@johndoe70770 I subconsciously expected him to say subconscious want not knowing that he consciously wanted to say conscious want which my subconscious did not realize was consciously correct
scriptman, you've revolutionized my view on writing and the psychology behind making good characters, thank you for this high quality ms paint content during these trying times.
It gives me TH-cam vibes. Having professional visuals is great and all, but his MS Paint shows that you can communicate in easy to understand way with basic skills. It also helps his editing and script are great.
9:08 there's this concept in poetry that really applies here: detail is more relatable than vagueness. Basically, people won't relate to your story if you shy away from details in order to make it more relatable. If you are writing about someone brushing their teeth, it's more relatable if you tell the reader that their tooth brush is pink and a little bit too stiff, than if you just say "toothbrush." Sure, not everyone has a pink, too stiff toothbrush, but relatability does not come from the reader imagining that the character lives in their own life, but the reader being able to imagine that they could live the character's life. A reader can't imagine living someone else's life without details. When it comes to creating motivations, it's the same. Most insecurities and fears are, to some extent, relatable to everyone. If your character's deepest motivation is not specific, it won't be relatable because then the reader can't imagine themself living the character's life.
Stiff toothbrush---> doesn't brush often---> messy person---> doesn't plan out day Boom, from this single description, I was able to characterize this rando out of the hundreds of ways they can be characterized from "stiff toothbrush". While I personally can't relate to not brushing my teeth, I can relate to sometimes being messy or not paying attention. From this single quality, I understand some aspect of the character and want to know more Way more relatable than "person brushes teeth", even though that's something that everyone does. Just demonstrates how important these details can be
@@rojo1945 they get softer as they're used which could indicate good hygiene because they either change it often enough to seem new, change it too often maybe a touch of OCD or bad hygeine because they don't use it enough hence it is like new. Or they picked a medium to hard instead of soft.
"And she's also super chaotic. They love that word." Lol, I know exactly what people you're talking about, dude. Also, I really appreciate the silly names you come up with for your hypotheticals.
“Chaotic” as a character trait nowadays means - Quirky™️, so basically acting like a big bang theory character but Attractive and Not A Nerd - Literally the most awful, toxic character in the party who is only still here and not dead because the author/DM demands it
Funny enough, this is also a great strategy to have deep conversations with friends and family, though most people aren't as fully aware of their bedrock motivations (which is why I think writing them from 1st principles can be difficult)
Dude, I've been watching you for a while and I just gotta say, I love how structured and technical you get with your topics. Not to shit on other writing advice channels, but I feel like the discourse is dominated by conversation about themes, vibes, and tropes, but never really cover the structural, logical, "give your story a framework" parts. Usually it's just general vibe advice like, "Your protagonist and antagonist should reflect one another in some way." Like, yeah, no shit. Now how do you actually organize that further than a "We're not so different, you and I" handwave? Anyways, I'm rambling. Just wanted to say I appreciate your content for actually talking about the bones of story structure instead of just hurling platitudes focused on windowdressing.
Friday afternoon, stuck in a meeting that could have been an email, and what in my subscription box should appear but another dollop of insight into the craft of writing fiction. Thank you for yet another entertaining and informative lesson. And a perfectly timed distraction.
Scriptman, you haven’t revolutionized how I think about stories because you have said out loud everything I have felt when being critiqued. You’ve revolutionized how much more passionately I will YEll at people giving me unsolicited and bad advice.
I imagine being a consultant in this context is difficult because I would have a hard time resisting the urge to slap someone if the description for their character was “so chaotic and randem XP”
One thing I love about these videos is they're exactly as long as they need to be to get your point across, no longer and no shorter. I wish this wasn't a rare thing on TH-cam.
8:59 I like to add that multiple characters can want the same thing but the reason, the why they want needs to be unique to that character, to their arch or place in the story, that is what makes them different character.
Like a lot of globe-trotting adventure stories where multiple characters are after a MacGuffin that will, say, grant them a wish. Yakko's Wish, Brave Story, Puss in Boots II: The Last Wish, Street Fighter x Tekken.......
10:45 I think a cool topic to cover is how one cannot create “one character” stories, as external stimuli required to change the main character invariably becomes a character in itself. Wilson from Castaway, for example, while completely imagined, is treated as a completely separate entity to Chuck, and therefore, for the purpose of the story, is. This is exactly what happened when I wrote a short story that was supposed to be a “one character” story. The dead character may not have undergone a character arc, but it still existed within the mind of my living character as a catalyst for change. Therefore, it wasn’t really a “one character story”, but rather, an “only one character arc” story. Lemme know what ya think. Great video as always, LocalBardMan.
Yeah I agree, I’d more generally say that a character cannot exist without other forces to bounce off. But I wouldn’t say those forces have to be conscious characters. I just know I’d get flack for the wording
@@localscriptman I've read plenty of stories where the main character was the only character being focused on, and it was still a fun read. Why? Well, simple. That character's interactions with various stuff was just fun. That bouncing off things is dynamic and fun. I find that you need A dynamic for a story to be fun, as for what that dynamic should be, or how complex, it's really up to the author to decide as anything is fine. It can be something as simple as a bee bouncing from flower to flower, or an episodic sci fi show of a spaceship with a massive crew bouncing from planet to planet. As long as the flowers are of different colors and the planets hold different factions from each other, then it doesn't really matter how simple or complex the cast is. People are going to call it fun, because it's dynamic, meaning stuff is different on every bounce, despite being a simple concept. This ties back to the solo guy talking to a dead ghost. As long as the interactions with the ghost is dynamic on a character level, and it leads to a satisfying conclusion, people will call it a great story. And the ghost isn't even a real "character", well it is, but readers aren't going to view it that way.
I get it. It's frustrating to want to treat characters you have a personal attachment to as a creator, more like an actual person. But you fundamentally don't know every last motivation, every last internal conflict, every last priority of a person. You DO have to know those things if you want to write a character with internal consistency, though. But once you know those things, you also have to have the reservation to not post and signal them everywhere in your story, because then you make your character less like a person to others. All these fundamental things you know about this entity you've created, things you wouldn't even know about your own family members, have to just kind of float around and be available for when they're needed to interact with an event in a verisimilitudinous (true-to-life) way. In other words, it's hidden effort you have to put into creation to make the creating look effortless.
This was super helpful. We always hear the question "what does your character want?" but we rarely get the follow up of "why?". these things are rooted in their past and their emotions, and it can be hard to remember that when you're all caught up in the whats of the world and not focused on the whys.
The beauty of your approach to screenwriting Local, is that you have created a method to “have the characters write themselves” which to me has always been a nebulous concept but now that I have a more concrete approach they legitimately write themselves. Not because “I totally know their personalities” or whatever, but I know their core beliefs, how they reflect on the stories theme and what natural conflicts will arise. I’ve been surprised as with this method, the character I have in mind as the protagonist ends up changing because there ends up being other characters with far more interesting conflicts and narrative potential.
This seems similar to my approach to writing. I often say that my characters are their own people and I mean it. When writing how they interact, there are times when what they do is actually counter to how I wanted the story to progress. This usually results in me having to restructure the plot because of their decisions, decisions that I had not even thought of until we got to that point with them.
As a 2-3 month long viewer, I’m definitely feeling an evolution in the content you’re making. It’s clear that you’re still asking and thinking through new writing questions and dilemmas and that process shines through when comparing this video to older ones. I like how you also involve what you’re clients have in their heads when discussing the subjects you go through, it helps to relate better to the thought process you have. That’s all I had to say!
@@FrilledMayfly_AmberlyFerrule bruh, how do you keep finding me on random comment sections? Also I'm assuming you're a fan of Local's content, because if so that is awesome.
@@MageBurger We seem to watch similar content, like things on world building and character writing...! Though this is my first time watching Local! Tonight I've been binging a lot of Savage Book's videos!
