Good words from a smokin' master.

This weekend I tracked characters in a story to test whether they remained true to their natures and belief systems even as they changed under story pressure. I wound up modifying the arc of one and verifying that my heroine would NOT do something I had her do in an earlier rewrite. Then we figured out what she would do and why. In the process, I believe we created a more shocking, yet credible, climax and denouement.

So, I'm feeling pretty enlightened. Then I flip over to GITS and witness Mr. Serling's sermonette on this very topic. Synchronicity reigns!

My take away is that good characters don't change all that much. I'm falling more and more into the camp that character arc is a misguided approach, at least for me personally. I understand why people like transformational stories, because it gives them hope that they or someone they love may change for the better, but it's much more satisfying to find hope in understanding who we are and coming to terms with that. Which is, I guess, in the end, pretty transformational in itself.

Terry Rossio talked about the idea of Character Patterns in a recent interview...Scott or anyone else know what a Character Pattern is?

@Zach: Do you recall where the interview is? If you can post a link, I'll check it out.

@Zach: I just Googled it and found this:

"I will also add that many screenplays out there seem woefully deficient regarding character patterns. That issue makes up the largest category of screenplays that demand rewrites. Great stories examine evolving and interesting character relationships; the character interaction patterns are as important, or more so, than the plot patterns. Too many writers, I think, don’t even consider their stories from this point of view—too bad, because more than anything else, that’s the part of the work that will be judged, by the studios, producers, actors, directors … and the audience."

Link here.

Yeah that's the excerpt but it's not clear to me what a Character Pattern is. Character Interaction Patterns. The word pattern is throwing me off.

@Zach: I'll post something on that today or tomorrow.

Cool. Thx Scott!