Writing Diverse Characters for Fiction, TV or Film by Lucy Hay

Author:Lucy Hay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oldcastle Books
Published: 2017-06-28T15:35:38+00:00

MIDDLE

The protagonist decides to solve the problem despite the obstacles (i.e. the antagonist)

Things get worse (probably because of the antagonist and various other obstacles)

The protagonist starts to solve the problem (the antagonist starts to lose, and/or the obstacles begin to recede)

END

Protagonist (usually) solves the problem, defeats the antagonist and overcomes the obstacles

THE SHORT VERSION: If it looks straightforward, that’s because it is! We’re not reinventing the wheel here. We know all this stuff! As I’ve mentioned, it’s universal and it’s deeply engrained: even small children can tell stories with beginnings, middles and ends. All you have to choose is WHO your characters will be and HOW you’re going to plot it.

SEVEN BASIC PLOTS

Storytelling isn’t just about heroes ‘saving the day’, nor overt good versus evil. Just as one size should not fit all for diverse characters, there are plenty of stories that do not fit the Hero’s Journey mould. Influenced by Jung’s work, Christopher Booker wrote a book called The Seven Basic Plots (2004), summarising the broad categories of stories available to writers, which he listed as:

Overcoming the Monster. Horror is an obvious choice here: franchises featuring creatures like Alien’s Xenomorph or more human monsters, as in Halloween, Friday the 13th and more recently Saw, fall under this banner. But various versions of the thriller and action-adventure story can mine this plot, too. As characters will probably fear for their lives in this storyline, sometimes the monster in question will be a terrible regime. The dystopian subgenre of YA is well versed in this plot, with modern offerings like The Hunger Games, but so is ‘spec fic’ meant for more adult audiences, as in Margaret Atwood’s 1987 classic The Handmaid’s Tale.

Rags to Riches. Taking its cue from fairy tales like Cinderella, family animations and children’s stories use this plot the most, transposing those fairy tales or using them as a springboard. This storyline may cross over with comedy, or rebirth, as in some books, TV shows and movies inspired by true events, like Three Kings (1999), in which three American soldiers caught up in the 1991 Gulf War steal Iraqi gold. Just as often, the plot may be reversed in this latter version, too, as we watch a character’s downfall. Sometimes a character may turn this around a second time and thwart the expected ending, as in 2011’s Limitless; other times s/he may die, such as in The Place Beyond the Pines (2012).

The Quest. Immediately we can see the Hero’s Journey as fitting very neatly in this category. Certainly, if we consider Greek myths like Homer’s Odyssey, most Quest stories since seem to fill this template. If you were a small child in the eighties like I was, you will remember Quest stories were everywhere, especially in movies featuring fantasy and muppets like Labyrinth (1986), The NeverEnding Story and Legend (both 1985). Modern children’s movies have sought to emulate this, too, with Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney having characters undertaking missions to find objects and people and save the day, such as 2016’s Trolls.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.