How to Make Your Characters Real

It is very important to know your subject/protagonist before you embark on writing your screenplay.

Here are two important question you should ask before you begin writing, who and what is the story about?

Without answers to these essential questions what you have is an idea, a premise and neither are enough to write a complete script.

Knowing your subject is the jumping off point for any screenplay; ask yourself do you really know who the subject is? Do you know where he/she came from? Do you know what their backgrounds were like?

You should be able to sum up your characters and what the film is about in a few short sentence, because if you don't know what your story is about who does?

Some writers like to create fictional backgrounds for their subject everything from where they were born to where they went to college before they start.

Knowing the answer to these questions will help you develop the way your character will respond in certain situations.

I tend to look at a film as if I'm encountering this character during a certain time period in their lives, they had a life before the film began and they will have a life or not depending on the movie after the film ends.

Once you have a good handle on who your protagonist the next question you should ask is what the story is about. The who and the what are two of the most important questions you should ask yourself when writing.

For instance in the "Matrix" the subject, the who is clearly Neo and the what his journey to accept the fact that he is the "One."

Another example is "Star Wars" although in the movie there are many interesting characters the story is about Luke Skywalker, the who and the what is his journey from farm boy to Jedi knight. Knowing who your subject is can be the difference between selling your screenplay and ending up on the garbage heap.