Who are you...? In one or two sentences, describe yourself. This you'll do the same for your character. Physical, emotion, traits, belief, values, etc. This, with respect to your main characters. Not so much your supporting characters. To understand why a character does, or say what he does? We first need to understand him, his ARC. This said you'll introduce your character arc as soon as you introduce him. As your story evolves... so may your character, his arc? If so, remember to alter it (adjust it). All through your story, never lose focus of your character's arc. And, keep him true to it. How do you create a character arc? Well, that's dependant on your story, and what you want from your character. In all, the character/s arc is of great importance to your story. To better tell and educate you on this subject. Here is a great link. https://screencraft.org/?s=character+arc
Generally, if you have a well-developed character, backgrounds should happen naturally. It may take a while to learn, or you might get the hang of developed characters right way.
So, to answer your question, you get a great background when you have a developed character.
The key is giving a character a background that justifies their behavior throughout the story. Good characters tend to have huge flaws that they are trying to overcome and overcoming those flaws is often the key to winning.
For example, Batman is an effective crime fighter but cannot work in a team or find love because he cannot form attachments to people. This limits what he can do in both his passion for fighting crime and ever having a family. The reason he behaves like such a loner is justified by the fact he lost his parents when they were shot during a robbery. On top of this, his ability to hide his identity and empower himself with numerous specialist gadgets and weaponry is justified by the fact he's the alter ego of a billionaire businessman.
So, you kinda work backwards. You take what your story needs and build realistic characters to fit. Batman isn't a one-dimensional loner. He has a huge wound we can all relate to and makes him human.
You often only need hints though and sometimes a character shows little to no backstory at all. For example, in Aliens, a lot of Ripley's motivation for attaching to and saving Newt is the fact she missed her own daughter's life due to being in extended hyper sleep for six decades. However, the scene in the first act where she learns this was cut with no detriment to the film overall. Being driven to save a kid is just human nature.
It's an area where a lot of writers can indulge and waste time in, especially if they don't build backgrounds to serve the story. You can paint with broad strokes.
An excellent piece on characters CJ and everyone else. Why do they act the way they do. At least I did something right in my first piece. Thanks for the question Junior.
CJ thanks for the tip.People I am reading your scripts and I'm in love.We have great undiscovered talent in here.Thank you for making me part of this great family.
Hi Junior. I'd like to assist you... Your question though is unclear? Are you meaning character arc?
Yeah I mean character arc.I would appreciate the help very much.
Who are you...? In one or two sentences, describe yourself. This you'll do the same for your character. Physical, emotion, traits, belief, values, etc. This, with respect to your main characters. Not so much your supporting characters. To understand why a character does, or say what he does? We first need to understand him, his ARC. This said you'll introduce your character arc as soon as you introduce him. As your story evolves... so may your character, his arc? If so, remember to alter it (adjust it). All through your story, never lose focus of your character's arc. And, keep him true to it. How do you create a character arc? Well, that's dependant on your story, and what you want from your character. In all, the character/s arc is of great importance to your story. To better tell and educate you on this subject. Here is a great link. https://screencraft.org/?s=character+arc
Turn and Burn has a useful section on characters with a worksheet that's has helped me to develop characters.
https://www.scriptrevolution.com/guide/characters
Generally, if you have a well-developed character, backgrounds should happen naturally. It may take a while to learn, or you might get the hang of developed characters right way.
So, to answer your question, you get a great background when you have a developed character.
Thanks for the tip
The key is giving a character a background that justifies their behavior throughout the story. Good characters tend to have huge flaws that they are trying to overcome and overcoming those flaws is often the key to winning.
For example, Batman is an effective crime fighter but cannot work in a team or find love because he cannot form attachments to people. This limits what he can do in both his passion for fighting crime and ever having a family. The reason he behaves like such a loner is justified by the fact he lost his parents when they were shot during a robbery. On top of this, his ability to hide his identity and empower himself with numerous specialist gadgets and weaponry is justified by the fact he's the alter ego of a billionaire businessman.
So, you kinda work backwards. You take what your story needs and build realistic characters to fit. Batman isn't a one-dimensional loner. He has a huge wound we can all relate to and makes him human.
You often only need hints though and sometimes a character shows little to no backstory at all. For example, in Aliens, a lot of Ripley's motivation for attaching to and saving Newt is the fact she missed her own daughter's life due to being in extended hyper sleep for six decades. However, the scene in the first act where she learns this was cut with no detriment to the film overall. Being driven to save a kid is just human nature.
It's an area where a lot of writers can indulge and waste time in, especially if they don't build backgrounds to serve the story. You can paint with broad strokes.
An excellent piece on characters CJ and everyone else. Why do they act the way they do. At least I did something right in my first piece. Thanks for the question Junior.
CJ thanks for the tip.People I am reading your scripts and I'm in love.We have great undiscovered talent in here.Thank you for making me part of this great family.
contradictions with the inner and outer conflicts are always nice