@@FrilledMayfly_AmberlyFerrule sounds like an interesting guy, just subscribed to Book. As for Local, the one thing I know is that I love his content for just being so gosh darn precise with everything writing related! While writing still isn’t at all a smooth process, Local’s systems have felt like the strongest pieces of advice I feel I’ll ever receive in the field for a very long time. I’m still averse to involving another live human being in the writing process, but in the meantime, I’ve got systems to implement! Hope you enjoy your stay on this channel if you decide to watch more of his stuff!
If there's one thing I've learned from you (and all the other great advice I've found on writing in my searches) it's that you can't just make a character "Fun" and expect them to hold up under any real investigation. Creating a character (or a narrative, or a theme) with dramatic weight is Hard work, and it takes real effort and thought to craft something that feels even a little original and truthful. But considering how impactful those things feel when they're done right, I'd say it's work that's well worth the sweat and tears. (Really happy to see your videos popping up more frequently on here now; it's always cool to watch your methodologies unfold.)
It works in roleplays because there are several other people helping carry that weight, plus the setting that's already been drafted up. This falls short when it comes to a story one person is reading or writing at a time, hence why Baldur's Gate 3's story sucks. Hot take.
Man I've been following your stuff since month 1. (remember that video on action scenes and "finding the right move" moments?) Since then, you've helped me truly understand the theory and structures behind the best works and the skills of the best writers! All delivered in concise, casual, dryly humorous videos
I’ve been struggling with this exact concept for weeks now! It’s honestly gotten me burnt out on writing. Thank you! You really give some of the best writing advice I’ve ever heard!
This is actually an interesting way to approach “self-authoring” or self-exploration as well. At some point, your principles and values you think are held equally may come into conflict, and you’ll have to make a choice.
I will say the idea of- Your core of a character is the point where back story/trauma meets belief/drive. Really clarifies WHY some of my characters feel so alive, while others just tend to flop and feel like lifeless networks of loosely connected traits/tropes. I also realized I have a MASSIVE inefficiency where when I tried to "naturally develop" characters, I would basically just make a character by slapping random traits and ideas together which rarely resulted in a "core". The characters that I had that DID develop into something substantial are the ones that ended up forced into situations where they absolutely NEEDED a why. Also it made me realize that for those characters that did naturally form their underlying "core" is very similar, typically some sort of fear that they'd lose control of themselves or never had control in the first place and would become or already are something less than human- Typically as an extension of the fear of becoming just like the people/monsters that made their lives hell in the first place- And a lot of their natural character development after I basically made these cores by accident, was them deciding to either rise above the circumstances behind their creation, or going rogue to become the monster that society always expected them to be. The core was there, but basically just out of sheer luck/subconscious manifestation because that was NEVER the plan, I just kept stumbling into multiple interpretations of the same theme while trying to write vaguely supernatural themed characters.
That awkward moment when you're trying to research writing techniques and the video gets so real your therapy comes creeping out through MS Paint Crancesca needing to have an Anxious or Avoidant Attachment Style. Also how often does it SNOW (or rain?) in the DESERT and you're just way out in the middle of nowhere casually dropping truth bombs during a natural phenomenon. Phenombombs. Carry on.
There is so many psychological concepts that can help flesh out characters. Tropes are a great short hand, but if you want characters with depth learning about psychology is the way to go and you've absolutely demonstrated that!
I broke ground with this when I was about 17 & realized, on an intuitive level, that decent characters were actually way more simple than I made them out to be. I had a core cast of four dealing with a pretty tropey situation & managed to wring just a thread of compelling ideas out of each one. The secret was to come up with a single "I need" sentence they clung to like gospel, that dominated their awareness & determined their worldview, but the thing they needed had to be ephemeral & just out of reach. It could be some change to their situation or some change to themselves, & usually the differences between those two characters was fairly interesting. When they got close to the thing, they felt good, secure, confident, at peace. When they got further away, they felt anxious, shitty, worthless, & reckless. Then, crucially, when something came along to fundamentally challenge whether or not they really "needed" the thing in their "I need" sentence, they lost it. Full breakdown, ego death, capacity for growth & change as a person. It worked in my setting because so much of it was plotless meandering. It was a pretty huge weakness to the concept & I basically abandoned it, but figuring out I could imagine really compelling scenarios from such unbelievably simply premises felt like striking gold in high school. There was the girl who "needed" to solve the big problem that hurt everyone, who felt good when she could mitigate it & felt like shit when she couldn't, without realizing that her birth was the catalyst for the big problem in the first place. There was the kid who "needed" to be useful, who is pained by how useless he is in the context he's placed in, but is also pained anytime he's capable of being useful, who comes to wonder if he owes the people around him anything at all if it will only hurt. There was the man who "needed" freedom, who felt like a king when he had no tether but chaffed against his responsibilities, who slowly came to realize all he actually wanted was an out. These particular instantiations aren't high literature, but, for an amateur, they were improvements on what the characters were. You can go further into "Soul motivations" discussed in this video, & I know I recorded similar information somewhere in those extensive character sheets, but at the time those sentences worked exceptionally for what I "needed."
i love your videos so much!! i'm not a writer at all but i am an artist and always debate whether i should stick my existing character designs into a story or not. your channel has helped me realize all of the thought and structure that goes behind good storytelling!!
I always looked at stories like Harry Potter, or FF7, or other long stories where everything is so well written and everything's interesting, and I always felt a little jealous because I sorta want to do that same to, I was like "Man, I wish I had that idea first," but after finding this channel and watching the stuff here I've found that it's all so much easier and simpler than I thought, and I've already gone through these cycles and ideas you talk about in my head, and it just works. So glad I found this channel, it's helping a lot!
I always felt the same way until I realized something. Always remember: when you envy those ideas, recognize that those writers haven’t had all of YOUR ideas. If everyone had all the same ideas, we’d have far fewer interesting stories. “I wish I had that idea first.” You have a lifetime of experiences nobody else has ever had. You have interesting things to say that nobody has ever said. Create them, and someday somebody will say, “I wish I had had your idea first.” Everyone’s in the same boat. So start paddling!
as someone with lots of interesting ideas, the hard part is developing them, u can take the most generic idea and make it interesting or take the most interesting idea and make it sht or worst, unfinished
Man, i've been working on a favorite character of mine, and your video has perfectly encapsulated what my worries about him are. I know everything about his external self, but i haven't been able to really understand what his true deeper motivations and wants are. I appreciate the advice in this video, and im excited to start applying it to him!
Your writing advice is actually so amazing! I find that most TH-camrs have really bare videos in the grand scheme of things and I find your content to be really refreshing. (You actually remind me a lot of another TH-camr I really like: Schnee. He mostly analyzes other movies and TV shows, but he gives writing advice from analyzing especially impressive writing. You two are the only writers I trust on the internet right now.) ANYWAY! I've learned a lot from your videos about characterization and dialogue and such. But what I currently struggle with the most is the outlining stage. I can come up with really cool concepts and a cool beginning and then I have no idea where to go from there. Is it just intensive brainstorm to get through plotting? I feel like there's some system or methodology that I'm missing out on or I don't understand yet. I have my character's internal beliefs, I have a theme, I have their arcs. I'm just not sure what should happen throughout the story.
7:37 High key, this sounds like it'd be really helpful as a therapy exercise - like a '5 Whys' that actually points to something. I, for one, will 100% be booking a consultation as soon as I've got first pass of my story done.
"Wow, I wouldn't want to get eaten by a monster too." This is a half-formed thought, but I think any element of the story that [broadly] affects all the characters and they have the same reaction to said element is something that should be classified as 'setting' or 'world' rather than 'motivation'. Because characters exist to give unique viewpoints on perspectives - if everyone acts the same, there aren't a bunch of characters on the screen, there's only one. So it's not a dimension along which people can differ or contrast, ergo it's not a dimension of character at all. In a zombie survival story, everyone is running from the zombies, everyone is afraid of being eaten or infected, everyone is struggling to survive when infrastructure and trust and safety has broken down. Any characterization to make anyone interesting has to be on top of that, since that's all default. In The Terminator, it's a single specific woman being chased by a mechanical zombie, and she has to navigate her survival in a world where no body else is dealing with that. Just surviving is enough, because it's just happening to Sarah Conner.
