Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan an E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): We need to know
what it is, period. We need to know
what they're trying to achieve so that we can track the progress or regress of it.
Film Courage: How can you explain smart goals for your protagonist?
Shannan: Good question. I actually do a series called story elements on my Youtube
channel [youtube.com/ShannanEJohnson] and one of them is on goals and I talk
about smart goals. Smart goals is an acronym for Specific-Measurable-Attainable-Relevant
and Time-Bound. Smart goals actually was not created for story but it works so I have adapted
it from a business model to use it to teach my students how to make goals for their protagonists.
Specific means we need to know what it is period. We need to know what they're trying to achieve so
that we can track the progress or regress of it. How will we know that they were successful
if we don't know what they were looking for in the first place right? Your goal needs to be specific
the second one is measurable so that again goes back to being able to track it right we need to
know are they getting closer to it or farther from it which is why I always talk about your external
goal being the personification of the internal goal so if someone's goal is to not grieve anymore
how do I track that what does that look like and if you can attach grieving to something external
or not grieving to something external then we'll know that when they reach that external thing then
they reach the goal and their grief has probably subsided the third one is attainable which means
going back to social proof you have to prove to me that my protagonist has the skills to be able
to attain this goal because if not then I'm not going to believe that they can do it right or if
it's a comedy then you're going to show me that they don't have the skills to attain this goal
which means they're either going to do a really bad job of it or they're going to have to learn
along the way right or even in a drama I don't have those skills so I have to learn
those skills along the way and so now it's probably going to be during your debate time
or somewhere in your journey in your second act where they actually have to learn those skills
the fourth one is relevant and I like this one because this one kind of starts to attach that
internal thing to the external thing it's like why does this thing matter to this particular
protagonist so that goes back to choosing the right protagonist for the right goal having the
right goal for the right protagonist so if you can make it relevant then we will invest more we will
empathize more and the last one is time-bound and not every single story is going to have something
time-bound but it's basically your ticking clock right if this if there's a state of urgency
if like an armageddon you have 18 days before the world explodes then we understand that suspense
is that tension is going to stay there it's like oh my god we only have 18 days and now we have 12
and now we have 50 however many days so adding a ticking clock depending upon your story
will always heighten the stakes so if nothing else you need specific measurable
attainable and relevant and depending upon what your story is you can then add a ticking clock
how else can I write a three-dimensional character good question so getting into the stuff of the
character is where that dimension is going to come from people are complex we're not all
good we're not all bad we all have wants we all have needs we all have flaws we all have skills
even before the inciting incident happens so if you can figure out what those things are then you
will figure out what's motivating your character right I gave this example that I am the youngest
of six girls but the closest one in age to me is six years older than I am which would mean that at
age six she's twelve we don't play the same right so we're not interacting in the same way when
I'm 12 she's 18. we don't play the same so we're not interacting in the same way because she's 18
she's graduating from high school so now I'm in at home by myself for another six years so even
though I have five older siblings I spent a lot of time alone so therefore I have an only child
kind of experience just as much as I have a youngest child experience that shows up in my life
I am an introverted extrovert a lot of people know me as the life of a party I have a big personality
but I love being alone I problem solve alone I do a lot of stuff by myself because my history
taught me to be able to be okay with that right good or bad so understanding those
things about your characters will let why they do the things they do so there may be people
who say well Shannan on well why didn't you call me on Saturday we could have hung out
because they don't understand that Shannan on just likes to sit at home and be by herself
because she's used to that that person may take it personally oh well that's an offense towards
me you don't think that we're really good friends and blah blah blah but it's like no it really has
nothing to do with you and everything to do with me and the same thing is true for your
characters they are acting and reacting because of who they are where they're from an immigrant
is not having the same experience in America as an American-born person period if that depending
upon the kind of story you're telling you can now infuse your story with that stuff the same thing
is culturally as a black person there are things that are going to happen in my house that may
not happen in someone else's right so you have to then take that and figure out how you can
color in the lines of your story with this cultural stuff that makes it authentic for them
but the only way you can do that is if you really take the time out to know who your characters are
and know why they're making the decisions they're making and now you can get three-dimensional
people the other thing is it's 2021 so we're now doing the same thing for our antagonist right
our antagonists get to be three-dimensional now we're no longer in the Jack Nicholson
Joker time we're in the heath ledger and the Joaquin Phoenix Joker time we're in the killmonger
time where we understand our antagonists just as much as we understand our protagonist which leaves
us as an audience fighting with those things and trying to figure out who's right and who's wrong
and now there's discussion happening when people go home but that only happens when you take the
time to dimensionalize your antagonist understand what their plan is understand what they want what
motivates them right which is usually the opposite of your protagonist or the same right like if it's
a sports movie it's the same we both want to win right if it's some kind of action film then
it's usually the opposite the antagonist wants to kill people the protagonist doesn't want them to
those are the reasons that they are in competition with each other and I’ve said before if we change
the POV of the story then your antagonist should easily become your protagonist right
your protagonist is the antagonist antagonist because that antagonist does not exist because
your protagonists exist that was already a person who was already planning to kill people
you came in and became a complication for that person they didn't start killing people because
you exist they were already a murderer and as a police officer you came in and you decided to
to muddy it up so if we were telling the story from the killer's point of view then now that
would be our protagonist right and they'd both be dimensionalized enough to put us in the middle of
it right because they're stories about vigilantes they're murderers but they're doing it for a
reason we understand their reasoning and sometimes we're on their side for it right so if you give
us if you do the work because some of that work you're gonna do is not gonna end up on the page
but it's still going to dictate some of the choices you make for those characters on the page.