Hi Friend,
Welcome to the new edition of The Storytelling Wizard!
How do you create memorable characters?
Empathy!
But how do you create empathy?
- Show their desires and motivations (and make me care)
- Reveal their idiosyncrasies, quirks and flaws (flaws connect people)
- Place them in great trouble and watch them fight their way out (creates a sense of aspiration)
The Three Levels of Liking:
- Superficial attraction (think high school crush)
- Enjoying their flaws and unique quirks (like your friends)
- Personal investment in their life/ world (your best friend)
The third level is where empathy lives.
- We forgive their flaws because we understand them
- Their wins become our wins, their losses our losses
- They become our proxy, a surrogate for our hopes and fears
Examples:
- In “Breaking Bad,” we empathize with Walter White’s desire to provide for his family, even as his actions become increasingly questionable.
- In “The Office,” we relate to Jim and Pam’s quirky office romance, rooting for them through ups and downs.
- In “The Shawshank Redemption,” we feel Andy Dufresne’s desperation to prove his innocence and escape the brutal prison system.
The key is to make your characters’ desires and struggles relatable.
- Show us their inner world through their actions
- Give them specific, honest details that make them feel real
- Let us witness their bravery in the face of adversity by letting them make choices we couldn’t in real life.
Stories are all about bringing to the surface what’s hidden beneath. Empathy is about recognizing ourselves in someone else.
The further you take us into the heart of a character who seems different from us, the more rewarding (emotionally effective) the journey will be.
The quickest empathy for me was created with Joy Lobo in 3 Idiots.
I could connect to his hopes, aspirations, fears, and desires in just a few minutes and felt a jolt when the unexpected happened.
Every screenwriter should watch this scene and break it down to learn how to create massive empathy in just one scene.
This is a small nugget of screenwriting wisdom.
If you want to me to consult with your story/ script, you can send me a DM on my Twitter (X) handle here.
P.S. Not sending you a direct calendar link because the emails end up in promotions tab, which this email is not really about. :)
Until next time,
Ciao!
