent, cannot give you the conflict and surprises of an opponent.
■ Fake-Opponent Ally in Hamlet None Subplot Character
The subplot character is one of the most misunderstood in fiction. Most writers think of this character as the lead in the second story line—for example, as the love interest in a detective story. But that is not a true subplot character.
The subplot character has a very precise function in a story, and again it involves the comparative method. The subplot is used to contrast how the hero and a second character deal with the same problem in slightly different ways. Through comparison, the subplot character highlights traits and dilemmas of the main character.
Let's look more closely at Hamlet to see how you might create a true subplot character. We might say that Hamlet's problem, reduced to one line, is to take revenge on the man who killed his father. Similarly, Laertes' problem is to take revenge on the man who killed his father. The contrast focuses on the fact that one killing is premeditated murder and the other is an impetuous, misguided mistake.
KEY POINT: The subplot character is usually not the ally.
The subplot character, like the ally and the opponent, provides another opportunity to define the hero through comparison and advance the plot. The ally helps the hero reach the main goal. The subplot character tracks a line parallel to the hero, with a different result.
■ Subplot Character in Hamlet Laertes, son of Polonius
Let's break down a couple of stories so you can see bow characters contrast through function.
The Silence of the Lambs
(novel by Thomas Harris, screenplay by Ted Tally, 1991) This is a story about an FBI trainee named Clarice who is searching for a serial killer known as Buffalo Bill. At the suggestion of her boss, Jack, she seeks the help of another serial killer already in prison, the infamous Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter. He is initially hostile to her, but ends up giving her far better training than she receives at the FBI.
■ Hero Clarice Starling
■ Main Opponent Buffalo Bill, the serial killer
■ Second Opponent Dr. Chilton, the warden
■ Fake-Ally Opponent None
■ Ally Jack, her boss at the FBI
■ Fake-Opponent Ally Hannibal Lecter
■ Subplot Character None
American Beauty
(by Alan Ball, 1999) American Beauty is a comedy-drama set in suburbia, so Lester's main opposition is within the family, with his wife, Carolyn, and his daughter, Jane, both of whom dislike him. He soon becomes infatuated with his daughter's friend Angela. But because he's married and she's a teenager, she becomes another opponent. Living next door to Lester is the rigid and conservative Colonel Frank Fitts, who disapproves of Lester's lifestyle. Brad is Lester's coworker who tries to fire him.
After Lester blackmails his company into giving him a nice severance package, he begins to live life as he pleases and gains an ally in Ricky Fitts, the boy next door, who sells him pot. Ricky and his father, Frank, are also subplot characters. Lester's central problem is figuring out how to live a meaningful life, one where he can express his deepest desires within a highly conformist society that values appearance and money. Ricky responds to his deadening, militaristic household by selling pot and spying
on others with his video camera. Frank represses his homosexual desires by exerting an iron discipline over himself and his family.
■ Hero Lester
■ Main Opponent Carolyn, his wife
■ Second Opponent Jane, his daughter
■ Third Opponent Angela, Jane's pretty friend
■ Fourth Opponent Colonel Frank Fitts
■ Fifth Opponent Brad, his coworker
■ Ally Ricky Fitts
■ Fake-Ally Opponent None
■ Fake-Opponent Ally None
■ Subplot Characters Frank, Ricky
CHARACTER TECHNIQUE: TWO MAIN CHARACTERS
There are two popular genres, or story forms, that seem to have two main characters, the love story and the buddy picture. The buddy picture is actually a combination of three genres: action, love, and comedy. Let's see how the character web in these two forms actually works, based on the function that each character plays in the story.
Love Stories
Having to create two equally well-defined characters makes certain requirements for the character web of your story. The love story is designed to show the audience the value of a community between two equals. The central concept of love stories is quite profound. Love stories say that a person does not become a true individual by being alone. A person becomes a unique and authentic individual only by entering into a community of two. It is through the love of the other that each person grows and becomes his or her deepest self.
