Okay, so last week I brought you an in-depth post on how I, E.C. Henry, approach writing outlines for romantic comedy material that I write. In that post I briefly touched ob character bios. A little over a year ago I did a post on character arcs focusing on one of my favorite of all time, Rick Dalton as created by the one and only Quentin Tarantino from Once Upon a Time In Hollywood... (2019). Still, I thought that I owed you a little bit more on that subject, and have more to say on it, because it's an important subject for enterprising writers to form their own opinions on.
A lot of people out there think the cast of characters is the most important thing in a screenplay. I would refute that, as I'm more of plot guy; but in romantic comedies clearly your characters and their arcs are more important than the Transformers or Fast and the Furious franchises (both of which are action/adventure).
Clearly your leads in a romantic comedy are important. And they can be quite varied to. There's the more upscale romance of say Sam Baldwin and Annie Reed of Sleepless in Seattle fame, or radical clash of two different world-views say Ben Stone and Alison Scott of Knocked Up fame. Regardless of the "chemical equation" you choose, the character and backstories of these two lead matter a lot.
So if you're writing a romantic comedy how to you write a character bio?
Be fearless. Don't let writing romantic comedy material intimidate you.
I'll be honest with you, my character bios are all over the map. I don't have a template that I follow. I think every story I've ever written has had a master character roster starting with the main characters going down the list to include all reference characters. In a master roster I always include a summary blurb of the character and more often than not their age and physical look.
But as far as writing a main character bio goes, let's begin the discussion by delving into a bio I made for one of my favorite character I ever wrote, "Kathy Smith" from So Go Back & Get Her, who was later further explored now as a teenager in Kathy Smith Conquers Duboose High School, after which time I completed this characters arc in So Go Back & Get Him: Overall the "Kathy Smith" character was one of easiest characters I ever embarked on writing because when I thought about her, I automatically thought about Taylor Swift and what she was like. Not saying that I copied Taylor's character, but rather that she "inspired" that character and made her infinitely easier to write than it would have been without such a well known source of inspiration.
If Taylor Swift ever went to Oz... It would probably look something like this!
As for the bio itself, and how it may help other writers. Notice the subheading I had: "physical description", "job", "personality", "x-factor", "residence", and "how she saw her love interest". A lot of stuff in the bio made into the script, while a few items changed and fell away. Looking back on it now I'm surprised how light and lean this bio was, as Kathy Smith is the main character in the franchise. All I can say about this is every time I wrote that character I imagined Taylor Swift, and I was just capturing whatever Taylor Swift was doing. Now, I've never met Taylor Swift so a lot of what I imagined is just that -- my imagination -- BUT in this case focusing on a celebrity and known property really helped the creative process.
Here's a few other headings in romantic comedy character biographies that I like to use:
BACKSTORY - This is where you the author describe a character's past history. A lot of times bio backstory doesn't make it into the script, but the greater backstory you write, the more alive and real the character will seem to you. In terms of romantic comedies you need to know where your leads are coming from. Are they "down" like Sam Baldwin was in Sleepless in Seattle, or are they a cunning, witty person who has the world by the tail like Ben did in How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)?
FAMILY CONNECTIONS - Who is this person's mother and father? Do they have any brothers and sisters. Tula from My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a pushed pushed-in-the-corner soul at her family's Greek restaurant. Sure she loved her family members, but the person deep within her need to be birthed. Family can play a big or small role in your rom-com, but how your character relate to their family matters, even if it doesn't result in major scenes in the screenplay you write.
CHARACTER INTERSECTIONS - Who are you main character's friends? Who are they're enemies? Who opposes them and why? This where you list allies and enemies. A lot of time this section of bio translates directly into scenes, OR provides fodder to bulk up existing scenes with memorable moments and conflict.
CHARACTER ARC - How does your character grow over the course of the story? What lesson are they trying to learn?
My character arc is clearly wearing dresses -- 27 of 'em!
CATALYST FOR CHANGE - What affects your character and forces him or her to grow in a new direction. This is a category where character bridges to outline and beats, as this is where your story changes in some way. If you have catalyst for change, you've got a story problem, because even romantic comedies have internal conflict. So identify potential places for your main leads to change.
ROMANTIC CONFLICT - Specify what's keeping two people in prospective romance from connecting? A good rom-com has a good romantic conflict. How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days has two leads who are more serious about advancing in their careers than they are in finding their one true love. In the 40-Year-Old Virgin the male lead Andy needs to find his self worth. His conflict is one of a secret he wants to keep. Trish in The 40-Year-Old Virgin wants to find a nice guy. At one point in the story she admits that she's been attracted to "bad boys" before and avoid nice guys to her own peril. In Silver Linings Playbook Pat (Bradley Cooper's character) is still hung-up on his ex-wife, which makes it hard for him to see the potential with Tiffani Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence's character)
OPIATE - What makes your character the happiest? This is a biggie for creating relatable characters. Anne's opiate in Sleepless in Seattle is finding happy ending for troubled people, she wants Sam, who she hears on the radio to overcome the death of his wife. As for E.C. Henry his opiate is writing romantic comedies! Seriously, that's what make me the happiest.
HOW THIS CHARACTER SEES THEMSELVES - Are they cocky or shy? Are they happy with status quo or wanting to change the trajectory of their life. In Sleepless in Seattle, Sam Baldwin is confident in his career, but knows he needs to move on and find a new love interest.
Even Jonah Baldwin knows this rom-com, lead protagonist needs some help...
However you go about creating character bios realize that they are just supports. This extra bit of writing is there to help the writer crack characters and determine what to do with them. The better the writer knows his or her characters the better they should translate on the page. If you don't put in the time to create three dimensional characters you risk writing half baked, flat characters. Character bios help with the process of achieving what we all want to achieve with is getting compliments on how well we write characters.
Till we speak again...
P.S. Coming soon, E.C. Henry's predictions for the 2024 NFL season
P.P.S. Concerning my latest romantic comedy, I did start the 1st draft this week to work on a key scene that really sets the stage for the rest of the story. Still working on my own rom-com character bios for the big three in this story, and working on beefing up the outline. I work on the story and characters at the day job, which lately has been 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. :( Makes me very tired and hard to write in the grueling summer heat of NE Tennessee.
P.P.P.S. A couple of days ago I bought tickets to see the Seahawks play the Falcons in Atlanta on October 20th. So I'll be going to that with my brother and his eldest son, Brycen, who's 16 now and working on getting his first driver's licence!
Good morning, Sabrina. Thanks for visiting my blog and taking the time to critique my post.
I implemented the changes you suggested after verifying the proper use of postscripts. I had though P.S.S. was how it was done since my high schooling days. Don't normally use postscripts. Guess there's always something new to learn.
- E.C. Henry from Kingsport, TN
Posted by: E.C. Henry | Wednesday, August 14, 2024 at 04:10 AM
Friendly note from a friendly person: “P.S.” stands for “postscript.” So, you don’t mean “P.S.S.” or “P.S.S.S.” You mean “P.P.S.” and “P.P.P.S.” Anyway I’ll let you get to editing this essay…
Posted by: Sabrina | Tuesday, August 13, 2024 at 01:07 PM