if you’ re just slapping it in there to try and make your character feel“ deep,” it’ s probably not going to work.
Fears – Fears are the last and typically weakest way to add depth to your character. The reason being, they’ re surface level. Unlike a flaw, an inner conflict, or a vice, there isn’ t a whole lot going on under the hood with a fear. Take Indiana Jones. His fear is snakes. Good for a chuckle, not much else. Or Brody from Jaws. He’ s afraid of water. Cool for later when he must go into the ocean to kill the shark, but it doesn’ t really add much depth to his character. Or Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. His fear is heights. Sets up a nifty little finale where he must climb up the building to get to Julia Roberts, but there’ s never a moment in the film where we feel the depth of Richard Gere being afraid of heights. It’ s just a cute little setup and payoff, as are all these examples.
Now this doesn’ t mean you don’ t want characters who are afraid in your screenplays. Fear is a very powerful emotion. And as you can see from the examples above, it’ s a nice little addition to a character who already has depth. You just don’ t want fear to be the only element of depth in your character. Any fear should be in addition to, not in place of, these options. The one exception is if the fear is integral to the storyline. For example, if your character was raped, and now they’ re afraid to leave the house in fear of getting raped again, obviously the fear is adding depth to your character.
Moving forward, my suggestion for adding depth to your character would be to start with the character flaw. If a character flaw doesn’ t feel right for that particular story( Hey, Ferris Bueller didn’ t have a character flaw), move to inner conflict. If your character doesn’ t seem like the kind of guy with a lot of internal strife going on( aka Seth Rogan’ s character in Knocked Up), go with a vice. Only use fear as a last option or if it’ s integral to the kind of story you’ re telling. There are a few other things you can do to add depth( backstory, mystery, your character’ s relationships with others), but for the most part, if you’ re not using one of the four elements featured in this article, your character will feel flat( leading to the dreaded,“ Your characters never POPPED off the page.”).
Also, it’ s okay to mix and match these elements. It’ s okay to give a character a flaw and a vice. Or a vice and an inner conflict. If you really commit to one of these elements, one is all you need, but I’ ve seen plenty of characters that are battling two or even three of these things. My only advice, if you take that route, is to connect the elements so they feel organic, as opposed to mechanically adding multiple things because a screenwriting blog told you to. For example, if your character’ s flaw is that they don’ t think they’ re worthy of having a boyfriend, an addiction( vice) to food could keep them overweight and unattractive and therefore allow them to perpetuate that belief.
Remember that the main reason readers label characters as“ thin” is that there isn’ t a lot going on with them. I read so many scripts where I don’ t remember the characters five minutes after I finish because there WASN’ T ANYTHING GOING ON UNDERNEATH THE SURFACE. These four options are the things you place underneath the surface. Because the characters now have something underneath them, by definition, they have DEPTH. And just like that, you’ ve created a three-dimensional character.
ORIGINAL Publisher
Jaws 110 | WGSA MAG July 2013