Expressing this profound idea with the right character web is no easy matter. If you try to write a love story with two main characters, you will have two spines, two desire lines, two tracks the story is trying to ride. So
you have to make sure that one character is a little more central than the other. You must detail the need of both characters at the beginning of the story, but you should give one of the characters the main desire line. Most writers give that line to the man, because in our culture the man is supposed to pursue the woman. But one of the best ways to set your love story apart is to give the woman the driving line, as in Moonstruck, Broadcast News, and Gone with the Wind.
When you give one character the desire line, you automatically make him or her the more powerful character. In terms of story function, this means that the lover, the desired one, is actually the main opponent, not the second hero. You typically fill out the character web with one or more outside opponents, such as family members who oppose the union. You may also have other suitors for the hero or the lover so that you can compare different versions of a desirable man or woman.
The Philadelphia Story
(play by Philip Barry, screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart, 1940)
■ Hero Tracy Lord
■ Main Opponent Dexter, her ex-husband
■ Second Opponent Mike, the reporter
■ Third Opponent George, her stuffy, social-climbing fiance
■ Fake-Ally Opponent Dinah, her sister
■ Ally Her mother
■ Fake-Opponent Ally Her father
■ Subplot Character Liz, the photographer
Tootsie
(by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal, story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart, 1982)
■ Hero Michael
■ Main Opponent Julie
■ Second Opponent Ron, the director
■ Third Opponent John, the TV doctor ■ Fourth Opponent Les, Julie's father
■ Fake-Ally Opponent Sandy
■ Allies George, Michael's agent; Jeff, Michael's roommate
■ Fake-Opponent Ally None
■ Subplot Characters Ron, Sandy
Buddy Stories
The strategy of using the buddy relationship as the foundation of the character web is as old as the story of Gilgamesh and his great friend Enkidu. We see a more unequal but highly informative partnership with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the dreamer and the realist, the master and the servant.
The buddy strategy allows you essentially to cut the hero into two parts, showing two different approaches to life and two sets of talents. These two characters are "married" into a team in such a way that the audience can see their differences but also see how these differences actually help them work well together, so that the whole
becomes greater than the sum of the parts.
As in the love story, one of the buddies should be more central than the other. Usually it's the thinker, the schemer, or the strategist of the two, because this character comes up with the plan and starts them off on the desire line. The buddy is a kind of double of the hero, similar in important ways but also different.
Structurally, the buddy is both the first opponent and the first ally of the hero. He is not the second hero. Keep in mind that this first opposition between the two buddies is almost never serious or tragic. It usually takes the form of good-natured bickering.
Usually, you fill out the character web with at least one outside, dangerous, ongoing opponent. And because most buddy stories use a mythic journey, the buddies encounter a number of secondary opponents on the road. These characters are usually strangers to the buddies, and they are dispatched in quick succession. Each of these opponents should represent a negative aspect of the society that hates the buddies or wants to break them up. This technique is a great way of defining secondary characters quickly and distinguishing one from another. It also helps broaden and deepen the buddy form because you define various aspects of the society in relation to the two leads.
One of the most important elements of the buddy web has to do with the fundamental conflict between the friends. There is a snag in the relationship that keeps interfering. This allows an ongoing opposition between the two leads in a traveling story where most of the other opponents are strangers who quickly come and go.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(by William Goldman, 1969)
■ Hero Butch
■ Main Opponent Sundance
■ Second Opponent Railroad boss E. H. Harriman (who never appears) and his hired guns, the all-star posse, led by Joe Lafors
■ Third Opponent Bolivian cops and army
■ Fake-Ally Opponent Harvey, who challenges Butch's leadership of the gang
■ Ally Etta, Sundance's girlfriend
■ Fake-Opponent Ally Sheriff Ray
■ Subplot Character None
CHARACTER TECHNIQUE: MULTIPLE HEROES AND NARRATIVE DRIVE
