✍️Playwriting Workshop Unit 2 – Character Development & Archetypes

What's the Big Idea?

• Characters drive the story forward through their actions, choices, and interactions with others
• Well-developed characters are essential for engaging the audience and creating a compelling narrative
• Archetypes serve as a starting point for character creation, providing a framework for understanding common traits and motivations
• Believable characters have a mix of strengths, flaws, and contradictions that make them relatable and interesting to watch
• Character development involves revealing a character's personality, background, and inner life over the course of the story
• Conflict arises from the clash between characters' desires, beliefs, and circumstances, creating dramatic tension
• Character arcs trace the transformation and growth of characters as they face challenges and make decisions
• Dialogue is a powerful tool for revealing character, advancing the plot, and creating subtext

Meet the Archetypes

• Archetypes are universal character types that appear across cultures and stories (hero, mentor, trickster)
• The Hero embarks on a journey of self-discovery and faces obstacles to achieve a goal or complete a quest
• The Mentor provides guidance, wisdom, and support to the hero, often serving as a teacher or role model
• The Trickster uses cunning, humor, and mischief to challenge the status quo and expose truths
• The Shadow represents the dark side of human nature, often serving as the hero's antagonist or inner demon
  • The Shadow can also be an external character that embodies the hero's repressed desires or fears
• The Ally is a loyal companion who aids the hero on their journey, providing support and encouragement
• The Shapeshifter is a character whose loyalty or identity is uncertain, creating tension and suspense
• The Herald announces a change or challenge that sets the hero's journey in motion, often delivering a call to adventure

Building Believable Characters

• Give characters a clear goal or desire that motivates their actions and decisions throughout the story
• Develop a backstory for each character, including their family background, education, and formative experiences
  • Use the backstory to inform the character's personality, values, and behavior in the present
• Assign characters both strengths and flaws to make them more realistic and relatable to the audience
  • Flaws can include negative traits, fears, or blind spots that create internal conflict or hinder the character's growth
• Use contradictions and inconsistencies to add depth and complexity to characters, making them more unpredictable
• Show characters' personalities through their actions, choices, and interactions with others, rather than relying on exposition
• Give characters distinct voices and speech patterns that reflect their background, education, and personality
• Avoid stereotypes and clichés when creating characters, instead focusing on unique traits and quirks
• Consider the character's role in the overall story and how they contribute to the theme or central conflict

Dialogue That Pops

• Use dialogue to reveal character, advance the plot, and create subtext, rather than simply conveying information
• Give each character a distinct voice that reflects their personality, background, and emotional state
• Vary the length and rhythm of characters' speech to create a natural, conversational flow
• Use subtext to convey characters' underlying thoughts, feelings, or motivations that are not explicitly stated
  • Subtext can be created through word choice, tone, or body language that contradicts or complicates the surface meaning
• Avoid overusing character names in dialogue, as it can sound unnatural and expository
• Use silence, interruptions, and overlapping speech to create tension, conflict, or intimacy between characters
• Employ metaphors, analogies, and figurative language to add depth and complexity to characters' speech
• Read dialogue aloud to ensure it sounds natural and authentic to each character's voice

Character Arcs and Growth

• Character arcs trace the transformation and growth of characters as they face challenges and make decisions
• Positive arcs involve characters overcoming flaws, fears, or limitations to become better versions of themselves
• Negative arcs see characters succumbing to their flaws or making choices that lead to their downfall or destruction
• Flat arcs feature characters who remain unchanged, but whose unwavering beliefs or values inspire change in others
• Use pivotal moments or turning points to mark significant stages in a character's arc, such as a moment of realization or decision
• Show how characters' experiences and interactions with others shape their growth and development over time
• Ensure that characters' arcs are consistent with their established personality, motivations, and beliefs
• Use the resolution of the story to show how characters have changed or grown as a result of their journey

Relationships and Conflict

• Relationships between characters create opportunities for conflict, growth, and revelation of character
• Establish characters' roles and power dynamics within relationships (leader, follower, equal)
• Use characters' conflicting goals, values, or personalities to create tension and drama within relationships
  • Conflict can be external, such as a physical or verbal confrontation, or internal, such as a moral dilemma or personal struggle
• Show how characters' relationships evolve and change over the course of the story as a result of their shared experiences
• Use subtext and body language to convey the unspoken dynamics and tensions within relationships
• Create triangles or complex webs of relationships to add depth and complexity to the story's interpersonal conflicts
• Use characters' relationships to reveal their strengths, weaknesses, and hidden desires or fears
• Explore how characters' relationships with others influence their own growth and development throughout the story

Putting It All Together

• Integrate character development with plot, theme, and setting to create a cohesive and compelling story
• Ensure that characters' actions and choices are consistent with their established personality, motivations, and beliefs
• Use characters' interactions and relationships to create a web of cause and effect that drives the story forward
• Develop characters' arcs in parallel with the main plot, allowing their growth and transformation to impact the story's outcome
• Use the climax of the story to bring characters' arcs to a head, forcing them to confront their flaws or make difficult choices
• Ensure that the resolution of the story satisfies characters' arcs and relationships in a way that is consistent with the theme
• Revise and refine characters through multiple drafts, deepening their complexity and ensuring consistency throughout the story
• Seek feedback from others to gauge the effectiveness of character development and make necessary adjustments

Beyond the Basics

• Experiment with unconventional or subversive character types to challenge audience expectations and explore new territory
• Use minor characters to provide contrast, comic relief, or thematic commentary on the main characters and their journeys
• Explore the intersection of character and identity, using characters to examine issues of race, gender, class, or culture
• Use non-linear storytelling techniques, such as flashbacks or multiple perspectives, to reveal characters' backstories or inner lives
• Create an ensemble cast of characters with interwoven arcs and relationships that complement and complicate each other
• Use allegory or symbolism to imbue characters with deeper meaning or significance beyond their individual stories
• Experiment with different character voices, such as unreliable narrators or multiple perspectives, to create ambiguity or tension
• Draw inspiration from real-life people, historical figures, or personal experiences to create authentic and resonant characters