Writer's Series: Create Characters Audiences Connect To

Choose the “Entire Series” option to get all three webinars together for the price of two! That is $79.99 off.

ABOUT THE WEBINAR:

A great concept and plot can keep an audience engaged while watching a movie but it is memorable characters who will stay with an audience long after they get up and leave. The same holds true for a screenplay. Heroes, Villains and supporting characters that readers care about (and therefore memorable) are the greatest asset a screenwriter has to getting their script optioned and sold. And directors, producers, actors and casting agents sifting through endless slush piles of material are constantly on the lookout for amazing characters who are not one-dimensional but bleed on the page and in their imagination. This webinar will address each archetypal character and get to the heart of how to make reader’s care about them.

The Protagonist Audiences Root for (series, pt 1) :

Everybody loves a hero, right? But why exactly do we find ourselves rooting for the good guy or gal? The answer can be as simple as it is complex. Protagonists must be fully-rendered if they are to engage the reader’s sympathy and support. And today’s audiences demand more complex heroes who reflect our changing times. This webinar will extrapolate on the Hero’s Journey and delve indepth in what it takes to make heroes truly heroic in contemporary cinematic storytelling. Many of today’s favorite heroes, those who wear spandex and those who don’t – will be highlighted to illustrate how to bring larger-than-life characters down to earth and on the script page.

The Antagonist Audiences Root Against (series, pt 2):

America loves a good bad guy. From serial killers to ax murderers, super-villains to mad scientists – we can’t get enough of them. A great antagonist must be human enough to gain the audience’s sympathy yet evil enough to repulse them. It is this push-pull emotional bond that makes a villain truly memorable and can often (for good or bad) overshadow many heroes. In fact, many heroes are only as good as the villains they are up against are bad. This webinar will analyze why audiences love villains so much, what vital ingredients make an engaging antagonist – and how to make your villain so unique and different that any actor in Hollywood would give anything to play them. Also covered will be a historical perspective on some of the greatest villains in movie history and why the best of them reflected what was going on in society at the time they were created.

Developing Minor Characters (series, pt 3):

You may not know the names of the character actors who portray them but audiences never forget a beloved supporting character. After all, what is a hero without their trusty sidekick or a villain without their evil assistant? But minor characters are much more than comic relief or shadows to their lead counterparts. Supporting characters populate the heart of the story, grounding the action in reality and performing the often thankless role of connecting the dots for the audience. And while minor characters should never overshadow the main characters, they do require their own backstories, goals and even love interests to make them unforgettable. This webinar will cover how to develop secondary characters who form the humanity behind the story while they populate the landscape of a compelling, fully-realized script. Numerous examples will be employed to show what to do (and maybe more importantly, what not to do) to bring these important second-fiddles to vivid life.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

• How to create characters that are imperfect, human and therefore relatable and interesting no matter what universe they inhabit
• How to develop a character’s emotional age to capture their unique point of view
• How to write dialogue for your character that will inform their unique perspective and placement in the larger storyline
• How to plot your character’s arc and define their actions so that you will never have them do anything “against character” and thus lose your audience
• How to make your characters more believable in ever-increasingly unbelievable situations
• How to structure your storylines to bring out the best, and worst, in your characters
• How to make your character’s interactions elevate their own storylines as well as the overarching story
• How to develop characters that reflect real societal issues and thereby engaging a contemporary audience

WHO SHOULD LISTEN:

• Writers who wish to create compelling, fully-dimensional characters to populate their scripts
• Writers who want to elevate their characters and engage audiences on a higher emotional level
• Writers who want heroes who are more than the sum of their good guy parts
• Writers who want villains who eat the scenery while they move the story forward
• Writers who love supporting characters and want to make them as vivid as their main characters
• Writers who want to attract a-list actors, directors and producers through well-crafted characters
• Writers who want to take their script to the next level by creating rich backstories for their main and minor characters
• Writers who want to bring their favorite characters to life by making them bleed on the script page
• Writers who want to sharpen their character’s emotional arcs over the course of the three-act structure
• Writers who want to learn how to create compelling dialogue for their characters

The Writers Store does not offer any refunds for the webinar. All sales are final.