I started making a playlist to save some of these videos and then I realized I was on my way to just saving every video on the channel so... thank you. This is top tier content.
Indiana Jones does have an arc in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. He starts of as a man engrossed in his job due to his separation from Marion from when he was a student. That's the point of the eyelid moment, and the university scene in general and how it contrasts with the high adventure of the opening scene, he doesn't have a life outside of treasure hunting. Throughout the story he gives up on the Ark after repeatedly putting Marion through danger. This is shown when he threatens the Nazis with a bazooka. In the end the government stashes the Ark away and he is a bit annoyed, but you can see that he is very happy to be joined by Marion even though he is not on an adventure and the Ark won't end up in a museum nor studied. Then George fucked everything up with Temple Of Doom being a prequel and wanting to make him into a Bond-like unchanging character.
I really appreciate these videos, it's great not just in a "I should avoid doing this" way, but also sometimes I feel like "Oh cool, I'm actually already doing that" and it's quite nice to be able to have that kind of reflection instead of just constantly worrying.
I have observed this myself, where I would start putting together a character concept that would have a handful of traits, and then some of those traits would be discards as I develop their story because there is simply no place for those traits.
I would love to see you make a video about what I feel would be the next step after you have your themes and your thematic characters in place. I understand that the sky is the limit on this part, going from the core motivations to winning a zucchini contest, but the fact that the options are endless is halting my progress, it seems difficult to translate themes into real world scenarios, world building, inciting incidents, whether to incorporate magic systems, what elements would amplify and what elements would detract from the themes I want to talk about.
Would love a video about making character arcs over multiple books, so that each book feels like is has a satisfying arc that are each a part of the larger arc! 🙏🏼
I now want to draw fanart of Crancesca, because with her as example you put in words something that helped me understand another thing about my own characters 😅 Your videos are amazing ❤
This is a great summary of the process I realised while watching that I went through when I decided to reboot the 9 year old webcomic I'd made and still loved the characters into my current webcomic (Yeah, not necessarily the best idea; lead to lots of extraneous characters, but that was a thing I learned from this). I had to reverse-engineer characters who can go through a narrative arc from these static "OCs". Some of them changed a lot, because a character who is just a legitimately confident gutsy girlboss is hard to build a narrative around (Captain Marvel learned the hard way...), so the girlboss protagonist ended up as this deeply insecure person who tries to act like a badass girlboss, and it made her so much more likeable and compelling while keeping those surface elements like "has a big sword, loves to fight, says gutsy action movie lines"... but when I first did it, I was like "is this still the same person!?" Ultimately... she both is and isn't, because the old version of the character was a sort of shallow idea about being a really song cool girl created by a teenager, and now she's a young woman who tries to project that idea as a facade. I do know she's a way more interesting character, though, in a better story.
i always admired the phrase "the lie the character believes" because it is an easy route to figuring out the character's arc as it forces the writer to think of some flaw or flawed worldview they think they know so as you write them going through the story they will finish learning that lie is no longer something they believe anymore. This, of course, doesn't work if the character is a paragon, flat character arc or something like that
Ive always loved being critical of the media i enjoy. I feel like this video really resonates with me and why i find certain popular pieces of media to be very uninteresting and boring. Its not that the shots arent beautiful or the score isnt amazing, but the characters are too easy, too safe, too human. I think the best stories in media are those that challenge the audiences perception of self, and isnt relatable to everyone, yet, still digestiable and understable by everyone. And i love that silly ms paint diagrams are literally all this put into ridiculously easy to visualize concepts.
you are practically the only creator with writing related videos that manages to make everything digestible, interesting and useful - thank you, genuinely, i appreciate your videos a lot
You've helped to rewire my approach when it comes to writing, reading, and analyzing narratives in a new and concisely defined way. Thank you for doing what you do.
You probably wouldn’t be able to do a duel character arc with a conventional Hollywood story structure… but an EASTERN 4 act structure with 3 act elements might get you somewhere close! INTRO: Crancesca is a character who NEEDS close connections, she thinks of herself as weak without the people around her and she deeply fears making choices on her own. She’s stuck and has no idea what to do. (She’s chaotic in that she always relies on her friends to save her from whatever mess she gets herself into) DEVELOPMENT: She shows this through the fact that she always asks her friends for advice without taking it. She acknowledges that she does this but chooses not to do anything as she can’t see any way of living her life normally without others help, because again, she thinks of herself as the lowest of the low. (They keep talking shit about an old friend- only talking about how awful she was. Crancesca has an uncomfortable vibe, a hint that she misses her and doesn’t feel comfortable with throwing her to the side) TWIST: Some of her friends get fed up with her and betray her in a big way. (They’re the type to do anything for THEIR friends and genuinely be there for them… but if you don’t pull your weight they dehumanize you and act cruel) and now she’s stuck and confused. CONCLUSION: She wants to try and win them back, but slowly comes to terms with the fact that once they see someone as “bad”, they never let them back in. Thus she starts to make her own decisions, uncertain if she’ll make the right ones. ----- So the takeaway, for Hollywood it’s reeeeaally hard to fit in multiple character motivations since they require different character arcs, but there are ways of pulling it off :)
I think Cranchesca could work with the two motivations described. You could tell a story about her motivations coming into conflict. You could make it at tradgedy by giving her the oprotunity for change and her rejecting it and leaving her inner conflict unresolved leaving her just as vulnerable as before with a new group of friends, or let her complete her arc living her own life with a new more healthy support structure. Also, if you dont want them to come into conflict, like you said, one should take presidence, but that does not mean one motivation does not exist. For example solo Cranchesca may still search for a new friend group since her desire for belonging would not come into conflict with her desire for security in this case.
Ah dude, I feel you. I even take my writing further than this - I _start_ from themes and issues, then move on to beliefs about those themes/issues, build dialectics to inform conflicts, _and then_ build characters around those beliefs, and relationships around those dialectics. The issue is that this method works really well when you're prompted with something, but whenever you have a natural organic idea that you don't really understand intellectually, it's virtually impossible to communicate it completely on page. Good artists I feel are intellectual, but the material they specifically work with is, as far as they're concerned, ineffable. Doing this exploration is nice and healthy, but also we can't expect this to work with some of our most profound characters imo.
While having this kind of "new age pseudopsychology" vibe, the Enneagram typology sounds like a nice base to identify what you call "soul fears". This is also useful to check if the fears you give your characters are always the same (usually mimicking their writer's) or not. xoxoxo
This is fascinating stuff. I'm a therapist, and a lot of the awareness/lines of questioning you showcase in this video are the same awareness/tools they taught me in order to help people. That conversation about core beliefs that drive people's motivations, desires, and self-images sounds like it was ripped straight out of CBT. And that thing you said - "but WHY does he want to win the contest?" - maps very cleanly to the way I often prompt people to explore their emotions when they're unaccustomed to emotional self-awareness. For example: Client: "I feel pissed that she dumped me." Me: "Why are you pissed?" Client: "I'm pissed because I thought she cared." Me: "It sounds like you're saying you feel hurt and betrayed." Client: "...yeah. I guess I do." The main difference is that you're trying to represent compelling character arcs, while I'm trying to nurture them out of real people. But I think only good things can come from having another person who spreads awareness of the way human beings make meaning of themselves, others, and the world. 🙂
Great video, is always a pleasure to see you take apart story structures. I disagree with one of your points though. The one about a monster being the motivation for different characters. It's not about the motivation it's how they manage to get past it. Like one maybe just gives up, other face it and try to fight, others just run away. There's so much complexity that we can explore putting people in a situation. That's why the zombie-esq settings or post apocaliptic ones are a great base to see how different people react to the scenario. Anyway... great video overall. Keep it up man
Yeah I would agree, I don’t think I worded it super well. If survival scenarios can draw out deeper drives & beliefs, that’s fine with me. I just don’t have any interest in writing survival for the sake or survival. And I don’t particularly like writing survival stories about generic hope or the will to live either, but that’s a more baseless preference
Why are you so fucking cool? I mean it, like I actually wanna know why. Like you seem like such a real dude, ya know? I *love* watching your videos because your approaches are so logical and reasonable and so easy to understand, but also because the way you talk is just so real and genuine. I guess I just answered my own question so I guess this is just a compliment
your videos have had an actual affect on the way i write. i was adept enough in technical stuff. but you really made me learn the characterization and other abstract things about storywriting. thank you so much
I hope that one more comment on the subject means something: Your writing analysis and subsequent explanations are the best I've ever experienced. I'm a new writer who's been scouring YT for all the free info I can to educate myself. After watching I-don't-know-how-many-hours of writing content, I can safely say that you explain more information, better, in ~10 minutes, than most industry veterans do in 30+. (not every ball player can be a good coach) I've been doing therapy for 21 years, so I know these concepts, but seeing and hearing them broken down so efficiently and in such an easily digestible way is quite literally invaluable to me. I hope your channel blows up, you absolutely deserve it! (but not with bombs, the metaphorical kind) Thank you!!
