Dramatica
for Screenwriters
by Armando Saldaña Mora
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Section
Three:
Characters—Beyond The Archetypes
Chapter 9
True
Character:
Use The Build Characters Functions
To
Create
Consistent Characters
Stop
me if you've heard this one. A screenwriter
takes her Fantasy Saga to a producer and weeks later
he rejects it by saying, "There's one character,
the Magic Elf, that can only be seen at twilight—the
one with the big golden horns, the purple wings, the
four sets of multicolored eyes, and the aurora borealis
shining out of his belly..."
"What
about him?"
"Well,
he doesn't feel... real."
While
it's true that producers sometimes say things like
that, it's also true that great authors can create
Characters as farfetched as the elf above and yet
make them feel as real as our closest buddies, as
if we knew a person just like that and could talk
to it. They're Characters that immediately remind
us of someone and compel us to tell him "you've
got to see it; the elf is just like you!"
(CONTINUED)
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