It’s been my experience that people who come to my seminars tell me that they learned as much about themselves as they learned about their fictional characters.  Art imitates life!

I’ve been working on a new book that looks at our lives in terms of a spiritual journey.  I’ve often said that people don’t change.  They evolve.  They become a better version of who they are or a worse version.  No one gets a personality transplant.

I will help readers create their own Spiritual Character Maps to see where they been, where they are now, and where they are going. The book will use classic characters in Bible to demonstrate the range of journies people undertake and how those journies echo in contemporary film and television characters.

It’s a bit of a daunting undertaking but I am well into the first part. Hopefully, this book will give some perspective and greater insight.  Are you on the path you should be taking? If not, how do you change directions? This book will help.

What better time than Halloween week to discuss fear- an important part of my Character Map eBook.  Below is a short excerpt.

The Character’s Fear

There are nine specific types of fears which can drive characters’ actions.

At the deepest root of all these fears is: How the character believes he or she is or might become unloved or unlovable.

The character asks: “What must I hide or deny so that others will love and/or accept me? If others knew who I really am they would surely turn surely away from me.” This is the secret doubt or dread the character must face in order to live in his or her true self (instead of the false self of the mask). The character’s fear is that deep anxiety, worry, self-doubt of inner shame that prevents the character from making a Leap of Faith toward the true self. Indeed, it is only possible to be truly loved by taking the chance to be one’s self.

Indeed, it is only possible to be truly loved by taking the chance to be one’s self. It is only through honesty, openness, and vulnerability that intimacy can be built. Without such intimacy, there can be no real love.

Fear and Shame

A character’s fear is the greatest burden he or she carries. It is the yoke the character cannot escape. It defines the secret shame that character never wants to face or acknowledge. It is the unspoken reason the character truly believes he or she is (or could be) a disappointment or disgrace to others (and therefore could be or become unloved or un-loveable).

It is the unspoken reason the character truly believes he or she is (or could be) a disappointment or disgrace to others (and therefore could be or become unloved or un-loveable).

What secret fault or failing does your character hide? Does he or she ask— Am I unworthy of love? Will I ever deserve love? What must I do to win or work for love? What do I have to do to prove I am loveable? Will I always do or say the wrong thing? Am I such a failure or disappointment that I will never be loved?

Choose one of these questions and force your character to confront this issue in all his or her dealings with others— and especially with the antagonist. Force your character to risk everything in facing the fear behind the question. Unless your character faces his or her fear or secret shame, your character will never be free. Your character will constantly be forced to cling the mask and seek its “protection.” A character that hides a secret shame will never be able to live a truly authentic life. As long as that fear and shame exist.

Fear Drives All Conflict

Whenever you are having trouble with a scene, a sequence or an act, ask yourself— How is the character’s fear manifesting itself in this situation? How is the character denying, avoiding, camouflaging or hiding the fear? How is the character trying to cope with or manage the fear? How is the fear tempting the character to get into trouble? How is the character facing the fear? Or, how is the character surrendering to or personally manifesting the fear?

You can purchase The Character Map at the ETB store for more insights in creating a three-dimensional, engaging character that will help you craft the best character you can.

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It’s easy to spot people coming to Pixar for the first time.  They’re the ones, like me, walking around trying to soak in all the wonderful visuals in the building and snapping pictures like mad.  Here are some of mine–

As you walk toward the main building on the open green Pixar campus the first thing you notice is a giant Luxo Lamp standing at attention to welcome you.

Loxo is an Anglepoise desk lamp.  The character was inspired by one of the lamps on John Lasseter’s desk.  The lamp and a smaller version, Luxo Jr, starred in the first film produced by Pixar in 1986.

In the film, Luxo Jr. plays with a small red, yellow and blue rubber ball.  The smaller lamp chases and jumps on it.  The larger lamp watches and reacts to the playful antics. After the colorful ball deflates, because of exhaustion, Luxo scolds his younger companion.  Luxo Jr. then finds and plays with an even larger ball to Luxo’s head-shaking amazement.

“Luxo Jr. sent shock waves through the entire industry – to all corners of computer and traditional animation. At that time, most traditional artists were afraid of the computer. They did not realize that the computer was merely a different tool in the artist’s kit but instead perceived it as a type of automation that might endanger their jobs. Luckily, this attitude changed dramatically in the early ’80s with the use of personal computers in the home. The release of our Luxo Jr. … reinforced this opinion turnaround within the professional community.” –Edwin Catmull, Computer Animation: A Whole New World, 1998.

Luxo has become a “good luck charm” and an iconic symbol for the company much like Mickey is for Disney.