This has been plaguing me for years and finally I understand. I suppose i should just... Keep asking whys. Oh!! I know! Treat it like literary analysis to reverse engineer it! I could do that. Okay but seriously this video has helped me understand how to tackle this. You don't know how many 'character sheets' i used back when i was a tween because that's what i thought helped, but all the questions were so... Surface level. Literally. There's eye color questions. And whenever i got to fears or whatnot, my answers were surface level too. Also coming up with motivations for the characters in my original stories is so hard too. I used to see it in my mind like, this one character looking pensive, conflicted, before deciding to help character B, but not really beyond it, and stuff like that. An implied soul is exactly it. Thank you a lot for this video
Man the fact you post stuff like this for free is insane. I've done non fiction writing my whole life as a journalist precisely because I felt uncomfortable with a lot of the delicate parts of character creation (my style always been a little straightforward and maybe too direct). I've made the jump into non-fiction pretty much entirely because of this channel, just great content.
As far as this writing advice genre goes you probably have the most engaging and understandable presentation I've seen. Nice stuff, very straightforward
Thank you for the video. Your videos have actually been very helpful in fleshing out my characters and helping me figuring out what I like/ is good about my work and what needs fixing. I look forward to seeing what insights you have.
You'll probably see this. Thanks for the videos, man. I'm a theme-centric guy as well and although I don't write in a while, it still gives me a lot of ground for story analysis in my videos. Thanks for keeping me in check about storytelling :)
The first Indiana Jones movie displays that his priority is the acquisition of knowledge; it's why he lets the Nazis capture him instead of leaving with Marion and it's why, after knowing that the Ark contains forces not to be meddled with, he's still angry with the US government for locking it up. Then, in Last Crusade, we see his father was driven by more than pursuit of knowledge; it's why the opening scene is more than a fun little origin of his fear of snakes/where we got his fedora. Indy and his father are both driven by the pursuit of knowledge but for Henry Jones Senior, protection of sacred knowledge is more important than acquisition.
I don't know what my mother or father's "deepest fear" is, but I still know how they would react in a given situation. I've seen them change and grow over my life, go through trauma and loss. They are different people now, they've had an "arc". I don't need to psychoanalyse them and say "oh no this person's anxious-response takes precedence over their fear-response" in order to know how they act.
Not every "sole motivation" needs to be a false belief or overcoming fear. People can have positive motivations eg. doing good, changing the world, having fun. People can have existential motivations eg. finding themself, understanding the world. People can have negative motivations eg. hurting others. To name a few. Or....better yet, people can have multiple competing motivations which are impossible to separate and need not be cut up and butchered into a forced "arc".
@@andyroobrick-a-brack9355 If you want a classic Hollywood arc of positive change then a overcoming some false belief or fear is par for the course. But this is not the only kind of story, there are negative arcs and flat arcs. There are stories about friendship (Shawshank Redemption), about love (Brokeback Mountain), about trauma (there's hundreds, Manchester by the Sea for example), or even just pure survival (127 Hours). Or there are films basically without any characters like American Psycho. Or look at post-modern films like Kaufman's. Stories are far more than just the standard Hollywood formula.
I forget where I read it, but imagining what a characters medicine cabinet looks like is a good way to give them depth to yourself as the writer, even if you wouldnt have a reason to actually show the cabinet to the reader
I like the MS Paint/Whiteboard progression Super good and concise vid, I find it easy to get lost in the minutia of story beats and my arc falls to the wayside for the sake of trying to stay on top of pacing and pushing the story forward. Watching this video forced me to pause and open my notepad to write down what makes my characters tick. You explained the core motivation really well, I never considered what a person "wants" as the fulcrum between their past and their arc in the story. Great stuff as usual.
I feel rather confident with how I've tried 'hitting the bedrock' with why my characters pursue a certain goal, but I'll definitely use your wonderful little flowchart to see if it checks out for them. I've established my characters perspectives on a specific theme/issue and I've given them appropriate backstories to inform where that perspective is coming from and how it might shift, but 'hitting the bedrock' may be the last key experiment to see if how I've written them sticks. As always with your videos, there's always something new to learn and apply. Edit: Already doing the mental flow diagram in my head for my main character, and I think that a significant change is in order to make their goal and motivation consistent with their soul motivation. Okay, this is actually very important and revelatory. There was just something about my MC's motivations in the first act that didn't gel with the rest of the story and what he want and why he does what he does... a rewrite may be in order.
The examples really being this to life. Would be great to see a few more, especially where the same core need manifested in different ways. Thanks for making these, each one takes me back to the drawing board but the story gets better each time.
I really like the backstory vs thing they want to do distinction, and how their motives are in between that! I'm very good at asking why, but pretty bad at knowing when to stop
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
5:20 is a slip-up, I meant to say “conscious want” please don’t curse my bloodline
Ah too late. It is done
woe, plague upon ye
Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow…
What did the cow do? @@erinh1118
@johndoe70770 I subconsciously expected him to say subconscious want not knowing that he consciously wanted to say conscious want which my subconscious did not realize was consciously correct
scriptman, you've revolutionized my view on writing and the psychology behind making good characters, thank you for this high quality ms paint content during these trying times.
No prob, happy to help 🎨
Same here bro, this man changed my view of what a theme is and how to build a story based on it
Okay I'm not a good writer never was but this man's videos have made my writing way better for sure
Fucked up they threw a brick at crancesca and then she was forced to be two halved versions of herself stitched together
I love the absolutely unhinged MS Paint explanations that, ironically, are always extremely useful and practical
It gives me TH-cam vibes. Having professional visuals is great and all, but his MS Paint shows that you can communicate in easy to understand way with basic skills. It also helps his editing and script are great.
@@ZelphTheWebmancer I'm invested in the zucchini farmer story. Did he win the contest? Did he earn the love of the townspeople?
9:08 there's this concept in poetry that really applies here: detail is more relatable than vagueness. Basically, people won't relate to your story if you shy away from details in order to make it more relatable. If you are writing about someone brushing their teeth, it's more relatable if you tell the reader that their tooth brush is pink and a little bit too stiff, than if you just say "toothbrush." Sure, not everyone has a pink, too stiff toothbrush, but relatability does not come from the reader imagining that the character lives in their own life, but the reader being able to imagine that they could live the character's life. A reader can't imagine living someone else's life without details. When it comes to creating motivations, it's the same. Most insecurities and fears are, to some extent, relatable to everyone. If your character's deepest motivation is not specific, it won't be relatable because then the reader can't imagine themself living the character's life.
THISSSS!!! SO TRUE
This
Stiff toothbrush---> doesn't brush often---> messy person---> doesn't plan out day
Boom, from this single description, I was able to characterize this rando out of the hundreds of ways they can be characterized from "stiff toothbrush". While I personally can't relate to not brushing my teeth, I can relate to sometimes being messy or not paying attention. From this single quality, I understand some aspect of the character and want to know more
Way more relatable than "person brushes teeth", even though that's something that everyone does. Just demonstrates how important these details can be
@@ArgusAloneagree with this but I think a stiff toothbrush comes from not changing your toothbrush regularly, which still shows a lack of self care
@@rojo1945 they get softer as they're used which could indicate good hygiene because they either change it often enough to seem new, change it too often maybe a touch of OCD or bad hygeine because they don't use it enough hence it is like new.
