How to introduce your characters in a screenplay.
To introduce your characters in a screenplay you must implement the following steps:
- Understand your characters persona.
- Vividly describe your characters.
- Reveal your character more by actions and not dialogue.
- Show how all your characters relate to each other.
- Reveal your characters gradually and not in details.
- Use dialogue tactfully.
- Be consistent.
- Revise your character introduction.
1. Understand your characters background and personality.
Do not start your character introduction until you are able to understand your character’s background which is contained in their goals and motivations as well as their personality which is contained in their traits and habits.
You will never have a captivating screenplay if your character does not have a particular goal or goals they are trying to achieve in the entire story.
Now in the course of trying to achieve these goals, your character needs to face certain obstacles and try to find ways to avoid them.
Traditionally, it is your protagonist that needs to have a goal while your antagonist on the other side will produce the obstacles he must fight to overcome in order to achieve that goal.
But have you realized the fact that while creating obstacles for your protagonist, your antagonist also has a goal he is trying to achieve? Or else, why does he even try to obstruct someone from achieving a goal for nothing?
To this end therefore, you must try to find a way of showing your audience why both your protagonist and antagonist are at each other’s neck.
For example, if your protagonist falls in love with a lady from an influential family while he is of the lowly class, the reason the parents are fighting to stop this love affair is so their child does not bring shame to the family by marrying someone who is from a poor background.
This in essence will show the pride that is dominant in rich families which makes them discriminate and look upon the poor as not human like themselves.
2. Vividly describe your characters.
While introducing your characters make sure you vividly describe their age, physical appearance, demeanor and behavioral pattern.
Do not allow your to be more than 2 to 3 lines and do it in a way that will help your reader to quickly visualize your character in their minds eye.
This means that you should stick to important details that easily reveals the kind of person your character is at a glance.
Keep away or erase anything that will not add value to your character’s description.
3. Reveal your character more by actions and not dialogue.
So many screenwriters often make the mistake of using dialogue to reveal their characters, not knowing that you cannot tell who people really are by what they say but b what they do.
This is why the ancient proverb says “action speaks louder than words”.
So instead of trying to tell your reader about your characters traits, show what they do that makes people quickly recognize that trait.
You can easily show how your character interacts with people around them as well as use their body language to convey what their feelings and intentions.
4. Show how all your characters relate to each other.
You can also introduce your characters in a screenplay by showing how they relate to each other.
And you can best achieve this by establishing each of your character’s role in the story and show how they are connected to each other. For example, show if they are friends, family members or even enemies.
Yes! you need to give all your characters a place in the story, even if they are going to play just one scene (we call it ‘waka pass” here in Nigeria), make sure you define why they are in the particular place at the particular time.
5. Reveal your characters gradually and not in details.
When trying to introduce your characters in a screenplay, make sure you don’t jump into details about their life, rather introduce them gradually as they become relevant in the story.
And this in the end will create much suspense in your story and keep your audience glued to the end to see what becomes of your characters.
You can even go as far as using subtle hints and suggestions to reveal your character traits rather than spelling it all out to the understanding of your reader.
This will give your audience to pick up on the character details and traits rather than your revealing them upfront for them to understand.
It is worth noting that, if your audience quickly understands your characters details or traits, they might liken it to another character in another movie they watched recently, and this might cause them to lose interest in your story before it even begins.
6. Use dialogue tactfully.
You can also use dialogue to introduce your character, but you need to do this tactfully. For example, you can employ dialogue to introduce your characters when it seems the locations or props for the necessary action is not available.
We call this tactics “using dialogue to kill the scene”.
Another important aspect of using dialogue to introduce your characters is by giving them an accent or dialect that represents where they come from.
7. Be consistent.
When trying to introduce your character in a screenplay, you need to establish a consistent tone, style and format for character introductions in your entire screenplay.
The tone might be dramatic, humorous or even action-oriented; the style might be revealed in their physical appearance while the format might be revealed in their action and dialogue.
8. Proof-read and Revise your character introduction.
At this stage, you have to ensure your character introduction in your screenplay is effective and engaging, and to do you need to proof-read and revise it to see the things you should add or withdraw.
Have the willingness to make any changes that will help to improve your writing and make it more attractive and enggaging to whosoever is going to read it, especially if you are going to pitch and sell it off.
Other times, you can switch from being the one to proof-read and revise your character introduction by looking for and finding another professional screenwriter who will proof-read and revise and in so doing suggests the changes you need to make in it.
If the latter suggestion is not available, then go ahead and trust your instincts and make the changes that will make your character introduction in a screenplay more interesting.
