From Aristotle's Poetics for
Screenwriters by Michael Tierno. The Greek philosopher Aristotle's book Poetics
has given countless writers a guidepost for creating great fiction:
"One of
the many things
we can thank
Aristotle for is
his writings on
how to create
characters that seem both realistic and able to captivate an
audience. First, make them good enough that we can root for them. Second, make
them 'appropriate,' meaning give them characteristics that make sense for the
type of person they are. Third, make them human -- give them flaws or quirks
that make us believe that they exist. Finally, whatever characteristics you do
give them, make sure you keep them there throughout the length of the
screenplay. As Aristotle says, make sure they are 'consistently
inconsistent.'...
"Additionally, he gives us
five principles of life that we can use to create character in our stories:
1. Nutritive Life
2. Desiring Life
3. Sensitive Life
4. Locomotion
5. Capacity for Rational Thought
"Because these five
principles all belong to the makeup of a real-life person's 'psychology,' they
can be used to create convincing three-dimensional characters. Let's examine
each one.
" 1. Nutritive Life. Do you
wonder about your characters' eating habits? Wouldn't that tell you (and your
audi¬ence) a lot about them? Don't your eating habits say a lot about you? You
should brainstorm as much as you can to get a clear picture of what the eating
habits of your characters might be, to gather clues about who they are. How do
they eat, what do they eat? Do they think about food a lot? What do your
characters' refrigerators look like? Not that any of this ever has to make it
to the page, but it's a window into their character. I mean, when Rocky gets up
at 4 a.m, and drinks four raw eggs, isn't that worth a gazillion pages of
psychological notes on him? That image is so powerful and evocative that you
know without further elaboration that he is serious about this boxing match.
Look at Lester Burnham [in the Oscar-winning American Beauty]. What does he
eat? By the end of his transformation from miserable mid-life-crisis guy to
seeker of eternal youth, he's blending and drinking health drinks. What could
tell us more about Lester's new attitude toward life? What could make Lester
seem more human?
" 2. Desiring Life. At the heart of all action is
the desire of the hero. Basic human desire is really what makes char¬acters
come alive on the screen. In The Godfather, when Michael Corleone goes to Italy
and falls in love with an Italian woman from the mountains, doesn't that make
him seem truly alive? It's a probable incident that flows with the action,
reflecting his deep commitment to his Italian 'roots.' In Gladiator, Maximus
yearns to go home to his family and, after they have been murdered, to join
them in eternity. In The Blair Witch Project, the kids' ambition to tape the
Blair Witch and make a film leads them to their death. Desiring is at the heart
of what it means to be a living, breathing human being.
" 3. Sensitive Life. It goes without saying that
our five senses are a big part of being alive. If a human being faces the
prospect of losing sight or hearing, it's devas¬tating. In fact, all of the
five senses -- sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste -- define our lives at
the most ba¬sic level. Lester Burnham spends a lot of time mastur¬bating,
doesn't he? In fact, it's how we are first introduced to him. What more do we
need to sense that Lester is real and to 'know' who he is? In cinema, perhaps
the most important sense in regard to character development is visual
perception. Great screenwriters know how to feed information to the audience
through the eyes of characters, such as when Lester sees Angela at the pep
rally and fantasizes about her. Showing how characters actually see things with
their own eyes ena¬bles the audience to experience 'causes' of the action. It
also puts to use a powerful aspect of the cinematic medium, which is the hero's
literal point of view.
" 4. Locomotion. Carefully
depicting movement is vital to a screenplay. For example, The Blair Witch
Project is a tapestry of rest and locomotion, in which the characters' use of
their eyes and ears is also notably important. Heather, the lead character in
the story, spends a lot of time running around, screaming, and trying to
videotape the ground in front of her. The lifelike aspect of all the characters
is transmitted largely by their physical move¬ment, as they trudge through the
woods.
"5. Capacity for Rational
Thought. Thinking about the mind and thought processes of people can be a fun
way to brainstorm characters into existence. In Annie Hall,
Alvie is a rational man who has
bouts of irrationality. This surfaces when a cop pulls him over and he tears up
his license. In TitanicRose jumps from the lifeboat to return to Jack, a
slightly more irrational than rational act -- but hey, this is a love story,
and romantic love is rooted as much in animal nature as it is in the higher
mind. (Rose is also slightly larger than life, and she's being consistent with
what we've seen of her.)
"In summary, to create a
real human being for an audi¬ence you must have them do things that convince
the audience that they are alive, really alive, giving details that even a
scientist like Aristotle would appreciate."
Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets
From the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization
Author: Michael Tierno
Publisher: Hachette Books
Copyright 2002 Michael Tierno
Pages: 123-128
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