Establish Emotional Connection With Characters

Writing creative stories can stimulate our minds to feel a dopamine rush--the high level of excitement capable of multiplying our interest tenfold. For example, people who are addicted to social media undergo an adrenaline rush whenever likes and comments arrive after posts and captions are uploaded. They measure their self-worth based on acceptance, attention and positive encouragement. In contrast, sharing the truth is somehow viewed as negative criticism aimed at hurting other people. Honest people fail to establish emotional connections, so being reserved and concealing the truth will make someone a mystery.  

Mostly all followers leave positive compliments and overpraise page owners to stroke egos and attract attention. Sadly, some of these people become desperate, needy and clingy to feel self-important. They want their online friends and/or crushes to consider them as someone special, someone important, someone worthwhile. Just think about the real motivation behind people giving so much of their attention to strangers and what they expect in return. Believe it or not; there is usually a big want attached to compliments, attention and praises.  

What mostly gets lost is learning the truth. We may keep repeating the same actions to waste time, ruin opportunities, make excuses and self-sabotage following mistakes. Overly kind people may hurt our chances to grow our dream. We must hear the truth to make something better. Expecting positive feedback will keep us in the dark and block our personal growth. What we felt comfortable doing before is now an afterthought. We can learn life lessons to stop acting weak-minded, out of control and out of touch. injecting real life emotions into our movie characters can/will create strong connections among the reader(s) and moviegoer(s). Establishing emotional connections humanize characters to strengthen bonds.        

Nevertheless, our purpose in life and dreams are shaped with time and effort. If we take the right steps, we should be confident taking risks and making sacrifices. We must always remember that we control our own luck. Activating our creativity will help us  find solace telling compelling stories with powerful themes. If we create conflicting characters that resemble real life situations, people will feel emotionally connected because the subject matter hits close to home. As a result of this, humanizing characters uncover truths that inject originality into our screenplays. 

Watch end-of-the-world movies and pay close attention to character development. Writers begin with conflict, influence characters to respond and resolve their problems in the end. In the Knowing movie, Nicholas Cage's character loses his wife in a hotel fire. He refuses to believe in God but a chain of events reveal the truth. Opening his mind and heart to see past coincidences as random events renews his trust. 

Delve further into building an emotional structure that humanizes your characters. The closer the connection, the better the reception. 

Happy Screenwriting! 

Human Emotions in Scripts

SCREENWRITING
THE LITTLE THINGS
FEBRUARY 21, 2017
HUMANIZING CHARACTERS

Screenwriting is the art of crafting a movie into a blueprint so a director can interpret these instructions using their vision to make a good movie. Humanizing characters connect moviegoers to special characters.

Do you like End of the World movies? Have you watched Deep Impact, Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012? These movies do a great job with humanizing characters to capture the essence of real life people in similar situations. In television, Tv writers are expected to craft characters in such a fashion that viewers will return back every week in anticipation of what will happen and how these characters will respond.

The Walking Dead (TWD) is a perfect example of humanizing characters to stimulate emotion. If done right, people will watch often and word-of-mouth will deliver new fans. As TWD seasons move forward, show fans become loyal followers. In every episode, there is heavy emphasis on character development. Have you noticed that zombies are now secondary characters on a show about the dead? This strategy enables the show writers to capture interest on unique characters we come to love.

In the movie world, Dawn of the Dead (2004) is a remake of the classic George Romero Dawn of the Dead released in the late 1970’s. The remake takes a group of polarizing characters into a mall. Zombies surround this mall, a memorable place they probably remember before changing into dead carnivores. As moviegoers, we find solace in watching these characters trying their best to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. At moments, we’re put on edge in climatic situations. Those we hate, we come to like. Those we like, they end up eventually dying.

Humanizing characters represent an enriching style of screenwriting. As screenwriters, we warm the hearts of people. We stimulate their inner desires through building connections. How we respond to events may differ from person-to-person. Why do we like characters in end of the world movies? We empathize with these real-life characters. We find them emotional satisfying. We’re drawn to their traits, their actions, their decisions.

Telling a great story involves understanding how people may react to such events. In the Titanic, Jack must save Rose from taking her life. As a first-class passenger and upper class person, Rose is stuck in a boring routine. We watch her character evolve into an actual rose. Jack becomes the change Rose needs to graduate into womanhood. Before this growth, Rose was dependent on her mother and fiancé. Humanizing Rose required showing her weaknesses. She desired charismatic Jack, a spontaneous young man willing to travel the world to live life. Unlike Rose’s fiancé, who is an uptight rich man, Jack enjoyed simple things. His drawings revealed a fascinating side to his experiences. Rose got stuck in her mother’s wants and desires, forcing her to follow strict rules.

Nonetheless, Titanic does a perfect job in conveying the wants and desires of Jack and Rose. Furthermore, the Titanic script maintains focus on the plot—keeping the audience drawn to this doomed ship awaiting its dark fate. We watch this Dreamliner ship in the days preceding its impending doom. All the audience can think about is Jack and Rose. They hoped there would be more time to unite these two lovers together in America. Unfortunately, most people who watched this disaster movie know the tragic movie ending.

