All by Thomas Waschenfelder
The note on your screenplay comes in many forms: I’m just not with the main character. The protagonist is not very likable. I’m not connected to their journey. I don’t care enough about them. All of these comments boil down to this: your lead character just isn’t jumping off the page and connecting with your reader. So what do you do? How do you create a likable protagonist in the first few pages that jumps off the page and into the heart of your reader? Here are some ideas to help you write a main character that connects.
Every scene in your screenplay needs a “reason to be.” And that reason is change. If nothing *changes* for your lead character in the scene, it shouldn’t be in your movie. This change can be thought of as a “turn” - the moment where things go from good to bad, bad to worse, bad to good, etc. for your character. And these turns can happen in two ways: through action or information.
When a scene isn’t working in a screenplay, it’s usually because you don’t know what the conflict is. Or you don’t have enough of it. But if you’ve identified the conflict and the scene still isn’t playing, there’s a trick that can help you find a new angle. It’s called the 180-degree rule. Here’s how it works…
If you write a screenplay that lacks conflict, it will be boring. And no one will ever tell you it’s boring. They will either 1) ignore you or 2) tell you it was a nice read and to update them as the project moves forward. Both of these are bad. Your writing cannot be boring. Life is boring enough. Writing must be packed full of so much conflict, action, pain, and suffering that your lead character barely makes it out alive (physically or emotionally). Don’t be boring - write conflict instead.
Writing good exposition is one of the toughest parts of writing a screenplay that works. But there is hope! Here are some ideas to help you write screenplay exposition that crackles and pops off the page. If there’s one phrase to remember about great exposition, it’s this: make it dramatic.
The protagonist in your screenplay has a goal. And the action of your script follows your hero as they try and achieve that goal while facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles along the way. No matter what action they take, it will play for the reader only if the hero has an internal logic and believes their action will help them get what they want.
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. A screenplay must do one thing: connect emotionally with the reader. And the easiest way for the writer to do that is by following the emotional journey of a single character.