Or they picked a medium to hard instead of soft.
"And she's also super chaotic. They love that word."
Lol, I know exactly what people you're talking about, dude. Also, I really appreciate the silly names you come up with for your hypotheticals.
I bet if you ask people to substantiate what that chaotic means, they will stumble for a bit.
“Chaotic” as a character trait nowadays means
- Quirky™️, so basically acting like a big bang theory character but Attractive and Not A Nerd
- Literally the most awful, toxic character in the party who is only still here and not dead because the author/DM demands it
Agent of chaos
Funny goblin person
Quirky little baby
I hate these characters.
Tell me you've all played D&D without telling me you've all played D&D.
Funny enough, this is also a great strategy to have deep conversations with friends and family, though most people aren't as fully aware of their bedrock motivations (which is why I think writing them from 1st principles can be difficult)
Yeah it’s also hard to write deep characters if you’re not aware of your own deeper levels
Dude, I've been watching you for a while and I just gotta say, I love how structured and technical you get with your topics. Not to shit on other writing advice channels, but I feel like the discourse is dominated by conversation about themes, vibes, and tropes, but never really cover the structural, logical, "give your story a framework" parts. Usually it's just general vibe advice like, "Your protagonist and antagonist should reflect one another in some way." Like, yeah, no shit. Now how do you actually organize that further than a "We're not so different, you and I" handwave?
Anyways, I'm rambling. Just wanted to say I appreciate your content for actually talking about the bones of story structure instead of just hurling platitudes focused on windowdressing.
Yup that’s what I aim for, glad to hear it’s been useful!
Your writing advice is pretty good, but your hypothetical character names are next level. Can I hire you as a character naming consultant?
Ya
Alien: literally everyone didn’t want to get eaten by the monster
Yep I wouldn't personally write something like Alien
Crancesca is in my top 10 fictional characters of all time.
Friday afternoon, stuck in a meeting that could have been an email, and what in my subscription box should appear but another dollop of insight into the craft of writing fiction. Thank you for yet another entertaining and informative lesson. And a perfectly timed distraction.
Happy to serve 🫡
Email? Subscription box?? DOLLOP???
Scriptman, you haven’t revolutionized how I think about stories because you have said out loud everything I have felt when being critiqued. You’ve revolutionized how much more passionately I will YEll at people giving me unsolicited and bad advice.
I imagine being a consultant in this context is difficult because I would have a hard time resisting the urge to slap someone if the description for their character was “so chaotic and randem XP”
One thing I love about these videos is they're exactly as long as they need to be to get your point across, no longer and no shorter. I wish this wasn't a rare thing on TH-cam.
8:59 I like to add that multiple characters can want the same thing but the reason, the why they want needs to be unique to that character, to their arch or place in the story, that is what makes them different character.
Totally - or, alternatively, they have completely different paths in life, but deep down the same core need. I find those equally as interesting
@@localscriptman Seems pretty interesting, though I can’t think of story with such premise. Can you provide some examples?
@@zerohz Nothing from pop culture off the top of my head, but I see it a lot in my work
Lots of heist movies have that, though if they have a larger cast they usually don't get into the specifics beyond "one (1) skill, want money"
Like a lot of globe-trotting adventure stories where multiple characters are after a MacGuffin that will, say, grant them a wish. Yakko's Wish, Brave Story, Puss in Boots II: The Last Wish, Street Fighter x Tekken.......
"Why do I want to win the tournament? Well, it all started at the beginning of the known universe..."
10:45 I think a cool topic to cover is how one cannot create “one character” stories, as external stimuli required to change the main character invariably becomes a character in itself. Wilson from Castaway, for example, while completely imagined, is treated as a completely separate entity to Chuck, and therefore, for the purpose of the story, is.
This is exactly what happened when I wrote a short story that was supposed to be a “one character” story. The dead character may not have undergone a character arc, but it still existed within the mind of my living character as a catalyst for change. Therefore, it wasn’t really a “one character story”, but rather, an “only one character arc” story.
Lemme know what ya think. Great video as always, LocalBardMan.
Yeah I agree, I’d more generally say that a character cannot exist without other forces to bounce off. But I wouldn’t say those forces have to be conscious characters. I just know I’d get flack for the wording
@@localscriptman I've read plenty of stories where the main character was the only character being focused on, and it was still a fun read. Why? Well, simple. That character's interactions with various stuff was just fun. That bouncing off things is dynamic and fun.
I find that you need A dynamic for a story to be fun, as for what that dynamic should be, or how complex, it's really up to the author to decide as anything is fine.
It can be something as simple as a bee bouncing from flower to flower, or an episodic sci fi show of a spaceship with a massive crew bouncing from planet to planet. As long as the flowers are of different colors and the planets hold different factions from each other, then it doesn't really matter how simple or complex the cast is. People are going to call it fun, because it's dynamic, meaning stuff is different on every bounce, despite being a simple concept.
This ties back to the solo guy talking to a dead ghost. As long as the interactions with the ghost is dynamic on a character level, and it leads to a satisfying conclusion, people will call it a great story. And the ghost isn't even a real "character", well it is, but readers aren't going to view it that way.
I get it. It's frustrating to want to treat characters you have a personal attachment to as a creator, more like an actual person. But you fundamentally don't know every last motivation, every last internal conflict, every last priority of a person. You DO have to know those things if you want to write a character with internal consistency, though. But once you know those things, you also have to have the reservation to not post and signal them everywhere in your story, because then you make your character less like a person to others. All these fundamental things you know about this entity you've created, things you wouldn't even know about your own family members, have to just kind of float around and be available for when they're needed to interact with an event in a verisimilitudinous (true-to-life) way. In other words, it's hidden effort you have to put into creation to make the creating look effortless.
This was super helpful. We always hear the question "what does your character want?" but we rarely get the follow up of "why?". these things are rooted in their past and their emotions, and it can be hard to remember that when you're all caught up in the whats of the world and not focused on the whys.
The beauty of your approach to screenwriting Local, is that you have created a method to “have the characters write themselves” which to me has always been a nebulous concept but now that I have a more concrete approach they legitimately write themselves. Not because “I totally know their personalities” or whatever, but I know their core beliefs, how they reflect on the stories theme and what natural conflicts will arise. I’ve been surprised as with this method, the character I have in mind as the protagonist ends up changing because there ends up being other characters with far more interesting conflicts and narrative potential.
This seems similar to my approach to writing. I often say that my characters are their own people and I mean it. When writing how they interact, there are times when what they do is actually counter to how I wanted the story to progress. This usually results in me having to restructure the plot because of their decisions, decisions that I had not even thought of until we got to that point with them.
When I write characters I make sure to answer two important questions
1. What do they want in the story?
2. What do they want in life?
As a 2-3 month long viewer, I’m definitely feeling an evolution in the content you’re making. It’s clear that you’re still asking and thinking through new writing questions and dilemmas and that process shines through when comparing this video to older ones.
I like how you also involve what you’re clients have in their heads when discussing the subjects you go through, it helps to relate better to the thought process you have.
That’s all I had to say!
My my...!! MageBurger out in the wild! Fancy seeing you here....!!
@@FrilledMayfly_AmberlyFerrule bruh, how do you keep finding me on random comment sections?
Also I'm assuming you're a fan of Local's content, because if so that is awesome.
@@MageBurger We seem to watch similar content, like things on world building and character writing...! Though this is my first time watching Local! Tonight I've been binging a lot of Savage Book's videos!
@@FrilledMayfly_AmberlyFerrule sounds like an interesting guy, just subscribed to Book.
As for Local, the one thing I know is that I love his content for just being so gosh darn precise with everything writing related! While writing still isn’t at all a smooth process, Local’s systems have felt like the strongest pieces of advice I feel I’ll ever receive in the field for a very long time. I’m still averse to involving another live human being in the writing process, but in the meantime, I’ve got systems to implement!
Hope you enjoy your stay on this channel if you decide to watch more of his stuff!
