Copyright © 2023 Jerry Dunne
Before reading this post, I suggest you read the following two posts so you are better acquainted with the perspective outlined below. Character is dramatic action and Sparking up character for the play.
This post looks at the most important way to differentiate characters one from the other in the play so that all of them will stand the best chance of developing an individual personality and voice.
People are individuals and live individual lives, we always hear; they are unique souls and we don’t have to look far to see how they differentiate one from the other. They differ in their traits, physical, emotional, psychological, behavioural and in their general qualities. No one looks exactly like anyone else, and no one acts or talks exactly like anyone else. There are so many variables that go to make us up as individuals that the world would be hard pressed to find two people so similar in every way that no one else could tell them apart.
Okay, that’s great. So, let’s take a play with say five characters and show our audience just how individual we are going to make them. It ought to be easy. Character A is going to be five feet tall, female and with a quirky but endearing way of pronouncing her ls. We can go on like this, building up her physical, emotional and psychological side, and possibly even giving her a bio, and so on. Then we will do the same for the other four characters.
So now let us assume we have our five individual characters laid out plainly before us. Well, it is obvious to see how distinctly different they all are one to the other, and, indeed, like greyhounds in the slips, they are all raring to go in our story. So much for the difficulty of writing character! Yes, it took a bit of effort in putting them all together but it was really no trial by fire. It really wasn’t all that difficult.
Now, for the next stage, we are going to take our well defined, distinguished and individual five characters and begin introducing them into the plot arc of the play.
And this is where our problems begin…
…as a play is made up of sets of actions, human actions, of course, and so character in a play is defined by a set of actions, dramatic actions (plot related) to be more specific. Character in a play must go through the process of committing to a series of dramatic actions, which includes pushing and getting push back from other characters (dramatic conflict), and creating change through a series of dramatic crises. This is the only way they can grow, the only way they can show themselves to the world in any way that counts. So, unless your character is doing this, they have no real character at all.
Without a character going through this process of growth, that suit you made for them before the plot began, the one that was going to made them shine as individuals, with all its fancy individual trimmings, colours and patterns, that suit will remain unworn because you don’t have any character that counts to fill it with. The suit is only a set of attributes, the ones you wrote in preparation for the drafting of the play. It may be a very individual looking suit, but it is still an empty suit, nonetheless – without plot-related action.
In drama, character owes its very existence to dramatic action and therefore its identity also to dramatic action and this type of action is always structured by the plot, which leaves character in the unenviable position of being ‘owned’ by the plot arc.
Now you are no doubt thinking, but can’t character lead plot? Or what else is a character led story?
But the story allows the character to show its identity within a single plot arc, so that this identity can belong only to a single plot arc. We do not know what the character will do in any other plot arc. In other words, in any other set of circumstances. You can deduce it, but you cannot know it until you put them through another plot arc. This shows clearly that a character gets its identity solely from a particular and singular set of actions in a single plot arc and from nowhere else. We are talking about one-off dramas in the theatre here. So, a character led story is no more than a story where it appears that the character is stronger and freer than the plot, but it is an illusion. Usually, a slow and simple plot with an elaboration of character creates this illusion. But take away dramatic action, one of the three fundamental building blocks of the plot arc, and you have nothing. No plot. No character. No play. Nothing!
So where does this leave us with our five characters and our desire to give them each an individual identity? It leaves us logically in the only place we can be, and that is where we must strive to give each character a specific set of dramatic actions to accomplish within the plot arc. In other words, they will each need a specific plot-related role to play in the drama. The more individual the role, the more likely will be the individuality of the character.
Each character must have a specific, well defined and purposeful plot-related role that will put them at loggerheads against at least one other of the characters. So, whatever attributes you have written up for them, by all means employ them here, but they are no more than a set of clothing on the main body which comes alive solely through dramatic action which is always plot related. It might even be that some of the traits you had developed for the characters and which looked especially good earlier on now don’t fit the character at all as they start to develop a different set of characteristics (independent of your earlier creativity), through the process of committing themselves to the dramatic actions of the drama. Here, they are doggedly pursing their specific want, desire or need, while clashing hard with their opponent/s, especially in the crisis points. In fact, so much change may occur here that the characters you assumed you knew preparatory to draft writing, you may now hardly even recognise. At least some of the traits you had earlier given them will now certainly look irrelevant, even naive or ridiculous. This is because your characters have come alive through the movement of the plot arc. They cannot do it any other way. No amount of quirkily designed suits and other fancy accessories will ever change that.
Of course, if you need to start planning the character attributes before plunging into the heart of the matter then go ahead and do so (and mostly everyone does this to an extent). But don’t convince yourself that you have character there, when all you have at this point is an empty suit waiting to be filled by a body of dramatic action.
And the stronger the role, the greater chance of individuality each character has of achieving. But, remember, a role has no strength in it if it is not plot related. It might look cute but it is mere performance. A strong, plot-related role with strong emotional underpinnings, where the character battles furiously under tremendous pressure in an attempt to achieve their goal within the plot arc will always make a character’s individuality shine. It isn’t that these roles completely write themselves, but if you have done it right, you only need then to provide a rather simple but well fitting suit to cover the body, to give the character that extra bit of flair. The suit is the icing, the actions and internal struggle of the plot the cake.
As language is so important to character let’s talk about that here, too. So many budding writers sweat buckets over the right nuance, accent, diction, and so on, of their characters’ speech, desperate to make sure that each one has an individual voice. But then, in reading the text, you discover that although they have managed to have one character lisping, another stuttering, another again unable to pronounce r properly, while yet another repeats a certain phrase often, the characters have little or no distinguishing actions between them in the play. These writers have put the cart before the horse, like measuring up a suit before you have an actual body to fill it. They have yet to show character where it matters. The characters must each have a definite set of dramatic actions in the play that are uniquely their own. This, by definition, makes them different one to the other in the only way that counts, because now they are actual characters in a play. If a character has a well nuanced voice, but their role in the plot is poorly defined, their voice will not be heard anywhere near as clearly and individually as those who do have that clear, well defined and purposeful role in the plot. So, even if the character with a well-defined set of dramatic actions has an accent or diction, or whatever, similar to the other characters, they will still have an individual voice. Of course, if you feel the need to tweak the speech of these characters at some point, then by all means do so. At least now you have put the horse before the cart.
If you thought you needed five characters for your play and you cannot find a strong role for all of them then you don’t need all of them. Don’t try to fit that one character in you really like. A flashy character without a strong dramatic role is only getting in the way of the drama. He will only end up becoming the loudmouth at the party you wish you had never invited. And if you do end up with only two characters out of the five, then so be it. If you needed more, you would have found them a worthy role in the plot. Now, at least, you will have two characters each with an individual voice, because each will have individual and opposing sets of dramatic actions to carry out as they clash with one another from scene to scene, hopefully developing as characters all the while.
Links:
Character is dramatic action
Sparking up character for the play
From stereotype to rounded character with speed and ease
The play’s 3-act plot arc structure
Emotion and the play’s plot arc
Inspiration from inside an empty matchbox
The plan: a bird’s eye view (for drama)
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