As you walk past Luxo and in the door at Pixar, a giant atrium “town square” spreads out before you inside the building.  The Pixar Cafe is located here in the open with tables, chairs and benches all over.  My terrific tour guide and the person who invited me to Pixar, Adrienne Ranft, explained that this area of the building was designed to provide opportunities for everyone in the company to meet causually, have a chat on the go and generally mingle and cross-pollinate ideas.

The whole collection of Oscars and other Awards are on display here as well.  A reminder of the level of excellence expected of everyone.  And everyone’s “ownership” of the awards.

This open area is filled with visual fun.  When I visited there were larger-than-life Lego versions of Woody and Buzz Lightyear standing in immediate greeting to all who enter.  Woody and Buzz continue to have adventures in Lego toys.  These were really beautiful versions of the characters.  The reception desk had a statue of Ratatouille munching on gourmet cheese, as I signed in.

Behind me as I walked in were life-sized replicas of Luigi and Guido from Cars.  Luigi is a proud 1959 Fiat 500. He is a big Ferrari fan, and has followed European Grand Prix racing his entire life. His license plate reads 445-108, which is the latitude and longitude for the main Ferrari factory in Modena, Italy.

In Cars, Luigi owns a tire shop, Casa Della Tires in Radiator Springs, which is famous for its “Leaning Tower of Tires.” This advertising sign is a stack of tires modeled on the Leaning Tower of Pisa. His assistant is an Italian forklift named Guido. Guido only fully understands Italian and is Luigi’s best friend. His name is a homonym for the Italian verb “I drive.”  His dream is be on a pit crew for a real racing car, which Lightening McQueen helps him realize in Cars.

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And further back, in the corner, were the group of green, three-eyed rubber aliens. They figure in all three Toy Story movies.  They first appear in Toy Story when Buzz discovers a giant claw game in Pizza Planet.  Mr. Potato Head saves them from flying out a Pizza Planet delivery truck in Toy Story 2.  The aliens are eternally grateful, to Mr. Potato Head’s unending dismay.  They figure in the toys’ salvation in Toy Story 3 due to their karmic relationship with “The Claw.”

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Nearer the door was a life-sized Sulley and Mike from Monsters, Inc.   The mild-mannered , Sulley, is the best monster in Monsteroplis at scaring kids.  Monster’s Inc., the company Sulley works for, extracts energy from children’s screams.  Mike is his faithful sidekick and publicity hound.  The two foil an evil plot against children to “extract” their screams with a machine, as a more efficient way to power Monsteropolis.  Sulley takes over Monsters, Inc. and changes the monsters’ task to make children scream with laughter and delight instead of scream with fear.

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Huge murals adorn the walls of the “village square” and upstairs is a art gallery for visiting collections and art created by Pixar employees.  The exhibition up during my visit was of show of Chuck Jones’ artwork.

I happened to have the privilege of interviewing Chuck before he died.  I talked to him and a number of surviving members of “Termite Terrace”  during a job for Warner Bros. to codify and establish style and character guides for all the classic Warner Bros cartoon characters.  Over the years and through all the licensing deals, relaunches and ancillary uses of the character a wide variety of inconsistencies threatened to blur their personality and uniqueness.  I helped work out what the key characteristics needed to be and how to communicate that clearly across multiple platforms and uses.

In the upper gallery, there was also a huge exhibition of Toy Story 3 artwork, models, story boards and boards that help create mood and tone solely through shape and color.  The exhibition will be traveling to several places to showcase the work in this wonderful film.  The attention to detail is amazing.

For example, I never realized that in Toy Story 3 blue is a “safe” color indicating security or possible salvation.  I am taking another look at the movie to see all the ways in which the color blue is used in that way.

Adrienne said that EVERYTHING used in the visuals, the music, the modeling is designed to support the story and clarify the characters.  If something doesn’t do that it is dumped– no matter how clever or inventive or interesting it is.  That’s a great note to end on.  Everything in a script you write should be subject to that same rigor.

A friend recently told me about the concepts of “default future” and “linguistic clutter”. Default future is a psychiatric term that posits that there was some “event” or series of events that occurred in your life that created a host of habits/attitudes/actions that makes you either feel safe or that you believe will keep you “safe.”

These are similar to a character’s Strongest Traits in the Character Map.  The Character’s Strongest Traits are:

– The traits the character believes are his or her salvation.

– The traits the character relies on to get out of trouble or “fix” problems.

– The traits the character leans on and uses as a crutch instead of making the Leap of Faith and facing his or her fear.

– The traits the character has to a fault.

– The traits the character must surrender.

These emotions/habits/attitudes/actions can keep you from experiencing your true self and separates you from otherwise healthy emotions. For example, if you feel “pleasing others is more important than your own happinesss” then you may resist getting appropriately angry with someone or taking healthy action because you fear that you will make another unhappy or upset.

In the example: Strong good qualities like being diplomatic or conciliatory can easily revert to Trouble Traits of being a people pleaser, swallowing anger and until resentment boils over or being passive agressive.  A character’s greatest strengths are always his or her greatest weaknesses.