Want to capture interest in your screenplay? Humanize your characters to connect moviegoers with their emotions. Touch their minds, warm their hearts. If screenwriters follow this script, they can/will write a powerful screenplay. We’re all unique creatures desiring more in this life. Even homeless people have goals. Our goal as screenwriters is to write a screenplay that makes sense. Infusing these screenplays with real life characters that move and talk like us could take a movie on a journey of a lifetime.

Humanizing characters put these people above the plot. Despite plot points to move scripts forward, the majority of attention is shifted toward characters with human emotions like ours. Screenwriters can rise above the plot through injecting their scripts with psychological disorders, bad traits, common interests and worries, and even internal goals and desires that won’t be revealed until the climax. A good practice session in developing intense characters is to watch movies that rely on humanized characters. In resolving conflict, we learn about people and their emotions. We enter the minds of these characters to save the day, save the world. Regardless of your personal execution as a screenwriter, choosing to humanize characters may capture powerful human emotion unlike plot-driven movies. Happy screenwriting!
   
 

Know your characters

Great screenwriting is building realistic characters that walk and talk like real life people. Your experience as a human is valuable to write characters that people can relate to and understand. Infusing scripts with these unique characters make watching movies refreshing and memorable. 

How can beginning screenwriters construct these genuine characters? Survey people in a library, at school and at public places. Take notes on nonverbal communication, movement, and gestures. This is a popular sociology tool to learn social interaction. Next, concentrate on writing visual scenes and withhold any dialogue to gain insight on good visual acuity. Lastly, practice writing only dialogue. 

Use the notes taken from surveying people and fill in the details with imaginative dialogue, storytelling, and movements. Nonetheless, continue writing movie scripts based on imaginary situations connected to your real life. What is unique to you that is most interesting? 

Happy screenwriting! 

Distractions and frustration inspire screenwriters to sought after change

Good screenwriting involves channeling creativity to advance great storytelling. As screenwriters, our mission is to capture fantasy and make believe the magic of movies. We watch movies to leave behind our waking lives. For the most part, we want to travel to a new world that we could only imagine.

In those 90 minutes, 120 minutes and even 180+ minutes, the best movies take us on a journey. The rigorous demands of life disrupts this balance. How can we juggle our bills, health issues, car problems, and everything else that seems to plague us, day-in day-out? 

To really think about the structure of movies, our conflicting struggles portray the essence of movies. How many movies have we've seen where the setup, development and the resolution are exactly alike? None. Movies rely on distractions, bad luck, unfortunate events, and all that frustrates us as humans. 

Who really wants to live a meaningless life? Every person wants something, even if our desire is to help other people overcome their hardship. The joy of screenwriting is that we can create these stories. We possess the creative control to write as we please. 

Of course, screenwriters who option their screenplays and those connected with movie studios must keep the best interest of producers in mind. Screenwriters who are unwilling to accommodate revisions won't last long in Hollywood. Studio screenwriters and optioned script writers must obey the terms and conditions of their employers. This is when screenwriting gets tricky. It is all worth the control others have over screenwriters because many of us want to become a notable fixture in Hollywood - our screenplays may become synonymous with the upper echelon of Hollywood royalty.  

Write your movie scripts like you're on a mission to change the world. What do you want to convey to your audience? How will this story change the world? Will one moviegoer find motivation to change? Will this story increase awareness on a particular movement? (i.e. Jurassic Park and its funding for dinosaur research or Top Gun increasing military recruitment efforts for the U.S. Navy). Movies are special in that way; they have the power of influence on their side. 

Distractions and frustration make screenwriters want to become better at their craft. When fans take notice of this great body of work, screenwriters can smile for that one moment. They realize their hard work in writing this script and living impossible challenges are meant for this one moment. As screenwriters, we can shine the beacon of light on millions of people. 

Screenwriters can retell past events. They can take us to the highest point on Earth. We can travel in space, go to other planets and universes and enter dimensions beyond our own existence. We dream about watching movies in the same light, as we experience while sleeping in the night. 

Our mission as screenwriters is to change the world through our vision. We write what we know best. In that sense, we are resourceful and accustomed to change; we create the world we find most attractive. We can lucid dream in Inception. We can astral project in Insidious. We can sail on the ship of dreams in Titanic. We can honor the leaders of our nation in different time periods. We can win the war in Saving Private Ryan. 

It is all about what we want in our scripts. Our passion for writing is associated with distractions and frustrations. We can live a disaster in The Duplex movie, and then change these misfortunes to write a bestselling book. Whatever we want, we can do in screenplays. If we want to win a gold medal in the Olympics, we can visualize and write this in our stories. We can visit our loved-ones in Heaven. We can battle the forces of evil to save the world. 

Screenwriting is a unique craft. As with screenwriters, novelists also understand the creative juices that flow into their stories. Once a book ending comes to fruition, this moment of realization is surreal. Write, write and keep writing. Never let go of that dream. 