I am glad to witness this re-encounter of 2 people on the internet
If there's one thing I've learned from you (and all the other great advice I've found on writing in my searches) it's that you can't just make a character "Fun" and expect them to hold up under any real investigation. Creating a character (or a narrative, or a theme) with dramatic weight is Hard work, and it takes real effort and thought to craft something that feels even a little original and truthful. But considering how impactful those things feel when they're done right, I'd say it's work that's well worth the sweat and tears.
(Really happy to see your videos popping up more frequently on here now; it's always cool to watch your methodologies unfold.)
It works in roleplays because there are several other people helping carry that weight, plus the setting that's already been drafted up.
This falls short when it comes to a story one person is reading or writing at a time, hence why Baldur's Gate 3's story sucks. Hot take.
Man I've been following your stuff since month 1. (remember that video on action scenes and "finding the right move" moments?)
Since then, you've helped me truly understand the theory and structures behind the best works and the skills of the best writers! All delivered in concise, casual, dryly humorous videos
Yeah I’m currently redoing that video, it might be the next one! Glad to hear I’ve been helpful
I'm sure it'll be a banger
I’ve been struggling with this exact concept for weeks now! It’s honestly gotten me burnt out on writing. Thank you! You really give some of the best writing advice I’ve ever heard!
babe wake up localscriptman posted
This is actually an interesting way to approach “self-authoring” or self-exploration as well. At some point, your principles and values you think are held equally may come into conflict, and you’ll have to make a choice.
I will say the idea of-
Your core of a character is the point where back story/trauma meets belief/drive.
Really clarifies WHY some of my characters feel so alive, while others just tend to flop and feel like lifeless networks of loosely connected traits/tropes.
I also realized I have a MASSIVE inefficiency where when I tried to "naturally develop" characters, I would basically just make a character by slapping random traits and ideas together which rarely resulted in a "core".
The characters that I had that DID develop into something substantial are the ones that ended up forced into situations where they absolutely NEEDED a why.
Also it made me realize that for those characters that did naturally form their underlying "core" is very similar, typically some sort of fear that they'd lose control of themselves or never had control in the first place and would become or already are something less than human-
Typically as an extension of the fear of becoming just like the people/monsters that made their lives hell in the first place-
And a lot of their natural character development after I basically made these cores by accident, was them deciding to either rise above the circumstances behind their creation, or going rogue to become the monster that society always expected them to be.
The core was there, but basically just out of sheer luck/subconscious manifestation because that was NEVER the plan, I just kept stumbling into multiple interpretations of the same theme while trying to write vaguely supernatural themed characters.
That awkward moment when you're trying to research writing techniques and the video gets so real your therapy comes creeping out through MS Paint Crancesca needing to have an Anxious or Avoidant Attachment Style. Also how often does it SNOW (or rain?) in the DESERT and you're just way out in the middle of nowhere casually dropping truth bombs during a natural phenomenon. Phenombombs. Carry on.
Funny, he's got a video on attachment styles.
There is so many psychological concepts that can help flesh out characters. Tropes are a great short hand, but if you want characters with depth learning about psychology is the way to go and you've absolutely demonstrated that!
I broke ground with this when I was about 17 & realized, on an intuitive level, that decent characters were actually way more simple than I made them out to be. I had a core cast of four dealing with a pretty tropey situation & managed to wring just a thread of compelling ideas out of each one. The secret was to come up with a single "I need" sentence they clung to like gospel, that dominated their awareness & determined their worldview, but the thing they needed had to be ephemeral & just out of reach. It could be some change to their situation or some change to themselves, & usually the differences between those two characters was fairly interesting. When they got close to the thing, they felt good, secure, confident, at peace. When they got further away, they felt anxious, shitty, worthless, & reckless. Then, crucially, when something came along to fundamentally challenge whether or not they really "needed" the thing in their "I need" sentence, they lost it. Full breakdown, ego death, capacity for growth & change as a person.
It worked in my setting because so much of it was plotless meandering. It was a pretty huge weakness to the concept & I basically abandoned it, but figuring out I could imagine really compelling scenarios from such unbelievably simply premises felt like striking gold in high school.
There was the girl who "needed" to solve the big problem that hurt everyone, who felt good when she could mitigate it & felt like shit when she couldn't, without realizing that her birth was the catalyst for the big problem in the first place.
There was the kid who "needed" to be useful, who is pained by how useless he is in the context he's placed in, but is also pained anytime he's capable of being useful, who comes to wonder if he owes the people around him anything at all if it will only
hurt.
There was the man who "needed" freedom, who felt like a king when he had no tether but chaffed against his responsibilities, who slowly came to realize all he actually wanted was an out.
These particular instantiations aren't high literature, but, for an amateur, they were improvements on what the characters were. You can go further into "Soul motivations" discussed in this video, & I know I recorded similar information somewhere in those extensive character sheets, but at the time those sentences worked exceptionally for what I "needed."
i love your videos so much!! i'm not a writer at all but i am an artist and always debate whether i should stick my existing character designs into a story or not. your channel has helped me realize all of the thought and structure that goes behind good storytelling!!
I always looked at stories like Harry Potter, or FF7, or other long stories where everything is so well written and everything's interesting, and I always felt a little jealous because I sorta want to do that same to, I was like "Man, I wish I had that idea first," but after finding this channel and watching the stuff here I've found that it's all so much easier and simpler than I thought, and I've already gone through these cycles and ideas you talk about in my head, and it just works.
So glad I found this channel, it's helping a lot!
I always felt the same way until I realized something. Always remember: when you envy those ideas, recognize that those writers haven’t had all of YOUR ideas. If everyone had all the same ideas, we’d have far fewer interesting stories. “I wish I had that idea first.” You have a lifetime of experiences nobody else has ever had. You have interesting things to say that nobody has ever said. Create them, and someday somebody will say, “I wish I had had your idea first.”
Everyone’s in the same boat. So start paddling!
@@Tutorial7a That is a very good point. Very inspiring, thanks for that!
as someone with lots of interesting ideas, the hard part is developing them, u can take the most generic idea and make it interesting or take the most interesting idea and make it sht or worst, unfinished
Huh, so I've actually been doing something right with my character work. Good to know.
There are few writing channels that are able to break down concepts in such an effective way. Awesome video!
THE LOCALSCRIPTMAN FANDOM HAS BEEN DINING THIS PAST WEEK 🗣 🗣 🗣
But couldn't they just 'want to survive," but they way they intend to uncovers their flaw and they have to grow to actually be able to?
Man, i've been working on a favorite character of mine, and your video has perfectly encapsulated what my worries about him are. I know everything about his external self, but i haven't been able to really understand what his true deeper motivations and wants are. I appreciate the advice in this video, and im excited to start applying it to him!
I liked when you used a pop culture example, I would love to see more of that. It helps me understand the concept you're describing super well.
Your writing advice is actually so amazing! I find that most TH-camrs have really bare videos in the grand scheme of things and I find your content to be really refreshing.
(You actually remind me a lot of another TH-camr I really like: Schnee. He mostly analyzes other movies and TV shows, but he gives writing advice from analyzing especially impressive writing. You two are the only writers I trust on the internet right now.)
ANYWAY! I've learned a lot from your videos about characterization and dialogue and such. But what I currently struggle with the most is the outlining stage. I can come up with really cool concepts and a cool beginning and then I have no idea where to go from there. Is it just intensive brainstorm to get through plotting? I feel like there's some system or methodology that I'm missing out on or I don't understand yet. I have my character's internal beliefs, I have a theme, I have their arcs. I'm just not sure what should happen throughout the story.
7:37 High key, this sounds like it'd be really helpful as a therapy exercise - like a '5 Whys' that actually points to something.
I, for one, will 100% be booking a consultation as soon as I've got first pass of my story done.
"Wow, I wouldn't want to get eaten by a monster too."
This is a half-formed thought, but I think any element of the story that [broadly] affects all the characters and they have the same reaction to said element is something that should be classified as 'setting' or 'world' rather than 'motivation'. Because characters exist to give unique viewpoints on perspectives - if everyone acts the same, there aren't a bunch of characters on the screen, there's only one. So it's not a dimension along which people can differ or contrast, ergo it's not a dimension of character at all.
