by Diana Black
“No man (or woman) is an island”. If we’re not relying on somebody in our day-to-day, we’re influenced by them – in admiration of them, jealous, shocked, outraged, repulsed, confused, sympathetic, empathic etc….
As creators of characters, why not use these universal human responses to ‘the other’ in your teleplay? Sounds like ‘a given’ BUT… do we want to be that deliberately formulaic in our ‘what if’/ brainstorming session? It stifles creativity, doesn’t it?
We need some form of dynamic interaction (usually conflict) between characters – across the Series arc, within each episode and within each scene. Does that mean we develop the characters on their own first, then set them free to play well (or not) with others, or do we deliberately designate their response to the lead…they hate them, love them, is enraged by them etc.?