#dramatic characters

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There's no such thing as emotionless drama. If a story is dramatic it will evoke an emotional response. The big question is, has the emotion been paid for?  If it hasn't then what you have is cheap thrills - sentimentality but no sentiment, no real feeling. A story without drama is just... dead.

Billy Marshall Stoneking

Amazing how many so-called writers can only think of it terms of formula. A great story is never merely a collection of plot targets. 

FIND OUT WHY

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Because drama is about relationships in action, the focus should always be on what is most important and significant to the relationship's life and/or death. Any extraneous action will only blunt the emotional energy of a scene.

Billy Marshall Stoneking

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An identifiable and memorable dramatic character must be possessed of at least three qualities: the love of someone or something, a desire to fix a significant problem that threatens what is loved, and the hope and faith necessary to fight for what is loved and to go on fighting to the end. Anyone out there that is working on a screenplay should perform this simple test on their main character - can you identify what or who they love? what the problem is that they desire to fix? and what is the source of their hope and faith for the future of their present actions?

Billy Marshall Stoneking

READ MORE ABOUT CHARACTER

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Dramatic characters will always choose the situations they don't walk away from.

Billy Marshall Stoneking

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A screenplay is an archive of anxieties, and what a group of characters is prepared to do - either individually or in concert with other characters - in response to those anxieties.

Billy Marshall Stoneking

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It's the CHARACTERS, stupid! READ MORE