The Anatomy of Story (17 page)

Creating Your Characters—Writing Exercise 3

■ Character Web by Story Function and Archetype
Create your character web. Start by listing all of your characters, and describe what function they play in the story (for example, hero, main opponent, ally, fake-ally opponent, subplot character). Write down next to each character the archetype, if any, that applies.

■ Central Moral Problem
List the central moral problem of the story.

■ Comparing the Characters
List and compare the following structure elements for all your characters.

1. Weaknesses

2. Need, both psychological and moral

3. Desire

4. Values

5. Power, status, and ability

6. How each faces the central moral problem

Begin the comparison between your hero and main opponent.

■ Variation on the Moral Problem
Make sure each character takes a different approach to the hero's central moral problem.

■ Requirements of a Hero
Now concentrate on fleshing out your hero. Begin by making sure you have incorporated the four requirements of any great hero:

1. Make your lead character constantly fascinating.

2. Make the audience identify with the character, but not too much.

3. Make the audience empathize with your hero, not sympathize.

4. Give your hero a moral as well as a psychological need.

■ Hero's Character Change
Determine your hero's character change. Write down the self-revelation first, and then go back to the need. Make sure the self-revelation actually solves the need. In other words, whatever lies or crutches the hero is living with in the beginning must be faced at the self-revelation and overcome.

■ Changed Beliefs
Write down the beliefs your hero challenges and changes over the course of your story.

■ Hero's Desire
Clarify
your hero's
desire line. Is it a single, specific goal that extends throughout the story? When does the audience know whether the hero has accomplished the goal or not? ■
Opponents
Detail your opponents. First describe how your main opponent and each of your lesser opponents attack the great weakness of your hero in a different way. ■
Opponents' Values
List a few values for each opponent.

How is each opponent a kind of double for the hero? Give each some level of power, status, and ability, and describe what similarities each shares with the hero.

State in one line the moral problem of each character and how each character justifies the actions he takes to reach his goal.

■ Minor Character Variation on the Hero's Weakness and Moral Problem
In what ways are any of the minor characters variations on the hero's unique weakness and moral problem?

■ Four-Corner Opposition
Map out the four-corner opposition for your story. Put your hero and main opponent on the top line with at least two secondary opponents underneath. Label each character with his or her archetype, but only if it is appropriate. Many characters are not archetypes. Don't force it.

Push the four major characters to the corners. That is, make sure each is as different from the other three as possible. The best way to ensure that is to focus on how the values of each differ.

Let's use
A Streetcar Named Desire
as an example of how to flesh out characters.

A Streetcar Named Desire

(by Tennessee Williams, 1947)

Character Web by Story Function and Archetype

Hero:
Blanche DuBois (artist)

Main opponent:
Stanley Kowalski (warrior-king)

Fake-ally opponents:
Mitch, Stanley's friend, and Stella Kowalski

(mother), Blanche's sister
Ally:
None

Fake-opponent ally:
None

Subplot character:
None

■ Central Moral Problem
Is someone ever justified in using lies and

illusion to get love?

■ Comparing the Characters

BLANCHE

Weaknesses:
Beaten down, relies on her fading looks, has no true sense of self, often retreats into delusion when life is too hard, uses sex to get love, uses others to serve her and preserve the illusion that she's still a belle.

Psychological need:
Blanche must learn to see the value that is in her heart and not in her looks. Also, she must stop looking for a man to save her.

Moral need:
She must learn to tell the truth when seeking someone's love.

Desire:
At first, Blanche wants a place to rest. But her main desire is to get Mitch to marry her so that she can feel safe.

STANLEY

Weaknesses:
Mean-spirited, suspicious, quick-tempered, brutal.

Psychological need:
Stanley needs to overcome the petty

competitiveness that drives him to beat everyone else and prove what a big man he is.

Moral need:
Stanley must overcome the base cruelty he shows toward anyone weaker than himself. He is a mean, selfish child who must deprive others of happiness.

Desire:
Stanley wants Blanche out of his house and wants his life back the way it was. Then he wants to keep Mitch from marrying Blanche.

STELLA

Weaknesses:
Naive, dependent on Stanley, simpleminded.

