Dan Decker on
"Driving Your Story Through Character:
Free Yourself of Plot Points Forever"

by Sylvia Cary

Dan Decker, author of the book “Anatomy of a Screenplay,” was the featured speaker on Saturday, September 15, 2007, at the regular Seminar Series meeting of the Scriptwriters Network held at CBS/Radford Studios in Studio City. 

Decker’s focus was on character. “A movie is about the characters and nothing else. Plot is merely a by-product of character. The most effective and exciting way to develop a script is by understanding the underlying ‘character structure’ of the piece rather than focusing on the plot points.”

What is a movie? 

DECKER: “A movie is about a character, in the face of opposition, with someone to talk to.’ Simply put, ‘a person (ACT I) does something (ACT II) and it works out (ACT III).’

If you do a story about a building, that’s a documentary. But if you do a story about the guy who built the building, that’s a movie.”

The “Main” Character:

DECKER: “The ‘Main’ character is the first person to do something significant on screen; the first person to make a decision; the first person upon whom the audience ‘imprints.’ What kind of person is this? What personality traits? What does s/he want? Why can’t s/he have it? How does this person relate to others? What do people say about this person when they are not around? If a movie doesn’t have a main character, it doesn’t have an objective – because the main character is the story. The Main has a deficit that needs fixing, a hole that needs filling. The Main also has a dream objective that s/he thinks will make life complete. 

“Think of character as a drive, so the Main’s drive is to get it! get it!  get it! The reason the Main is in any scene is to get what they want. Make the Main’s want or goal concrete and tangible, not a soft goal like ‘democracy’ or ‘world peace.’ By the end of the movie, the Main will come to see the error of his or her ways; will confront inner demons; will discover new insights into the human condition; and, as a result, will become a new and/or improved person.”

The Antagonist/Opponent Character:

DECKER: “The antagonist isn’t always the bad guy, but someone whose pursuit runs afoul of the main character and gets in the Main’s way. The opponent’s goal is for the opponent’s sake, not designed just to screw up the Main. If your main character has no living, breathing opponent, then you’ve just got an episodic series of scenes.”

The “Window” Character:

DECKER: “The ‘Window’ character is the person through whose eyes we see the changes in the main character.  The Window must be on the first page, on the last page, and must be there at every critical fork in the road.  So give the main character someone to talk to. The Greeks did this by putting a chorus on stage (Greek chorus).  In the movie BABE, the mice served the function of the Greek chorus. The Greek chorus understands that people don’t always mean what they say and speak in ‘subtext.’ The Main needs to be observed by the Window because without the Window you’ve got nothing. You need to anchor what’s going on with the character. The Window has his or her own objectives, and can be an opponent. When the Main undergoes a change, s/he articulates it to the Window, saying something such as, ‘I can never go back to that life again.’”

Keep the Audience Leaning Forward:

DECKER: “In every scene, keep the audience leaning forward in their seats by doing things that they’re not expecting.” 

Genre:

DECKER: “Genre is critical to producers and audiences. So pick a clear genre – and then write the hell out of it.  You cannot over-do your genre, but you can sure under-do it. You can even use the genre of the piece against the audience. But first you have to put the expectation in their heads, and the audience will love it.”

Theme Drive:

DECKER: “Think of both genre and theme as drives. Theme is the universal humanness of your story, so by the end of the movie the Main is a different person. Don’t write anything unless it’s a drive. Screenplays are not talk. Whenever you hear the criticism that your story drags in the second act, it’s because your story drive is wrong.”

Emotionally Satisfying Ending:

DECKER: “The main character doesn’t need to get their objective at the end. But the audience does expect certain things for their money, so the ending has to be resolved in an emotionally satisfying way – the character learns something; or realizes that their goal was a false goal; or they discover what they really want deep down instead.  Don’t leave your audience in limbo. As you write, always keep in mind what the characters are doing and how they’ll come full circle at the end. Resolve everything is descending order: 
 
 1) the objective of the main character;
 2) the objective of the opponent: Does he win? lose? go to jail?
 3) the objective of the window character: How does the relationship between the Main and the Window get resolved?;
 4) the love relationship;
 5) the theme resolution: How are you resolving your theme?  Has this journey been good or bad?”

At the end of his book, “Anatomy of a Screenplay,” Dan Decker gives some good advice: “To master the screenplay, like any other realm of human endeavor, we must first learn the fundamentals. Sometimes it’s a long and arduous learning curve to climb before we can let go and engage the task joyously. As we master the organic, singular nature of a screenplay, we can actually feel it in our writing. Then we can let ourselves come forth on the page.  Where training and instinct meet is where the best work will occur.”

Dan Decker, author of the book “Anatomy of a Screenplay,” can be contacted at Dan Decker1@gmail.com.

Sylvia Cary, MFT, both a published writer and a psychotherapist, has been a member of the Scriptwriters Network for a dozen years, and is currently serving on the Board as Director of Marketing.  She has a “book doctor” business (www.TherapistsWrite.com) helping therapists and others get published.