Tyler Has Words is the blog of Tyler Patrick Wood, a writer/musician from Texas. You'll get free book excerpts twice a week. On the other days, you'll get words. If you would like an original take on everything by an expert on nothing, this might be a cool place to hang out.

About Home Again

About Home Again

Post 294:

            There’s a billion ways to talk about writing characters, but let’s pick one. Despite the fact that there has to be some sort of arc, most good characters are what they are, right from the get go. That’s a bit of a gnarly statement. Let me explain.

            Courtroom dramas are an easy example. In Anatomy of a Murder, the defense lawyer is played by Jimmy Stewart. Right from the beginning we see a really aloof dude. He almost doesn’t seem to want to be a lawyer—he’d rather fish or play the piano. I can relate.

            But it’s clear he’s in possession of a rich legal mind. He cares, at least enough to defend his client to his utmost. It’s more entertaining and surprising to see the story play out because of his reticence. A clearly great lawyer being a clearly great lawyer isn’t that interesting. It’s what’s expected.

            This is different than arc. It’s almost imbedded in the entire narrative. It allows the arc to happen, but if it wasn’t there from the beginning, not much of interest would play out.

            Of course there are huge redemption or tragic tales wherein a character will change completely, but even there, you can probably see that it was already in their DNA.

            It’s an obvious part of storytelling, but I can list a billion examples that will make you say, “Oh yeah.”

            Take Die Hard. Our hero is a complete screw-up, hates technology, can’t take care of his wife, etc. So what’s he end up doing? Saving everybody, taking care of his wife, being selfless and shoving the technology of the bad guys right back in their faces. That’s really who he always was.

            Or go back to the courtroom. A Few Good Men. The protagonist has no ethics (apparently) and is all about winning. Of course this isn’t true, and he ends up acting in a way that is completely counter to his so-called character. He sells himself out, becoming the idealist he really always was.

            So that’s a good way to look at it. A good protagonist will usually sell themselves out. But are they really? More accurately, they are only finding out who they actually were to begin with. All the surrounding characterizations are simply a smokescreen to justify the big turnaround they make. Turnarounds. Basically we’re watching or reading about people coming home, and that’s nice. They say you can never go home again, but characters certainly can. Make-believe and all.

            It’s fun to watch. It’s storytelling. This doesn’t mean it always works this way, but it does work. Keep that in mind and enjoy the fact that some things get the job done. Cheers. See you after.

About Weaponized Words

About Weaponized Words

About The Divorcer

About The Divorcer

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