Write A Screenplay With One Lead Character

If there’s a single piece of advice I’d give to new screenwriters after reading hundreds of scripts, it would be to AVOID writing an ensemble movie. The task is just too hard. If you’ve started down that path, pick one character and make the movie work around the experience of that one lead character.

A screenplay must do one thing: connect emotionally with the reader. And the easiest way (which is by no means easy - it’s still the hardest fucking thing in the world) for the writer to do that is by following the emotional journey of a single character.

One Protagonist. One Goal. Many Obstacles.

Readers connect to a character going after a single goal and facing many obstacles along the way. It’s this struggle that creates drama and intrigue.

The more convoluted and complicated you make your story, the harder it is for you (and the reader) to track the emotional life of your main character as they struggle.

And if you have MORE than one lead character, the task becomes herculean. In an ensemble script, when you’re bouncing between characters, you must immediately pick up the emotional strand where you left it, move the story forward, then jump to another character and do the same.

For new writers, it’s sometimes difficult to track and integrate these strands into one cohesive story, and the screenplay often doesn’t work.

So, make life easy on yourself. Choose one protagonist, one goal, and liter their path with obstacles that cause as much emotional suffering as possible.

As Syd Field explains in his book, Screenplay, it’s your main character’s need and the struggle to fulfill it that is the backbone of your movie:

“Define the dramatic need of your character. What does your character want? What is his / her need? What drives him to the resolution of your story? The need of your character gives you a goal, a destination, an ending to your story. How your character achieves or does not achieve that goal becomes the action of your story.”

Don’t have more than one protagonist. Choose one character, one big goal, and track their emotional journey as they struggle to achieve it.

If You Have More Than One Goal, You Have More Than One Movie.

A movie’s story is the product of your main character going after the thing they desperately want. If you try and write an ensemble movie, each “main character” needs to have a separate “want.” And all those strands need to cleverly intersect with one another constantly or else it will feel like a different movie each time you switch to another character’s point of view.

Why make life so hard? Pick one character and stick to them like glue. Track their emotional life, let them find out information at the same time as the audience, and make the plot simple (but extremely painful) for your lead.

As Alex Epstein says in his book, Crafty TV Writing:

“Keep your stories clear. In any given story, for any given character, one dramatic thing is going on at a time. Each story has one protagonist. The protagonist has one goal, opportunity, or problem. He faces one obstacle or principal antagonist.”

Keep things simple and effective.

Here’s The Main Problem With Ensemble Screenplays.

In every unproduced ensemble screenplay I’ve read, the problem is the same: I don’t care about any of the characters.

And that is the number one rule for the writer, as Michael Hauge reminds us in his book, Writing Screenplays That Sell:

“The screenwriter must elicit emotion in the person who reads the screenplay.”

And as a reader, if I don’t know who to cheer for - who the “real” protagonist is - I check out. I have nothing to latch onto emotionally and I lose interest.

Focus on creating an emotional connection to a single protagonist, and then track their emotional life like a yoyo through the screenplay.

By choosing to write a script about one person’s journey, you’re giving yourself the best chance to write a screenplay that works. Screenwriting is hard enough - don’t make it harder.

Keep going and keep writing.

—

ARTICLE SOURCES

Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box, by Alex Epstein

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, By Syd Field

Writing Screenplays That Sell: The Complete Guide to Turning Story Concepts into Movie and Television Deals, By Michael Hauge