I’m reading a How to Build a Great Screenplay by David Howard. In it, he poses the following questions:
“Are busy characters necessarily the same as characters taking actions? Are activity and action the same? Must all actions and activities be aimed at goals, at what the characters want?”
That’s a lot to think about on a Thursday morning, I know, but it’s been hanging with me for a few days now. What is the difference between action and activity? Does it really matter?
Yes. And here’s why:
Howard defines action: “An action has a purpose behind it…a goal that has been made meaningful for the audience.” (italics mine).
Activity? “Something a character does in a scene…in pursuit of a goal that we don’t care about.” (italics mine).
We don’t care about it? Then why put it in?
Remember the discussion we had about deepening the details? Well, activity is an opportunity to deepen the details. Make what a character does in between bits of dialogue, when alone in a scene, when entering a setting reveal character, reveal emotion, reveal tone, inner life.
Take any character you love and flip open to a portion of one of their tales, at a spot when they’re not actively, “action-ly” pursuing a goal towards story fulfillment. Likely his paring of potatoes way past what is necessary for getting the skin off is the author’s way of telling you that he is distracted, or just barely holding on to some pent-up frustration. The way she changes the energy she puts into the scrubbing of her car in the driveway as her annoying neighbor drones on? Tells you a lot more about her feelings about said neighbor than if the author just flat out told you.
Characters have to “keep busy,” yes. But we can work so much into that necessary activity. Our writing will be the better for it.
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Regina, great post. It’s like life. You can tell a lot about a person by what they do–even the mundane.
by laura
on August 28th, 2008 at 8:17 am
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I think we need to remember to put that kind of “life” into our characters and their interactions, eh? Sometimes it helps to sit back and watch the “characters” in our lives to remind us of how much the little things they do tell us about us.
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I have one of my partialy completed novels going out 2000 word piece at a time to a critique group.
So today, I got back one critique which said, well written, good character development, etc BUT a lack of tension. Maybe I’m not good at holding back. Does every action have to have a conflict? Or can you have things going well for at least a chapter to try and develop the story?
I’m in a bad mood so this probably is hitting me a lot worse than it is.
Lynn
by Lynn
on August 29th, 2008 at 7:49 am
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Tension is a tough cookie, Lynn. Howard talks about it being dependent on the reader’s hopes and fears for a character. To establish this, the reader must first become engaged with the character, care about them - not necessarily like them, but care, as in not be apathetic.
Tensions can be big or small, and both should be used throughout. There are overarching tensions that are the bigger story questions, and then there are little scene questions: will our hero get caught filching his boss’s cigars from his desk while the boss is over at the window, contemplating what line of attack to take?
It’s all about making the reader a participant in the story - and a reader gets there by feeling the tensions inherent in the situations. Thereby, tensions help deepen the caring that the reader feels about a character and his/her situations, big and small.
How to get there is the tough part. Start with letting the reader in on “what the character wants from moment to moment and why it might be difficult to get.”
That last is from Howard, and I highly recommend the book to anyone - it’s a bit meandering and could be better structured for readability, but it really goes in depth as to story, and not just what pertains to screenwriting.
Good luck, Lynn, and keep your chin up!
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