Authors

Every Character You Write Starts At Zero – Christopher Riley

Filmcourage

Published

August 21, 2022

Film Courage: Do you have any practical exercises that writers can do for defining or redefining their characters?

Christopher Riley, Screenwriter, Author, and Instructor: I do actually. In the book we approach practical exercises in a variety of different ways. The first set of practical exercises has to do with walking writers through a discovery of their own defining moments. That can be a pretty emotional thing to do, to go back and really touch those moments that have shaped us in wonderful ways and terrible ways. We also provide a set of exercises that walk a writer through discovering their character’s defining moments and those are kind of practical, Here’s the thing to do now, set this much time on the timer and start writing and keep writing until the timer goes off. I’m a believer in what Anne Lamott talks about, small assignments and in her book Bird By Bird [Some Instructions on Writing and Life] writing can be really daunting because it’s like running a marathon. It’s just so much you can’t imagine how much it is. Starting can be really hard, every day when I start writing it’s still the hardest thing I do that requires the most discipline. Once I’ve tipped over into writing then I’m going, but it’s like taking that first plunge into the cold swimming pool in the morning, you just kind of have to give yourself a push in the back. These exercises are designed to say All right, blank sheet of paper, pick up a pen, here’s your prompt, now go! I find that when writers do that they end up writing things they didn’t mean to write. They uncover things they didn’t know were there and…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).

BIO:

Christopher Riley is a professional screenwriter who co-wrote with his wife Kathy Riley the award-winning German language courtroom thriller After the Truth. The Rileys have written scripts for Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Mandalay Television Pictures, the late Sean Connery’s Fountainbridge Films and Robert Cort Productions. Christopher produced the independent action-thriller Red Line and executive produced the web series Bump+. He is the author of the classic screenplay format guide The Hollywood Standard, now in its third edition, and teaches screenwriting at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Riley’s latest book is The Defining Moment: How Writers and Actors Build Characters (through Michael Wiese Productions).