Psychological need:
Stella needs to become her own person and see Stanley for what he really is.

Moral need:
Stella must take responsibility for supporting Stanley's brutality.

Desire:
She wants to see her sister marry Mitch and be happy.

MITCH

Weaknesses:
Shy, weak, unable to think or act on his own.
Psychological need:
Mitch needs to break away from Stanley and his

mother and live his own life.
Moral need:
He must treat Blanche as a human being, respecting her

decency and the pain with which she has had to live her life.
Desire:
At first, Mitch wants to marry Blanche. But when he learns of her past, he just wants her for sex.

■ Variation on the Moral Problem

Blanche:
Blanche lies to herself and to others in order to get love.
Stanley:
Stanley is so brutally honest when it comes to exposing the lies of others that he actually tears people apart. His belief that the world is harsh, competitive, and underhanded makes it more so than it really is. His aggressive, self-righteous view of the truth is far more destructive than Blanche's lies.
Stella:
Stella is guilty of a sin of omission. She allows her sister to have her little delusions, but she cannot see the lies her own husband tells after he brutally attacks her sister.
Mitch:
Mitch is taken in by Blanche's superficial lies and is therefore unable to see the deeper beauty that she possesses.

Blanche's Character Change:

Weaknesses: Loneliness, false Change: Madness, despair, hope, bravado, lies broken spirit

Changed Beliefs
Blanche moves beyond her belief that she must fool a man by physical and verbal lies to get him to love her. But her honesty and insight are wasted on the wrong man.

■ Blanche's Desire
Blanche wants Mitch to marry her. We know that Blanche fails to achieve her desire when Mitch brutally turns her down.

■ Opponents' Attacks on the Hero's Weaknesses

Stanley:
Stanley is brutally aggressive in forcing Blanche to face the

"truth" about herself.
Stella:
Stella is largely unaware of her part in destroying her sister. Her

simple-mindedness and love for Stanley prevent her from protecting her sister's fragile state from her husband's attacks. Stella refuses to believe that Stanley has raped her sister.

Mitch:
Mitch is essentially decent, but he is weak and cowardly. When he shows interest in Blanche but then backs away and even abuses her, he dashes her last best hopes and hurts her deeply.

■ Characters' Values

Blanche:
Beauty, appearance, manners, refinement, kindness, Stella.

Stanley:
Strength, power, women, sex, money, Stella, his male friends.

Stella:
Stanley, her marriage, Blanche, sex, her baby.

Mitch:
His mother, his friends, manners, Blanche.

■ Opponents' Similarities to the Hero

Stanley:
Blanche and Stanley are very different in many ways. But they share a deeper understanding of the world that Stella does not see. They are both smart in a scheming, tactical way and recognize that ability in the other.

Stella:
Stella shares Blanche's past, when they lived in the beautiful, " graceful, mannered world of old Southern aristocracy. Stella also shares her sister's need for love and kindness.

Mitch:
Mitch responds to Blanche's love of manners and courtship. He appreciates her gentility and the last vestiges of her beauty.

■ Power, Status, and Ability

Blanche:
Blanche has lost all status. She desperately holds on to her ability to please a man with her looks and charm.

Stanley:
Stanley is the "top dog" in his circle of male friends. He is also very capable of getting what he wants, especially from Stella.

Stella:
Stella has no power or status except what is given to her by Stanley. But she is very good at pleasing Stanley.

Mitch:
Mitch has little status or power either within his group or in the larger world. He is a born follower.

■ Moral Problem and Justification

Blanche:
Blanche feels that her lies have not hurt anyone and that this is her only chance at happiness.

Stanley:
He thinks Blanche is a lying whore who has swindled him.

He believes he is just looking out for his friend when he tells Mitch about Blanche's past.
Stella:
Stella is not smart enough to see that she is part of a process

that is destroying her sister.
Mitch:
Mitch feels that a woman who has acted as a prostitute can be treated like one.

■ Minor Character Variation on the Hero's Weakness and Moral Problem
Eunice and Steve are married and live upstairs. They argue over his infidelity. When she leaves, Steve chases after her and brings her back.

■ Four-Corner Opposition