In a zombie survival story, everyone is running from the zombies, everyone is afraid of being eaten or infected, everyone is struggling to survive when infrastructure and trust and safety has broken down. Any characterization to make anyone interesting has to be on top of that, since that's all default.
In The Terminator, it's a single specific woman being chased by a mechanical zombie, and she has to navigate her survival in a world where no body else is dealing with that. Just surviving is enough, because it's just happening to Sarah Conner.
I started making a playlist to save some of these videos and then I realized I was on my way to just saving every video on the channel so... thank you. This is top tier content.
Always appreciate how well and practical you explain storytelling. You make it seem so do-able.
So many uploads! This is awesome.
Indiana Jones does have an arc in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. He starts of as a man engrossed in his job due to his separation from Marion from when he was a student. That's the point of the eyelid moment, and the university scene in general and how it contrasts with the high adventure of the opening scene, he doesn't have a life outside of treasure hunting. Throughout the story he gives up on the Ark after repeatedly putting Marion through danger. This is shown when he threatens the Nazis with a bazooka. In the end the government stashes the Ark away and he is a bit annoyed, but you can see that he is very happy to be joined by Marion even though he is not on an adventure and the Ark won't end up in a museum nor studied.
Then George fucked everything up with Temple Of Doom being a prequel and wanting to make him into a Bond-like unchanging character.
I really appreciate these videos, it's great not just in a "I should avoid doing this" way, but also sometimes I feel like "Oh cool, I'm actually already doing that" and it's quite nice to be able to have that kind of reflection instead of just constantly worrying.
I have observed this myself, where I would start putting together a character concept that would have a handful of traits, and then some of those traits would be discards as I develop their story because there is simply no place for those traits.
You have opened my eyes. I thank you.
I would love to see you make a video about what I feel would be the next step after you have your themes and your thematic characters in place. I understand that the sky is the limit on this part, going from the core motivations to winning a zucchini contest, but the fact that the options are endless is halting my progress, it seems difficult to translate themes into real world scenarios, world building, inciting incidents, whether to incorporate magic systems, what elements would amplify and what elements would detract from the themes I want to talk about.
Would love a video about making character arcs over multiple books, so that each book feels like is has a satisfying arc that are each a part of the larger arc! 🙏🏼
I can tell there were several moments where you almost mentioned enneagram but had to resist temptation.
Thank you so much for making this video
Subscribed! Already loving the idea of short form nuggets of wisdom with longer pieces of thought too.
I now want to draw fanart of Crancesca, because with her as example you put in words something that helped me understand another thing about my own characters 😅
Your videos are amazing ❤
This is a great summary of the process I realised while watching that I went through when I decided to reboot the 9 year old webcomic I'd made and still loved the characters into my current webcomic (Yeah, not necessarily the best idea; lead to lots of extraneous characters, but that was a thing I learned from this).
I had to reverse-engineer characters who can go through a narrative arc from these static "OCs". Some of them changed a lot, because a character who is just a legitimately confident gutsy girlboss is hard to build a narrative around (Captain Marvel learned the hard way...), so the girlboss protagonist ended up as this deeply insecure person who tries to act like a badass girlboss, and it made her so much more likeable and compelling while keeping those surface elements like "has a big sword, loves to fight, says gutsy action movie lines"... but when I first did it, I was like "is this still the same person!?" Ultimately... she both is and isn't, because the old version of the character was a sort of shallow idea about being a really song cool girl created by a teenager, and now she's a young woman who tries to project that idea as a facade. I do know she's a way more interesting character, though, in a better story.
Live directly from the soulplane - apparently its a desert with slight snowfall.
More news at six.
2:00 I love how you're outside in the most scuffed weather
thank you for putting the sponsourship at the end,not in the middle.
i always admired the phrase "the lie the character believes" because it is an easy route to figuring out the character's arc as it forces the writer to think of some flaw or flawed worldview they think they know so as you write them going through the story they will finish learning that lie is no longer something they believe anymore. This, of course, doesn't work if the character is a paragon, flat character arc or something like that
Ive always loved being critical of the media i enjoy. I feel like this video really resonates with me and why i find certain popular pieces of media to be very uninteresting and boring. Its not that the shots arent beautiful or the score isnt amazing, but the characters are too easy, too safe, too human. I think the best stories in media are those that challenge the audiences perception of self, and isnt relatable to everyone, yet, still digestiable and understable by everyone. And i love that silly ms paint diagrams are literally all this put into ridiculously easy to visualize concepts.
you are practically the only creator with writing related videos that manages to make everything digestible, interesting and useful - thank you, genuinely, i appreciate your videos a lot
You've helped to rewire my approach when it comes to writing, reading, and analyzing narratives in a new and concisely defined way. Thank you for doing what you do.
You probably wouldn’t be able to do a duel character arc with a conventional Hollywood story structure… but an EASTERN 4 act structure with 3 act elements might get you somewhere close!
INTRO: Crancesca is a character who NEEDS close connections, she thinks of herself as weak without the people around her and she deeply fears making choices on her own. She’s stuck and has no idea what to do. (She’s chaotic in that she always relies on her friends to save her from whatever mess she gets herself into)
DEVELOPMENT: She shows this through the fact that she always asks her friends for advice without taking it. She acknowledges that she does this but chooses not to do anything as she can’t see any way of living her life normally without others help, because again, she thinks of herself as the lowest of the low. (They keep talking shit about an old friend- only talking about how awful she was. Crancesca has an uncomfortable vibe, a hint that she misses her and doesn’t feel comfortable with throwing her to the side)
TWIST: Some of her friends get fed up with her and betray her in a big way. (They’re the type to do anything for THEIR friends and genuinely be there for them… but if you don’t pull your weight they dehumanize you and act cruel) and now she’s stuck and confused.
CONCLUSION: She wants to try and win them back, but slowly comes to terms with the fact that once they see someone as “bad”, they never let them back in. Thus she starts to make her own decisions, uncertain if she’ll make the right ones.
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So the takeaway, for Hollywood it’s reeeeaally hard to fit in multiple character motivations since they require different character arcs, but there are ways of pulling it off :)
You sort of look like the actor, Jack Lowden, from the movies "Dunkirk" and "Tommy's Honour"
I think Cranchesca could work with the two motivations described. You could tell a story about her motivations coming into conflict. You could make it at tradgedy by giving her the oprotunity for change and her rejecting it and leaving her inner conflict unresolved leaving her just as vulnerable as before with a new group of friends, or let her complete her arc living her own life with a new more healthy support structure. Also, if you dont want them to come into conflict, like you said, one should take presidence, but that does not mean one motivation does not exist. For example solo Cranchesca may still search for a new friend group since her desire for belonging would not come into conflict with her desire for security in this case.
4:28 then how would you answer this question? When you say opportunity to change, change from what to what?
I love your videos to death just like the client from the first 10 seconds loves their original story and characters to death
Ah dude, I feel you. I even take my writing further than this - I _start_ from themes and issues, then move on to beliefs about those themes/issues, build dialectics to inform conflicts, _and then_ build characters around those beliefs, and relationships around those dialectics. The issue is that this method works really well when you're prompted with something, but whenever you have a natural organic idea that you don't really understand intellectually, it's virtually impossible to communicate it completely on page. Good artists I feel are intellectual, but the material they specifically work with is, as far as they're concerned, ineffable. Doing this exploration is nice and healthy, but also we can't expect this to work with some of our most profound characters imo.
While having this kind of "new age pseudopsychology" vibe, the Enneagram typology sounds like a nice base to identify what you call "soul fears".
This is also useful to check if the fears you give your characters are always the same (usually mimicking their writer's) or not.
xoxoxo
6:16 The great thing about shaving traits off is that you can then use them in other characters and create interesting contrasts.
