We think over characters of games and dialogues on the advice of writers and on the example of supporters of the theory of a flat Earth
As a person who, as a hobby, started making my first game without any programming experience, I constantly read various tutorials and game development guides. And as a person from PR and journalism, who often works with text, I want the script and characters, and not just gameplay mechanics. We will consider that I translated this article for myself as a reminder, but it’s good if someone comes in too.
And there character of characters understands on an example of supporters of the theory of the flat Earth.
The script of the film "Apocalypse Today" (1979) based on the book by Joseph Conrad "The Heart of Darkness" (1899)
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I am working on a game with a lot of characters. But writing characters is not my forte, so I began to meet with real writers. Their feedback is priceless.
We met in busy streets, sat in pubs for pints, chatted by email and argued. I met people with different opinions on the same issue. But I managed to pick out a few general points for the basis of writing characters.
Now I will show my notes after meeting with the writers and supplement them with thoughts from the book of John York Into The Woods - such notes will be marked with the acronym ITW. I hope they will be useful.
At the heart of the character lies the conflict between how we want to be perceived and what we really feel [ITW]. Or in other words: the conflict between our characterization (image) and our real character lies at the heart of everything (drama).
Therefore, for a character to be interesting and versatile, it must somehow conflict. He must have an image of the characteristics that he considers useful (consciously or not) and which over time begin to interfere with it. To win, he will have to give them up.
While supporting their image, the characters speak as they want to look in the eyes of others [ITW].
When a character says or does something completely atypical for him - the drama comes to life. The dialogue should not just explain the behavior, should not explain what the character himself thinks - he should show the character, not the characteristic.
The key to natural dialogues is character availability for a character that you can mentally imagine, rather than thinking about each individual line. Work with strings leave for later. A huge number of writers just sit on the blank page and think about what their character will say. Instead, create a character that will speak for itself.
So the first is the creation of character.
To create a character, you must consider the character from the maximum number of sides. Here are just a few questions about the character that you should ask yourself (this is not a complete and not the best list, but a good starting point):
And so on. The more answers to questions about the character you have, the deeper and more attractive it becomes. In the end, the character will become so specific that he will write his own dialogues.
Woman, she is from 26 to 29 years old. In school, her life was pretty boring. She had few friends and she left the city immediately after graduation. In a new place she gains courage and decides to go for a drink. In a big city there are thousands of people and the chances of meeting someone are quite high. She enters the pub. She has to push through the crowd. Suddenly she notices that she is the most unfashionable in the institution. She takes time to find free space. Finally, she sits down. Two hours later, a man approaches her.
“How are you?” He asks.
She replies: “Good. Thank".
“Everything's fine with me too,” the man says.
“Mm, I see,” she says. The man clears his throat.
Obviously, the man is more confident than she. He did not wait for him to be asked how he was doing. “Mm, I see ,” said the girl. She is confused. Firstly, because she felt awkward, and secondly, because the man was a little rude to her. She is not accustomed to the fleeting, bustling city life in which a man grew up. He was expecting a conversation at a pace he was used to in the city. He realized his mistake and began to clear his throat with embarrassment. The subtext here is that they both have a lot to learn about each other. Their life moves at different speeds, and if they want to make friends, they will have to learn and grow.
A good example is the opening scene in the movie "Social Network" (2010), where the characters communicate. In the search there are a lot of videos with the analysis, so I will not repeat.
Social Network (2010, David Fincher)
So, to create a dialogue, we have to create a character. In a sense, writing a dialogue is playing a character. Those. a description of what a character could say in reality if he existed.
To create things, you need other things. In creative areas it also works. People are characters. You are a character. Therefore, you must talk to people to gather material. People keep hundreds of life stories. One has only to ask and almost everyone is happy to tell you about himself. Just listen carefully.
Once in a pub, I talked with an alcoholic. Once he was a good developer and realtor. He told one interesting thing - his theory about the degeneration of men. It sounded like this: in the 70s and 80s, men's clubs began to be closed en masse. Because of this, they practically had nowhere to hang around with other men (meaning without wives and women). With one exception - bookmakers. Therefore, the demand for rates has risen sharply, new offices opened like leaps and bounds, and men have increasingly degraded. I asked him if the closure of mines in the North (and the subsequent mass unemployment) had an effect on the appearance of bookmakers. He agreed, pleased with the addition of his theory. But then he tapped his head on his head and said: “But people like us don’t fall for it - you know, smart people. We do not lose time in these bookmakers ". With a triumphant nod, he gulped down what was probably the 25th pint in the week. In the afternoon, in a gloomy pub. The conflict is personified.
Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, can talk about it for hours. Collect and retell stories of real people until they begin to live their own lives. Be sure to check out any Chuck appearances.
But in addition to communicating with real people, it is necessary to read other authors, anonymous blogs, listen to podcasts, confessions, study the characters of films and so on.
There is such a documentary Behind The Curve (“Bending”, 2018) about a group of supporters of the theory of a flat Earth. It does not speak in much detail about their ideology, but this is a great film for studying the characters themselves.
One of the heroines of the film, Patricia Steer, runs a YouTube channel dedicated to discussions about the theory of the flat Earth and the community as a whole. However, she does not look like a conspiracy therapist. In addition, she was not always a supporter of the theory, but came to her through various other conspiracy theories. When her channel gained popularity, conspiracy theories began to appear around her.
The problem of the members of such communities is that their beliefs are constantly ridiculed - the “big, bad world” is always against them. In such an atmosphere, they naturally begin to feel that everyone who does not share their faith is enemies. But this may apply to other members of the community. For example, if their beliefs suddenly changed.
There is a moment in the film where she says something like (not literally): "People called me a lizard, they said that I work for the FBI or I am a puppet of some kind of organization . "
Then a moment comes when she is on the threshold of awareness. You can see how she freezes at the thought that the things that are said about her are stupid and not true. But she said the same thing about other people. Was it stupid? And what if the theory of a flat Earth does not correspond to reality? Was she right all this time?
Then a logical explosion was to occur in her head, but she brushes off all thoughts with some comment and continues to believe in what she believed. The conflict inside the character just flared up in a monumental internal battle and the illogical side won.
This is a wonderful five seconds.
People can be a collection of compelling five-second flashes.
Are you still looking at a blank sheet asking what your characters will say? Simply, you have not developed enough of their character, so that they can speak for themselves. We will have to first work out all facets of the character to get a dialogue. And a quick search for character building questions is a good start for this.
Your character is ready, but they are too tight and not attractive? He needs conflict and image, friction and confusion.
Characters create new characters.
Look for characters around you in real life.
And there character of characters understands on an example of supporters of the theory of the flat Earth.
The script of the film "Apocalypse Today" (1979) based on the book by Joseph Conrad "The Heart of Darkness" (1899)
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Foreword
I am working on a game with a lot of characters. But writing characters is not my forte, so I began to meet with real writers. Their feedback is priceless.
We met in busy streets, sat in pubs for pints, chatted by email and argued. I met people with different opinions on the same issue. But I managed to pick out a few general points for the basis of writing characters.
Now I will show my notes after meeting with the writers and supplement them with thoughts from the book of John York Into The Woods - such notes will be marked with the acronym ITW. I hope they will be useful.
Character vs. Character
At the heart of the character lies the conflict between how we want to be perceived and what we really feel [ITW]. Or in other words: the conflict between our characterization (image) and our real character lies at the heart of everything (drama).
Therefore, for a character to be interesting and versatile, it must somehow conflict. He must have an image of the characteristics that he considers useful (consciously or not) and which over time begin to interfere with it. To win, he will have to give them up.
While supporting their image, the characters speak as they want to look in the eyes of others [ITW].
Writing conversations
When a character says or does something completely atypical for him - the drama comes to life. The dialogue should not just explain the behavior, should not explain what the character himself thinks - he should show the character, not the characteristic.
The key to natural dialogues is character availability for a character that you can mentally imagine, rather than thinking about each individual line. Work with strings leave for later. A huge number of writers just sit on the blank page and think about what their character will say. Instead, create a character that will speak for itself.
So the first is the creation of character.
To create a character, you must consider the character from the maximum number of sides. Here are just a few questions about the character that you should ask yourself (this is not a complete and not the best list, but a good starting point):
- What is he in public? Kind, quick-tempered, constantly in a hurry?
- When he is alone in the toilet, away from everyone - what thoughts were the first to come to his head?
- Where does he come from and where does he go? Is he from a poor or rich place? From quiet or lively? Is it torn between them?
- What does he like? What doesn't he like? If he came on a date, and he was ordered food, which he does not like - how will he react?
- Can he drive? Does he like to drive? How does he behave on the road?
- He found his old photograph: depending on when and with whom the picture was taken - how will he react?
And so on. The more answers to questions about the character you have, the deeper and more attractive it becomes. In the end, the character will become so specific that he will write his own dialogues.