If you must and require inspiration, go on an adventure to revitalize your mind. Just know that distractions and frustration represent the heart of most movies, humanizing the characters we root for in these amazing journeys to overcome their trials and tribulations. Allow visuals and dialogue to flow down the stream. Good screenwriting requires persistence and discipline. 

Happy Screenwriting! 

Humanizing Characters in End of the World movies

End of the world movies humanize characters to build emotion in stories. The moviegoing public have an infatuation with end of the world movies because the stories convey the essence of realism. Humanizing characters in end of the world movies make the movie experience enjoyable as well as real.

Humanizing characters energize the movie plot. Most end of the world movies deal with family conflict and social themes. Thus, humanizing characters in movies transform scripted movies into realistic experiences. Moviegoers watch end of the world movies to establish an emotional connection with the characters.

Humanizing characters in end of the world movies help the movie audience relate to possible apocalyptic, natural disaster and other doomsday scenarios. End of the world movies such as Deep Impact, Armageddon, 2012, Knowing, The Day After, I Am Legend, and Dawn of the Dead are end of the world movies that humanize characters to project realism.

If you are an aspiring screenwriter, humanizing characters can add depth to the plot. Script readers and producers may likely gravitate toward your screenplay. Experiment with short films first before writing full feature films. Humanizing characters in literature and film stories is the best technique to feed the demand.

    

Humanizing characters in Screenplays can make a good movie

Have you ever questioned the reason some movies become blockbusters while others fail in the movie box office? After watching 11-11-11, we can suggest that bad screenwriting and directing will ruin a potentially good idea. The 11-11-11 movie concept is about a devil kid who may lead the world to the end. The end of the world/devil movie is consistent with The Omen movies. Good screenwriting involves humanizing characters in screenplays to attract the moviegoing interest.

The 11-11-11 movie is set in a neighborhood. We notice that this small town is obviously populated with many strange people. Nonetheless, the main characters rarely leave the neighborhood. There are two scenes that take us away from the neighborhood. The police officer transports an evil girl to the police station, only to crash into a pole and explode. The boy's father travels to teach at the local school.

The school scenes show exterior shots of the building. It is likely possible the interior scenes are shot in the same location. The police car explosion is special effects at its worst. I witnessed better special effects in De Anza College's film program than what is portrayed in this 11-11-11 movie disaster.

Besides the few scenes leaving the neighborhood, the movie is focused on the 11-11-11 number theme and the strange local characters. The screenwriter never builds an emotional connection with any of his characters. As a result, the screenwriter fails to humanize his characters, so nonetheless the talking heads and lost characters obviously hint to us that the main boy is evil. The movie does little to frighten the audience.

The best devil movies play on demonic possession and devil situations rather well. This is the moment when we see some creepy dialogue and disturbing scenes in devil, possession and exorcism movies. The best horror movies rely on humanizing the characters to build an emotional structure. The moviegoers must find an emotion connection to feel a sense of loss.

The 11-11-11 movie fails at humanizing the main characters. To be truthfully honest, the screenwriting and directing are awful. We feel like we're watching a Shaun of the Dead imitation. Shaun of the Dead is a great movie with excellent screenwriting and directing. On the opposing side, 11-11-11 is a horrible movie that never finds the right time to reveal the real danger. The beats are off topic and simply lame.  The boy is about to become a devil who will lead to the end of the world.

We sense the boy is evil. The 'number factor' in predicting catastrophic events failed many times. Knowing is the only past movie that managed to get the number concept right. In recent memory, The Number 23 is another bad number movie about numbers. 11-11-11 is probably the worst number-themed movie ever.

The evil babysitter girl keeps reading the 11-11-11 book to the boy. Thus, the father takes the book and tosses it in the trash. The girl retrieves the book yet again. These scenes are rather predictable. It is not like throwing away a ouija board game, only to find the game has returned in your home again. We never see the fear of possession, or The Omen evil that make past devil movies a frightening viewing experience.

Exorcism movies are usually evil. People fear watching these movies. Why did the screenwriting fail in 11-11-11? The screenwriter focused too much on establishing the number 11-11-11 theme rather than focus on building character development. His quest to humanize characters stalled out in the opening sequence.

One old woman attempted to insert herself in the plot design, but the writer never never established enough backstory to humanize the importance of her character. How did this old woman learn about the boy? Several of the neighbors are devil worshippers who denounce God and Jesus Christ. Their allegiance is devoted to the devil and the evil boy. We never find a connection with these characters.

The 11-11-11 movie is depicted as a horror movie. We can confirm the movie DVD cover is more frightening than the movie itself. The 'number concept' has worked in a few past movies. Nevertheless, the screenwriting in the so-called 11-11-111devil movie never humanized the characters to build a good story. Showing a dream sequence can achieve fear necessary to humanize characters. Hence, we can then see in the minds of the characters to understand their pain and suffering.

In essence, humanizing characters in screenplays can make a good movie a great viewing experience. Moviegoers can form a real connection with characters depicted in a movie. End of the world movies are popular because the screenwriting is effective enough to portray the characters as real humans with emotions. Watch the 11-11-11 movie to form your personal opinion of the screenwriting. Thanks for reading.