CaitlinPodiak at 2012-04-20 14:08:19:
Scott, when I was struggling with this exact issue - that is, how to translate a female protagonist's internal character-led drama into something more cinematic - your series of lectures on character archetypes helped immensely! I think that following your advice to externalize the protagonist's inner journey by reflecting it through nemesis, attractor, mentor, and trickster characters got me past what had been a fundamental obstacle for me, and I'm really proud and happy with the result, so thank you very much for that.
Scott at 2012-04-20 17:55:24:
Caitlin, so glad to hear that. Studying Carl Jung has been a revelation to me these last 7 years or so. I've extracted two big ideas re screenwriting from his ideas: * Characters as reflections of various aspects of the Protagonist's psyche which provides an organizing principle to look at the relationships of Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor and Trickster. * The story universe actually creates circumstances that force the Protagonist to engage all aspects of their psyche. That is, the writer's choice to tell this story at this time is not arbitrary, but set into motion by the story universe. A slew of other ideas and dynamics, but those two are both huge revelations and interesting ways of looking at the story-crafting and writing process.