Wednesday, Mar. 10

The Key to Character is Vulnerability

Snark the Reader, another script reader who blogs about what they read, offers up some good thoughts on why his most recent read was a success:

The main character is open and vulnerable because something close to him, or something he values, is always in jeopardy. It MATTERS to him. This is such a gift! It keeps the story pushing forward to the climax because he’s got to figure out problems, and one problem begets five related ones. We’re never bored.

Reading through the first couple of pages on Snark’s site, it becomes clear that what is missing the most from the scripts he or she is unlucky to read is the absence of a well-defined Main Character throughline. When you’re not engaged emotionally, as in say Avatar or the animated 9, the problem can always be traced to the lack of or broken development of this key throughline.