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Play The "What Do You Know About Your Hero?" Game
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by the Hollywood Guru
Read the first 10-15 pages of your script. By the way, by page 10-15 something should have happened to your hero to throw his or her life out of whack. If it's not, go and fix this before you play the game. Okay now that you got that, here's what you need to do. Make a list of everything we know about your hero just from those first 10-15 pages. Everything. The way they dress, their wants and desires, their demeanor, where they live, where they work, what their bedroom looks like, etc. Everything the audience will eventually see on the screen based on the words in your script. Don't include on this list stuff in your screenplay description that will not be evident to the person watching your movie. For example, if you write that BILL is a fun-loving guy, don't tell us that he's fun-loving unless you can give us at least one example that we will see on the screen. Description in a script that we won't see is more or less useless. Sure it might be fun for the reader but remember, you're hoping to get a movie made. Now that the list is complete, go over it. How many items do you have? Only a few? Not good enough. You need to breathe more life into your character. Go back over your pages and rewrite them. Perhaps you can give Bill a quirk. He loves to shop at the supermarket but only buys food from one food group per shopping session. Need more ideas for quirks? Buy the book: ADMIT IT, YOU'RE CRAZY by Judy Reiser. ISBN 0-7407-5109-3. There are a ton of them in there.
When you look at your list, does it give you an indication that your hero is unique or did you write someone who is cliche? Just because you see cliches in movies, doesn't mean you have to do the same. You have to be better than the writers already playing the game. Write against stereotypes.
Got more time on your hands? Play this game with ALL your characters. It should improve your writing so that your script has a much better place in the marketplace.
Get your script read and evaluated by the same folks who read for the agencies
and studios. Discover what's right and wrong with your script and how to improve it.
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