Empathy Map - Creating Characters A big part of creating characters in screenplays is to first make an empathy map to help identify things they would not want the world to know about. It should include things the characters encounter on a daily basis. If executed correctly, you'll find that a funny thing begins to happen -- your characters slowly but surely start to take form, and instead of just dealing with vague, interchangeable traits, you'll find yourself with parts actors will absolutely love to play.
Let's do an exercise that will put all this information into some sort of context in which you can actually use it. After you've created an empathy map of your characters, take a good look at the traits you wrote down on your empathy map.
Do you see those parts of your character that they wouldn't want the world to know about if they were an actual, flesh and blood person? Those are the ones you want to pay attention to. There's no exact way to quantify what you're supposed to be looking for - remember, this isn't a math problem we're working on here - but like the old saying goes, "You'll know it when you see it." Then you just have to answer one simple question - over the course of your script, is your character forced to confront those things?
If the answer is yes, congratulations -- you're totally headed down the right track and you understand character development in screenplays! If your answer was no, then you need to go back and stack the deck against your protagonist a little more until they have to run head first into the things they're most uncomfortable with confronting about themselves. Once you've gotten to that point, it's there that things start to really get interesting - you'll notice that, seemingly out of nowhere, your characters suddenly sound, and react, like real people. They have real-world needs and wants and emotions -- they're people -- or almost people and that shows that you've mastered character development in screenplays.
This is where things start to get interesting. If you're focused, you'll figure out a way to get your antagonist to force your protagonist to confront these things about himself. Those traits they're afraid of are going to be key to the climax because that's what we've been building towards this whole time -- the protagonist having to overcome themselves, warts and all. The antagonist is merely a physical
representation of the protagonist's struggle to find some sort of inner peace within themselves.
It's all part of understanding character development in screenplays. This kind of stuff is why we go to the movies in the first place. We want to see people overcome something within themselves because when we hop in our cars and head back home, it makes us feel like we can overcome those same challenges within ourselves.
HG Nadel is an American producer born in France. She is a screenplay writer, self published author, recording artist, and a musician. Nadel has been in the film and television acting business for many years. She started as a child, when she was a singer signed by EMI France. Nadel has written numerous screenplays. Her expertise in young adult drama has allowed her to write captivating coming-of-age stories in both English and French For more reading, please visit here: http://hgnadel.blogspot.com