inside himself). But in each of these cases, we must also have a real and visible
villain.
Do you have the right main villain for your hero? She should be the one person or
thing best able to assault the character flaw of the hero.
Is the villain a real opponent? She should be in competition with the hero for the
same goal. That goal might be broad, as in competing for control.
Are the hero and villain in the same place enough of the time to be effective
opponents? Are there good reasons to be in the same place so that this seems
believable? It can be difficult to keep people who don’t like each other together.
If you have a feature-length comedy or an epic, you probably need at least a couple
of minor villains as different from each other, from the main villain, and from the
hero as possible. Any antagonist who’s not that different isn’t needed. In making
them as different as possible, figure out the basic differences in values between
each. One or more villains may be hidden early in the script.
- Characterization (in general)
Are these characters believable? Are they doing believable things and making
believable, well-motivated decisions? The more unreal the story world is (as in a
fantasy), the more believable the characters must be. Layer on common, everyday
details to make your characters more real. Are your characters three-dimensional
enough to avoid being stereotypes?
Will these characters be interesting to us? If this story is for kids, are the char-
acters kid-relatable? Allow the audience to discover themselves in the story.
Are the characters doing interesting things? Do we know enough about their
past, their motivations, their hopes, and their fears to care about them? Are
they in dire jeopardy? Are their reactions, while in character and believable,
also unexpected and out the ordinary, rather than boring? Go for the emotion.
Do they leave us wanting to know more? Is there a wide variety of characters
so that they form relationships and conflict and bounce off one another?
All characters should be as different from each other as possible, or they’re
unnecessary.
Is all the action and dialogue in character?
Does the hero or heroine have a strong, single goal? Without this the story will split
and be weak in the middle. The hero may have a problem that causes him to come
up with a goal to solve it. If there’s more than one goal, these must come into direct
conflict with each other, putting more pressure on the hero. If he gains A, he loses
B, and vice versa. (For instance, if he saves his friend, the treasure chest washes
away in the rapids.)
Your hero should have a goal early enough. We should see it in the first few pages
of the script. We should see what motivates him toward this goal and why.
Editing and Rewriting 267
