5 Exercises in Writing Film Characters People Truly Relate With
Films with relatable characters linger on your mind much longer after you have finished watching the movie. Take Ved from Tamasha, Fleabag from Fleabag, Miguel from Coco, Kaira from Dear Zindagi, Devi from Masaan; the list goes on and on. Have you ever wondered how do the writers manage to put them on paper so well? Have you ever wished to create characters like them? These exercises can be the start of a beautiful process for you.
Get your pencil and paper ready. Let's begin!
- Person I Hate Exercise
As a writer, it is best to feel strongly for the character to write passionately about them. That way, you will find yourself blowing real life into them rather than creating a mere on-paper persona. How do you evoke that passion? Let's start with the 'People I Hate Exercise'. Yes, intense, I know.
- Write the names of five people in your life that you hate or do not like at all.
- Now, pick the one you dislike the most of all the five people you have noted.
- Have you picked one?
- Now imagine that you have walked into a cafe. You go to the counter and notice that this person you hate the most is seated in the corner of that cafe, drinking coffee.
Here begins the fun.
Take 8 minutes and write — As you walk into the cafe and see this person — What are you doing, what are you thinking, and what are you seeing?
Done?
Here comes the second and crucial part of the exercise — Put yourself in the shoes of this person you hate. Imagine you are them, sitting at the corner of the cafe, and write from their point of view, as they see you want into the cafe, what are they doing, what are they seeing, and what are they thinking looking at you.
You've got 8 minutes.
Done? Congrats, you just learned how to empathize with another character. Now you can pick any character, get into their head and learn how they feel and see the world learning from this example.
2. Venn Diagram Exercise
This method helps you get closer to a character's behaviour and lifestyle, especially if it is fiction.
Ponder upon this:
What are the overlapping characteristics of the character (fiction) you are creating and you? Describe it in a Venn diagram like this:
Let's say I am writing a character who is a gangster. The overlapping characteristics that I will find in this person would be — he loves family, enjoys sports — mainly cricket, is short-tempered at times, values friendships over business, prefers Indian over continental food, is a small-town kid in a big city, and so on. The more, the merrier. With every aspect, you will get an attractive trait of the person and several scenes that can be worked upon subsequently!
Example: Remember how John Wick and his characteristic of loving his car gave the movie its plot?
3. Eavesdropping Exercise
This is something they teach at every film and theatre school/workshop. And why not? After all, it is one of the most effective ways to learn how to make our characters talk. We are what we speak (or don't speak), and so are our characters.
Here's what you will do: Go out and hear a couple of conversations. This could be at a garden, a bus stop or even someone talking on the phone. Take any two of these conversations and write three lines from each.
If you can't go out, don't worry. Listen to conversations on the T.V. and write them down.
Here's an example of a conversation I heard on the internet last night:
"Not all IAS officers take bribes, okay?"
"Oh really? Most of them come from UP, Bihar. And which states are the most backwards in the country? UP, Bihar. You think it's a coincidence?"
"You are comparing apples and oranges."
"Apples reminded me, how is the situation in Kashmir these days?"
Another conversation I heard on a group call went like this:
"I feel all dark from inside after looking at all those deaths in the hospital every day. It's crazy."
"Yes, man, I can imagine how it must've been on the frontline in 1940s Europe."
"Guys, every generation has had to see at least one pandemic in their life."
"Yeah, hopefully, we are not unlucky enough to see another round of this."
As you write them, you will realize how different it is to write these conversations as opposed to just thinking about them. Your character will find a definitive voice in this exercise.
4. Conversation Exercise
Eavesdropping helped us understand how to listen and get close to realism in our dialogues. How do we get creative and use this learning in our plots and characters? For that, here comes the conversation exercise.
Pick any two lines from the above exercise and incorporate them into a fictitious conversation.
For example, I will pick up the following lines —
"Yes, man, I can imagine how it must've been on the frontline in 1940s Europe."
"You are comparing apples and oranges."
You take two such lines from the conversation you have written in the earlier exercise and carve a conversation out of it. Keep it around 15 lines for the sake of this exercise.
This one is my personal favourite, as it stretches your imagination and creativity.
Were you done with your 15 lines? You just got close to writing a conversation that people will be able to relate to. They won't feel alienated. They will be able to put themselves in your character's shoes!
Also, this conversation you have written is going to help us build a fictitious character in the next and last exercise — The character character-building exercise.
5. Character Building Exercise
Pick one of the invented characters from the conversation you have written in the earlier exercise. And answer the following questions about that character in as many details (wherever applicable) as you can:
What does that person look like? How old are they? What do they do professionally? What do they do for fun? What's inside their wallet? Who is the most critical person in their life? Why? What are they afraid of? What do they want? Who do they love? Who do they fear?
Once you answer these questions, you have a character that is believable, relatable and real. Your audience will feel for them just as you have felt for them, too. You have gone beyond the paperwork and stepped into the psyche of this person you have just created. Another advantage of going through this drill is the impeccable knowledge about your character that will help you prepare the actors playing the role much better!
P.S. If you have been only reading, go to the first point and begin writing now! I would love to hear or read what person you have birthed today. :)
