Black List writers on the craft: Story Prep (Part 2)
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Fiction, Creative Writing, Screenwriting, Writing

Over the years, I have interviewed 50+ Black List screenwriters. Over the next four weeks, I am running a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing.

This week: What aspects of story prep do you devote the most time and focus to?

I often say this: There’s no right way to write. Every writer is different. Every story is different. Going through these interviews, I doubt there is an area of the story-crafting process where this statement is more apt than in relation to story prep. As we will see this week, there is a big divide between Black List writers who embrace working up a comprehensive outline and those who take a considerably less formalized approach.

Today we hear from Black List writers who gravitate toward characters as a starting point of their prep-writing process:

Michael Werwie: “Probably plotting. That’s a tricky one, because it’s a function of character. You have to have a grasp on the characters because the characters will create the plot.” Jason Mark Hellerman: “Characterization, to me, is the most important… If I figure out who the people are, then I can figure out what they’ll be going through.” Joshua Golden: “Knowing my characters first, so whether that’s writing a paragraph on each of my characters, figuring out who they are, where they’re at, what they want, what they need. That’s usually where I start from.” Barbara Stepansky: “Probably the most time I devote to is character. I think that plots develop out of character needs and wants. I think the most fun comes from watching people do something and spend time with them.” Seth Lochhead: “Plot comes from the characters’ pursuits of their own end goals (whatever those may be), conflict can be found in those pursuits.” Jeremiah Friedman: “We spend a lot of time talking about the characters and constructing character profiles, that probably comes first once we’ve already developed an idea enough to commit to writing it.” Declan O’Dwyer: “It varies per project because a lot of the time I’m trying to find the character… I try and write my baddest character first, my nemesis first. I try to make that nemesis as human as possible and understand their decision‑making process.”

Some takeaways:

Plot emerges from character. “Plotting… is a function of character.” If you can figure out who your characters are, what they’ll be going through will emerge from your character development process.

How? One key is to ask: What do they want? What do they need? Want may dictate the story’s physical journey (Plot), but need can supplant want and alter the course of the Plot. Need can also indicate what the character’s transformation arc is about. When I participated in the first NYC Black List mini-lab, Beau Willimon (House of Cards) was one of our fellow mentors. In each meeting he had with the five participating writers, he spent the entire hour probing into one question: What does your Protagonist need? Hugely important question.

You can develop our characters by crafting profiles on them. These can vary and the tools you can use are numerous: Biography, Questionnaire, Interview, Monologue, Sit-Down. The more you learn about your characters in prep, the more the plot will come into being.

Finally, whereas most writers likely begin with the Protagonist, how about focusing first on the Nemesis character? “I try to make that nemesis as human as possible .” Good advice as a more human Nemesis transforms them into a more dynamic, nuanced figure and less of a stereotype.

How about you? Are you a character-first writer? What techniques do you use to develop your story’s characters?

For Part 1 of the series on story prep, go here.

Tomorrow, we take up another angle on prep-writing as reflected on by some Black List writers.

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