[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: How soon in the writing process will you know what your character wants?
Steve Harper, Screenwriter/Writing Coach/Podcaster/Youtuber: Pretty early on I will know generally what my character wants, partly because it comes out of that obsession space. If I’m dealing with some large theme that they are pursuing then I will know they want X. At the same time I will rewrite my log line. I will write some material. I will come back to it and I will say:
-Do I really know?
-Do I really remember?
-Can I make it sharper?
I’ll do that quite a bit but I think pretty early on I have characters who come to mind who are headed for something pretty specific and sometimes I just need to drill down on what that looks like in this particular universe, but it comes pretty quickly.
Film Courage: Can you talk about character flaws and why every character has to have them?
Steve: Character flaws, I don’t know, I think that’s what makes characters fun and sweet and dear and interesting is the way they stumble over themselves to do whatever it is they’re trying to do.
As a kid I always felt like I would watch movies and be envious of the fact that this particular character knew what to say to that particular character. I’d be like wow what a great comeback. I wish I was like that in real life.
I’ve come to appreciate my own stumbling around. I love to see that with characters on things that I watch, like sort of the halting or the mistakes or when a surgeon accidentally killed somebody on the table, those are the moments, emotionally, dramatically where I lean in and I want to know I think as a human question:
-How do we come back from those mistakes?
-How do we come back from these things that people are not able to do when we assume incorrectly that we should be able to do everything?
I feel like all of those things make characters seem more human and more real by having them be imperfect.
The question then becomes for me as I work on a character, what is the…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
STEVE HARPER’s TV writing includes Co-Executive Producer duties on Tracker and D.C.’s Stargirl and wrote episodes of God Friended Me, Tell Me Your Secrets, American Crime and Covert Affairs. His web series SEND ME earned a 2016 Emmy Nomination for series lead Tracie Thoms. Through his company Your Creative Life he coaches writers, posts advice on YouTube and co-hosts The Secret Writer Podcast – heard in 21 countries. He graduated from Yale, the A.R.T. Institute at Harvard and the Juilliard playwriting program.
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