Characters, characters, characters...

It's amazing what setting a few new goals can do for your life. I'm currently back brainstorming my first script, (but with a better idea for story and characters) and hopefully I can finish or be close to finishing the script by the end of the year.

In other news, I recently read an article about character building
http://rougewave.blogspot.com/2008/03/guest-blog-your-character-is-not.html

I find it very interesting in the approach to character. It's not about who your character is much less than WHAT your character does. I think it's a truly profound thing to think about when creating your character.

Just go and sit in a public place observing people and what they do. Notice the people singing on the streets, the person who looks both ways before crossing vs the person who doesn't. The people who patiently wait for the light to turn to "WALK" while others around them rush through disregarding the traffic light.

Why does the person perform in the street for free? Are they showcasing their talent for the world, sharing it, or do they have more selfish, desperate reasons? Do they hope that in a miraculous twist of fate, a music producer hears the music and is touched and enthralled by it?

Or perhaps notice how the person singing at the local subway station has a slight quivering voice, terrible to hear but she's smiling, perhaps enjoying the fact that she finally has enough confidence to perform in front of others. Or in a more depressing note, perhaps she is LOSING her confidence as a performer, and the smile is merely the singer hiding her loss in confidence.

Notice how the woman sitting in the train is constantly looking at her phone, but doesn't make a call or even a text. Is she desperately waiting for a loved one to call, or is she merely pretending to have something to do to avoid seeing where she is and who's around her.

It's something I think that writers inherently do to themselves, observe people let our minds wander off filling in the blanks. I think that the reason writer's write is because the seemingly boring populace captivates us, we see things most people don't care about, the individual quirks that makes one person stand apart from the rest.