{"id":13091,"date":"2008-08-12T07:07:03","date_gmt":"2008-08-12T07:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=472"},"modified":"2021-07-30T20:59:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T20:59:11","slug":"revolutionary-or-rebel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/revolutionary-or-rebel\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolutionary or Rebel Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"che-guevara-etbscreenwriting\"

I had a question about my last post.\u00a0 Can a revolutionary also be a rebel?<\/p>\n

The answer is real life, of course, is yes.\u00a0 Real life is messy and complicated.\u00a0 Storytelling is not.\u00a0 The stories in film and television help us make sense of the world.\u00a0 They lift us above the chaos of life.\u00a0 They condense time, put things in context and give meaning to cause, effect and experience.<\/p>\n

In order to have real power, a story and a character must have a single clear emotional focus.\u00a0 That means a story must be about one true thing.\u00a0 Intuitively, it would seem that if a story is about many things it would appeal to a wider audience.\u00a0 In fact, the opposite is true.<\/p>\n

When a story is about one true thing the audience brings their philosophy, experience and view of life and they measure that against the choices the character makes.\u00a0 They bring their perspective to the story and test it against the one true thing on the screen.\u00a0 In doing so, they make the story about themselves.<\/p>\n

When a story is about too many things, it is confusing.\u00a0 The audience can’t make the story about themselves because there is no clear hook or connection.\u00a0 When a story is about too many things, it is about nothing.\u00a0 The audience can’t find a clear way in.<\/p>\n

Going back to the original question:\u00a0 Is the character a revolutionary or a rebel?\u00a0 What is the most true about the character.<\/p>\n

Both a revolutionary and a rebel challenge the status quo.\u00a0 Is the challenge to authority about changing or reforming a situation or society as a whole (the Power of Conscience) or is the challenge to authority about asserting personal individuality or personal autonomy against the dictates of the state or society (Power of Idealism).\u00a0 (See yesterday’s post for examples.)<\/p>\n

Once you’ve made your choice then bring all the decisions and conflicts back to that one true thing.\u00a0 Answer all the Story Questions about that choice.\u00a0 What’s a Story Question?<\/p>\n

A character\u2019s Story Questions are the defining personal, philosophical\u00a0 and psychological questions that drive the character\u2019s actions in the story.\u00a0 They give the character’s emotional journey shape and meaning.<\/p>\n

Each of the Nine Character Types wrestles with one specific and clear set of Story Questions.\u00a0\u00a0 The character’s answer to those questions define the one true thing at the core of the film.<\/p>\n

What about a novel?\u00a0 There’s more room to explore in the longer form of a novel.<\/p>\n

The best novels also have a very clear set of Story Questions at their core.\u00a0 These questions might be expanded upon in more depth in a novel than in a film.\u00a0 But the best novels don’t stray from the essential truth about what’s driving the character forward through the story.\u00a0 Clarity of emotional focus is essential in every storytelling medium regardless of length or form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#TypesTuesday – In order to have real power, a story and a character must have a single clear emotional focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,47,52],"tags":[494,537,27,28,30,32,33,34,135,533,534,37,39,40,41],"class_list":["post-13091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies-character-development-screenwriting-screenplay-script-blog","category-random-thoughts-pop-culture-political-movie-television-blog","category-types-tuesday","tag-character-types","tag-che-guevara","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-nine-character-types","tag-politics","tag-rebels","tag-revolutionaries","tag-screenwriting","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-tv"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",125,94,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",75,56,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",500,375,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"#TypesTuesday - In order to have real power, a story and a character must have a single clear emotional focus.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}