Continuing the example:  The ways the character tries to appease or compensate for his or her fear only feeds the fear and makes it grow stronger and more powerful.  When the character surrenders the Strongest Traits the traits don’t just disappear. They simply operate more appropriately in the background. The character won’t cling to these traits (walking on egg shells or being overly diplomatic and conciliatory) as a crutch to try to fend off or deflect the fear. Instead, he or she will turn and face the full force of the fear head-on and realize developing healthy attitudes and acting on appropriate boundaries can make others angry or unhappy.

One way to break the pattern and spot your own “default future” is the same situation/pattern keeps coming up again and again. You end up in the same set of circumstances facing the same kind of difficulties. Do you have a mini “GROUNDHOG DAY” in your own experience?

A character goes round and round the Character Map repeating troublesome behavior and masking or denying his or her fear and until the character either falls to the Dark Side or Makes a Leap of Faith and flies in the face of fear.

One of the ways to understand and in some case identify default future thinking in yourself is through an exercise called clearing “linguistic clutter.

Here’s the process:  Take 5 minutes and without stopping write down everything that comes to mind. Write about everything makes you feel or believe that you are safe as well as everything that makes you feel unsafe.  The trick is– you can’t stop! This process is analogous to “clearing the mind of clutter” so that new ideas, attitudes, habits, patterns have a chance to emerge.  This is a really revealing exercise.  Do it everytime you feel stuck.

A good writer thoroughly understands his or her characters’ emotions, inner conflicts and the whole process of internal transformation. Great writers dig deep to find this emotional truth within themselves.  A Character Map charts internal conflicts and emotional transformation. In planning your story, each major character should be mapped. This process will help you get inside your character’s emotions. But first you have to start with yourself.

Why start with yourself? Answer:  You are a complex, interesting, fully-formed three-dimensional human being. You constantly wrestle with a variety of strong emotions and struggle continually with a whole range of internal conflicts. These are the kinds of characters you should write about.

Writers are always advised to write what they know. What writers (and all other human beings) know the most about is change. Living, by definition, is to change. Nothing in life is static. Change and transformation are all around you. Both impact and challenge you every day. Both offer opportunities and threats.

Now more than ever you live in an unsettling and constantly changing world– economic, cultural, political and social norms are shifting all around us. The world is in turmoil, full of uncertainty, evolving relationships, personal and professional ups and downs and conflicting responsibilities, loyalties, commitments and desires. Your characters should experience their world in exactly the same way.

You know from personal experience exactly how painful change and transformation can be. You have experienced extreme, dramatic and sometimes excruciating change. Your life has been full of unexpected reversals, complex dilemmas and difficult growth experiences– and so should the lives of your characters. (And there’s no reason why all this turmoil and pain shouldn’t be hilarious. Great comedians know– If it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t funny.)

So how do you create fictional characters out of all of this? How do you create stories filled with the kinds of emotions and changes you’ve experienced? It helps to have a process to turn your own raw material into fiction. Mapping your own character will help you create more authentic fictional characters. By understanding how change and transformation works in your life, you will gain insight into how to use this powerful process to create complex, interesting fully-formed three-dimensional fictional human beings-characters who are emotionally true and who have a life and integrity all their own.

I believe the creative process always starts with your own emotional truth. The only thing that makes your story unique is your personal point of view. Human beings have been telling stories since we were able to speak. There are no new stories. The only thing new is you and the way you see and experience the world. Who are you? What do you believe? What insights do you have to share with the world? What is the truth as you see it?  All great writing moves from the personal to the universal.  The Character Map eBook will help you dig deep and find the personal truth that resonate as universally compelling stories.

Decorum is the Highest Duty

The Queen, written by Peter Morgan, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen, is a pitch perfect Power of Conscience character study.

Anyone interested in writing complex, interesting characters that are fully formed three-dimensional human beings must see this film. The Queen is a masterful example of character development.

The film takes place in August 1997, in the days after Diana (divorced from Prince Charles), dies as the result of a car crash in Paris.  At the same time, Tony Blair settles into his new position as Labor Prime Minister.  Blair makes a stirring and immensely popular speech in tribute to Diana, no longer the Princess of Wales but forever “The People’s Princess.”

The Queen and Royal Family, at Balmoral Castle for the summer, opt to maintain royal protocol and mourn in seclusion.  They are publicly silent about Diana’s death. Many people felt Queen Elizabeth acted in a cold and disconnected manner immediately after Diana’s death. They saw her as a villain in Diana’s story.  But there are two sides to every story.  And…

Every antagonist is the hero of his or her own story.

Stephen Fears’ brilliant film looks at the story from what was the commonly supposed antagonist’s point of view.  We see behind the stiff royal veneer and into the heart of the complex human being that is Queen Elizabeth.

