Making a Good Script Great

Think of the confidant as the person to whom the protagonist reveals herself or himself. This is a trustworthy character in whose presence a female protagonist can let her hair down, or a male protagonist can be vulnerable.

one character.
We might divide character functions into five categories: main characters, supporting characters, characters who add dimension, thematic characters, and mass-and-weight characters.

When reworking a main character, it’s often helpful to begin with a transformational arc

There are a number of different ways of describing a character’s dimensions

When you define your main conflict, try to clearly express the goals of both the antagonist and the protagonist in terms that reveal why they’re in conflict.

Six types of conflicts are found in stories: inner, relational, social, situational, cosmic, and us versus them.

Look at your protagonist’s goal. Is it set up in Act One? Is it clear? When the main character reaches that goal, do we know the story is finished? Are the climax and the goal the same (which is almost always true)? Do all of your plot and subplot lines have clear goals? Are all of them resolved toward the end of the script?

Is there a clear catalyst that motivates your main character into the story? If not, see if you can create a crisis point that will force your character into action. Find a visual way to show that crisis point.

Somewhere by the midpoint of the script (if not before), the protagonist has to begin acting upon the story rather than being victimized by it.

To function well, a goal requires three elements.