This is fascinating stuff. I'm a therapist, and a lot of the awareness/lines of questioning you showcase in this video are the same awareness/tools they taught me in order to help people. That conversation about core beliefs that drive people's motivations, desires, and self-images sounds like it was ripped straight out of CBT. And that thing you said - "but WHY does he want to win the contest?" - maps very cleanly to the way I often prompt people to explore their emotions when they're unaccustomed to emotional self-awareness.
For example:
Client: "I feel pissed that she dumped me."
Me: "Why are you pissed?"
Client: "I'm pissed because I thought she cared."
Me: "It sounds like you're saying you feel hurt and betrayed." Client: "...yeah. I guess I do."
The main difference is that you're trying to represent compelling character arcs, while I'm trying to nurture them out of real people. But I think only good things can come from having another person who spreads awareness of the way human beings make meaning of themselves, others, and the world. 🙂
Great video, is always a pleasure to see you take apart story structures.
I disagree with one of your points though. The one about a monster being the motivation for different characters. It's not about the motivation it's how they manage to get past it. Like one maybe just gives up, other face it and try to fight, others just run away. There's so much complexity that we can explore putting people in a situation. That's why the zombie-esq settings or post apocaliptic ones are a great base to see how different people react to the scenario.
Anyway... great video overall. Keep it up man
Yeah I would agree, I don’t think I worded it super well. If survival scenarios can draw out deeper drives & beliefs, that’s fine with me. I just don’t have any interest in writing survival for the sake or survival. And I don’t particularly like writing survival stories about generic hope or the will to live either, but that’s a more baseless preference
this man's name game remains great never waning
Why are you so fucking cool? I mean it, like I actually wanna know why. Like you seem like such a real dude, ya know? I *love* watching your videos because your approaches are so logical and reasonable and so easy to understand, but also because the way you talk is just so real and genuine.
I guess I just answered my own question so I guess this is just a compliment
your videos have had an actual affect on the way i write. i was adept enough in technical stuff. but you really made me learn the characterization and other abstract things about storywriting. thank you so much
Hey, once in a while youtube algorithm does actually suggest a good and interesting channel. Subscribed.
I hope that one more comment on the subject means something: Your writing analysis and subsequent explanations are the best I've ever experienced. I'm a new writer who's been scouring YT for all the free info I can to educate myself. After watching I-don't-know-how-many-hours of writing content, I can safely say that you explain more information, better, in ~10 minutes, than most industry veterans do in 30+. (not every ball player can be a good coach)
I've been doing therapy for 21 years, so I know these concepts, but seeing and hearing them broken down so efficiently and in such an easily digestible way is quite literally invaluable to me.
I hope your channel blows up, you absolutely deserve it! (but not with bombs, the metaphorical kind)
Thank you!!
This has been plaguing me for years and finally I understand.
I suppose i should just... Keep asking whys. Oh!! I know! Treat it like literary analysis to reverse engineer it! I could do that. Okay but seriously this video has helped me understand how to tackle this. You don't know how many 'character sheets' i used back when i was a tween because that's what i thought helped, but all the questions were so... Surface level. Literally. There's eye color questions. And whenever i got to fears or whatnot, my answers were surface level too.
Also coming up with motivations for the characters in my original stories is so hard too. I used to see it in my mind like, this one character looking pensive, conflicted, before deciding to help character B, but not really beyond it, and stuff like that. An implied soul is exactly it. Thank you a lot for this video
Man the fact you post stuff like this for free is insane. I've done non fiction writing my whole life as a journalist precisely because I felt uncomfortable with a lot of the delicate parts of character creation (my style always been a little straightforward and maybe too direct). I've made the jump into non-fiction pretty much entirely because of this channel, just great content.
As far as this writing advice genre goes you probably have the most engaging and understandable presentation I've seen. Nice stuff, very straightforward
I really really appreciate that all of your writing advice always goes back to one singular point; themes bro!
Thank you for the video. Your videos have actually been very helpful in fleshing out my characters and helping me figuring out what I like/ is good about my work and what needs fixing. I look forward to seeing what insights you have.
Love your content, man. learn a lot!
You'll probably see this. Thanks for the videos, man. I'm a theme-centric guy as well and although I don't write in a while, it still gives me a lot of ground for story analysis in my videos.
Thanks for keeping me in check about storytelling :)
The first Indiana Jones movie displays that his priority is the acquisition of knowledge; it's why he lets the Nazis capture him instead of leaving with Marion and it's why, after knowing that the Ark contains forces not to be meddled with, he's still angry with the US government for locking it up.
Then, in Last Crusade, we see his father was driven by more than pursuit of knowledge; it's why the opening scene is more than a fun little origin of his fear of snakes/where we got his fedora. Indy and his father are both driven by the pursuit of knowledge but for Henry Jones Senior, protection of sacred knowledge is more important than acquisition.
I don't know what my mother or father's "deepest fear" is, but I still know how they would react in a given situation. I've seen them change and grow over my life, go through trauma and loss. They are different people now, they've had an "arc". I don't need to psychoanalyse them and say "oh no this person's anxious-response takes precedence over their fear-response" in order to know how they act.
But you cant grow up alongside characters that function in a narrative
Not every "sole motivation" needs to be a false belief or overcoming fear. People can have positive motivations eg. doing good, changing the world, having fun. People can have existential motivations eg. finding themself, understanding the world. People can have negative motivations eg. hurting others. To name a few. Or....better yet, people can have multiple competing motivations which are impossible to separate and need not be cut up and butchered into a forced "arc".
I think you're viewing it from a plot standpoint, and that's fine. But for character-centric stories, it's kind of essential.
@@andyroobrick-a-brack9355 If you want a classic Hollywood arc of positive change then a overcoming some false belief or fear is par for the course. But this is not the only kind of story, there are negative arcs and flat arcs. There are stories about friendship (Shawshank Redemption), about love (Brokeback Mountain), about trauma (there's hundreds, Manchester by the Sea for example), or even just pure survival (127 Hours). Or there are films basically without any characters like American Psycho. Or look at post-modern films like Kaufman's. Stories are far more than just the standard Hollywood formula.
I haven't seen the vide yet, but I'm sure it's great!
I LOVE CONFIRMATION BIAS
I forget where I read it, but imagining what a characters medicine cabinet looks like is a good way to give them depth to yourself as the writer, even if you wouldnt have a reason to actually show the cabinet to the reader
I like the MS Paint/Whiteboard progression
Super good and concise vid, I find it easy to get lost in the minutia of story beats and my arc falls to the wayside for the sake of trying to stay on top of pacing and pushing the story forward. Watching this video forced me to pause and open my notepad to write down what makes my characters tick. You explained the core motivation really well, I never considered what a person "wants" as the fulcrum between their past and their arc in the story. Great stuff as usual.
Enid from Ok Ko: Let’s be Hero’s
A great example of - She’s a vibe and goes on an interesting arc of trying to find her identity.
I feel rather confident with how I've tried 'hitting the bedrock' with why my characters pursue a certain goal, but I'll definitely use your wonderful little flowchart to see if it checks out for them.
I've established my characters perspectives on a specific theme/issue and I've given them appropriate backstories to inform where that perspective is coming from and how it might shift, but 'hitting the bedrock' may be the last key experiment to see if how I've written them sticks.
As always with your videos, there's always something new to learn and apply.
Edit: Already doing the mental flow diagram in my head for my main character, and I think that a significant change is in order to make their goal and motivation consistent with their soul motivation.
Okay, this is actually very important and revelatory. There was just something about my MC's motivations in the first act that didn't gel with the rest of the story and what he want and why he does what he does... a rewrite may be in order.
just finished turnabout goodbyes last night thanks to your previous video
It’s so good
thank you for making a video that's literally a callout post for my exact problem
"They love that word."
😂They really do.
The examples really being this to life. Would be great to see a few more, especially where the same core need manifested in different ways.
Thanks for making these, each one takes me back to the drawing board but the story gets better each time.
If I show a screenshot from this video to anyone they'll put me in a long-sleeve shirt
I really like the backstory vs thing they want to do distinction, and how their motives are in between that! I'm very good at asking why, but pretty bad at knowing when to stop
was literally struggling with this exact problem last night, this video dropped at the perfect fucking time for me 🙏