Woman, she is from 26 to 29 years old. In school, her life was pretty boring. She had few friends and she left the city immediately after graduation. In a new place she gains courage and decides to go for a drink. In a big city there are thousands of people and the chances of meeting someone are quite high. She enters the pub. She has to push through the crowd. Suddenly she notices that she is the most unfashionable in the institution. She takes time to find free space. Finally, she sits down. Two hours later, a man approaches her.
“How are you?” He asks.
She replies: “Good. Thank".
“Everything's fine with me too,” the man says.
“Mm, I see,” she says. The man clears his throat.
Obviously, the man is more confident than she. He did not wait for him to be asked how he was doing. “Mm, I see ,” said the girl. She is confused. Firstly, because she felt awkward, and secondly, because the man was a little rude to her. She is not accustomed to the fleeting, bustling city life in which a man grew up. He was expecting a conversation at a pace he was used to in the city. He realized his mistake and began to clear his throat with embarrassment. The subtext here is that they both have a lot to learn about each other. Their life moves at different speeds, and if they want to make friends, they will have to learn and grow.
A good example is the opening scene in the movie "Social Network" (2010), where the characters communicate. In the search there are a lot of videos with the analysis, so I will not repeat.
Social Network (2010, David Fincher)
So, to create a dialogue, we have to create a character. In a sense, writing a dialogue is playing a character. Those. a description of what a character could say in reality if he existed.
Character references
To create things, you need other things. In creative areas it also works. People are characters. You are a character. Therefore, you must talk to people to gather material. People keep hundreds of life stories. One has only to ask and almost everyone is happy to tell you about himself. Just listen carefully.
Once in a pub, I talked with an alcoholic. Once he was a good developer and realtor. He told one interesting thing - his theory about the degeneration of men. It sounded like this: in the 70s and 80s, men's clubs began to be closed en masse. Because of this, they practically had nowhere to hang around with other men (meaning without wives and women). With one exception - bookmakers. Therefore, the demand for rates has risen sharply, new offices opened like leaps and bounds, and men have increasingly degraded. I asked him if the closure of mines in the North (and the subsequent mass unemployment) had an effect on the appearance of bookmakers. He agreed, pleased with the addition of his theory. But then he tapped his head on his head and said: “But people like us don’t fall for it - you know, smart people. We do not lose time in these bookmakers ". With a triumphant nod, he gulped down what was probably the 25th pint in the week. In the afternoon, in a gloomy pub. The conflict is personified.
Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, can talk about it for hours. Collect and retell stories of real people until they begin to live their own lives. Be sure to check out any Chuck appearances.
But in addition to communicating with real people, it is necessary to read other authors, anonymous blogs, listen to podcasts, confessions, study the characters of films and so on.
There is such a documentary Behind The Curve (“Bending”, 2018) about a group of supporters of the theory of a flat Earth. It does not speak in much detail about their ideology, but this is a great film for studying the characters themselves.
One of the heroines of the film, Patricia Steer, runs a YouTube channel dedicated to discussions about the theory of the flat Earth and the community as a whole. However, she does not look like a conspiracy therapist. In addition, she was not always a supporter of the theory, but came to her through various other conspiracy theories. When her channel gained popularity, conspiracy theories began to appear around her.
The problem of the members of such communities is that their beliefs are constantly ridiculed - the “big, bad world” is always against them. In such an atmosphere, they naturally begin to feel that everyone who does not share their faith is enemies. But this may apply to other members of the community. For example, if their beliefs suddenly changed.
There is a moment in the film where she says something like (not literally): "People called me a lizard, they said that I work for the FBI or I am a puppet of some kind of organization . "
Then a moment comes when she is on the threshold of awareness. You can see how she freezes at the thought that the things that are said about her are stupid and not true. But she said the same thing about other people. Was it stupid? And what if the theory of a flat Earth does not correspond to reality? Was she right all this time?
Then a logical explosion was to occur in her head, but she brushes off all thoughts with some comment and continues to believe in what she believed. The conflict inside the character just flared up in a monumental internal battle and the illogical side won.
This is a wonderful five seconds.
People can be a collection of compelling five-second flashes.
Eventually
Are you still looking at a blank sheet asking what your characters will say? Simply, you have not developed enough of their character, so that they can speak for themselves. We will have to first work out all facets of the character to get a dialogue. And a quick search for character building questions is a good start for this.
Your character is ready, but they are too tight and not attractive? He needs conflict and image, friction and confusion.
Characters create new characters.
Look for characters around you in real life.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/455612/
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