In the film, the Queen has her own emotional journey during the tragic events that ended Diana’s life.  She wrestles mightily with her own internal values.  Queen Elizabeth makes a personal leap at the end of the story that requires as much strength and courage as any epic physical battle.

Her action in making that leap defines what it is to be a good leader.  In what must have felt like a moment of personal defeat, Queen Elizabeth emerges publicly triumphant, her reign is secure.

General writing note:  It is a great exercise to look at how your story might play out from the antagonist’s point of view.  What is his or her emotional journey?  If it is just a one-note descent into evil, your antagonist is a cardboard cutout rather than a real human being.  With what competing internal values does your antagonist wrestle?

Great Characters Wrestle with Competing Values.

Power of Conscience characters function as the voice of moral authority in a story. That clearly is how the character of Queen Elizabeth sees her role in the world.  The Queen says repeatedly that dignity, reserve, proper conduct and devotion to duty define the good example that exemplifies her moral authority as a leader.

Her restrained actions in all things are perfectly in sync with her philosophy.  Her formality, insistence on protocol, and proper conservative dress physically define who she is and what she represents.

When Diana dies, Queen Elizabeth’s subjects require something more from her.  They need emotional solace, personal connection and a sense of shared grief.  Tony Blair suggests that to be a good leader, in this particular moment, Elizabeth must reach out in a way that is the antithesis of how she sees her role and how she defines her own good example and leadership.  His advice flies in the face of everything the Queen believes is right.  He suggests that her definition of her duty and what is proper must now give way to the actual needs of her subjects.

Her choice, as presented, is will she serve royal protocol or truly serve her subjects?  What is the higher duty?  Blair believes the survival of the monarchy is at stake.  Her own survival as a leader is at stake as well.

Great Characters Have Mixed Motives.

When Queen Elizabeth returns to Buckingham Palace at Blair’s very insistent recommendation, she sees the angry notes left on the flowers at the palace gates.  We watch her begin to comprehend how out of touch she is with the sentiments of her people.  We also see the potential reservoir of good will she can tap, when the little girl offers the bouquet of flowers.  After Queen Elizabeth offers to place the bouquet at the gate, her people finally show their respect, by bowing and curtsying as she passes.

Queen Elizabeth sees that she has no moral authority if her subjects dislike and resent her.  She cannot be any kind of a leader if her people abandon her emotionally.  Against every instinct that was born and bred in her, against all her past experience and against all the advice given to her by both her husband and mother, Queen Elizabeth makes the speech that she must make to reconnect with her subjects.

Is her leap also an act of personal survival?  Absolutely.  People rarely have singular motivations in the choices they make.  Most motives are mixed.  Queen Elizabeth’s choice isn’t any less courageous and requires no less strength for being mixed.

Her action is also a classic paradox of great storytelling.  In what Queen Elizabeth views as a moment of personal defeat is, in fact, a moment of public triumph.  She gives her subjects what they truly and deeply need in a time of trouble and turmoil.  Her action is the definition of good leadership.  She emerges triumphant and we can’t help but love and respect her for it.

General writing note:  Actions that spring from motives that are purely noble don’t contain the shades of gray that depict both the shadow and light in every human being.  Actions that spring from mixed motivations are much more fascinating to watch.  A bit of shadow often makes the light more clearly visible.

A Character’s Greatest Strength Is His or Her Greatest Weakness.

Queen Elizabeth’s sense of decorum, dignity, reserve, devotion to duty and her sure sense of what is right and proper are her greatest strengths  as a monarch.  These great Power of Conscience qualities helped her lead her people though good times and bad.

In this moment of crisis, however, she relies on  these strengths to a fault.  These very traits cause her trouble.   In the extreme situation of Diana’s death, these traits make her appear as if she is cold, lacking in human care or feeling.  It seems she isrigid and inflexible and is simply substituting stiff and stuffy standards of protocol for genuine human connection.

Diana’s death creates the crisis that forces Queen Elizabeth to surrender all those qualities that had been her salvation in the past.  The public response Tony Blair suggests would make her feel exposed, open and vulnerable.  The crisis demands she surrender all her strongest defenses and high standards of protocol.  By allowing herself to be more open, and therefore more vulnerable, she emerges stronger than ever.

Find the Character’s Vulnerability

General writing note:  Find ways to turn a character’s best qualities against him or her.  Explore the dark or troublesome side of your character’s strengths. Discover ways to create a crisis situation that force your character to sacrifice or surrender those qualities.

Make your character take some significant action that makes the character feel open, exposed and vulnerable.  Turn that openness and vulnerability into the character’s ultimate salvation.

For more information on how to create the internal dynamic tensions that make characters complex and fascinating order the Character Map eBook.