Film Courage: How do fears within a character raise the stakes?
Jen Grisanti, Speaker/Story/Career Consultant, Author: Fears are everything,
fears are also something that we all have. When you look at what is the character's dream
versus what is their biggest fear when we look at the biggest fear we're looking at the consequence
in the idea of how the internal stakes are affecting the character and how they make choice
there are many writers that don't set up the fear and when you fail to set up the fear then you fail
to set up the internal and or external stakes at a level where the audience identifies again
I fear is something very Universal in all of us I always say to writers what is the worst thing that
can happen if the goal is not achieved and that goes into fear can we explore incorporating the
past present and future into story yes the past is the earlier wound and when you're looking at
the past it can be an event like in in the show The Split when you have the the inciting incident
be a father who returns after a 30-year absence then you are in immediate recognition of the void
in the familial members because of this choice so the past in that situation is defined by an
event versus the past you can also identify by someone who's just emotionally absent you can
have a parent who is an alcoholic and there is no specific event but there is a wound
that happens from the emotionally unavailable parent so that goes into the past and then you
the present is something happens which creates the why now that we are entering the story when
we are with the inciting incident that splits open the earlier wound and that something that
happens is awakens what happened earlier in life and that with that awakening the character is
loosely aware but through the pursuit they become more aware of the earlier wound I've seen
structures that work incredibly well when you have the earlier wound when we feel how the inciting
incident awakens that wound then we understand the void and when we understand the void that again
goes into creating empathy and rooting interest with the character then with the future you are
looking at will the character transform or won't they transform did you create the right external
plot for the character to become aware of what was holding them back and is the character in
the mindset that they want to heal and you have characters that we feel the full transformation
and you have characters that you are left with that you feel like they didn't learn and there's
value in both because in the world there are people in both mindsets staying within the arc of
growth what's quieting the mind of the sort of the the noisy survival mindset I like that term yes
I have come into the recognition the mindset thing was a new thing for me
in looking at character and character dynamics and recognizing that in life
we are in the intellectual mind we are in the survival mind are we are in the intuitive mind
and for the majority of our lives and we are very often rotating from one mindset to the other for
the majority depending on the life phase and where you're entering with the character of Our
Lives we are in survival mindset so being in the survival mindset there's more to play with with
the flaws with the vulnerability and think about how do you move the character into the intuitive
mindset how what can happen to the character that creates the arc of growth that moves them
into the intuitive mindset another parallel that I often think about like when you think
in life how we are all brought up on the idea of codependency and the I wherever there's hierarchy
which there is in the family unit from the time we're born and then we go into the work world
and we go into the scholastic world and there is a hierarchy and hierarchy creates codependency
and the the job for people is to figure out how do you go from codependency to interdependency
and the the value and I think it used to feel like independency was the key to everything
but then the recognition was interdependency so when you're looking at how do you move from the
mind mindsets it's a similar thing that all has to do with the arc of growth of the character
how could we show a codependent character versus an interdependent character versus an independent
character so the codependent character is often a character with an alcoholic parent someone where
the one of the parents has been absent so there is a need that is so connected with the comfort
of another person where they cannot distinguish the difference in in the value of the codependent
character person is the untransformed place in a person's life or a character's life so it
gives you somewhere to go the independent person can also be looked at as a character that has a
weakness or a flaw if they're too independent that that is creating an isolation in a different way
an independent person can also be looked at as a plus in that they're not dependent on other people
and then the interdependent person character is the transformed character who has gone through
the emotional work of what transpires in the story through the actions obstacles stake sequence that
leads them to a transformed state so you can go from a character who is flawed and codependent
and have a pursuit that allows them an opportunity to change and then at the climax they become aware
of the flaw and the choices in becoming aware of the flaw are they going to make a conscious choice
when it comes to the resolution or are they going to stay in the flawed thinking so if I were to put
labels and these are my labels on a codependent character needy in independent character selfish
and intra or interdependent would be more balanced yes perfectly put okay so that's how I could show
these sort of phases that are yeah interesting and it all has to do with There's an opportunity for
growth and codependency like a flaw is something that is in our lives all the time because of the
hierarchy of and the interesting thing for me I it wasn't until I went through a divorce and
someone said have you ever looked at codependency and my immediate reaction was I'm not codependent
maybe he was codependent and then I read a book on I think it was called Codependency
No More [Author Melody Beattie] and it described codependency as needing someone to need you and I
was like I'm codependent how wild so I understand the transformation because I've gone through it
I've done the work to understand how do I go from the feeling of the hierarchy through the system
that Society sets up and then starting my own business and not having the agenda of others is
part of the outcome only having the agenda of how do we get the story to the best place possible all
of that emotional work is part of what led to my transformation and and just like in life roles can
change someone can be codependent and then be the one that's sort of sought after by the codependent
yes our characters can change too I mean maybe they're codependent in one realm but then
they're actually the ones being sought after by a codependent another yes so and there's value like
the co-dependent person is certainly not an a bad person it's not it it's 98 I think it was the stat
or 90 a society is set up on codependency so part of our life process and challenge in life having
to do with mindset is how do we move from this survival mindset of needing someone to need you
into the mindset that you are enough the flawed thinking the negative narrative I'm not enough
I'm not lovable I don't deserve curve and how does the story transform that thinking and bring
you to the idea of interdependency and the idea of transformation sure some of our most lovable
characters and you could say Bridget Jones is probably very yes exactly exactly and White Lotus
example yes yes very strong but then she can flip on you and and and start yeah so so she's
real interesting I'm not sure what her what they would put in the DSM whatever it is five now or
whatever the book is [Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-5] but what her classic case would be but
some very interesting stories have all been built around a codependent character oh exactly because
you think about what happens to a character when they lose their comfort blanket which is a person
what happens to them which we all do in life we lose we move on from from being in the family unit
to going to college to the idea of moving away from and as I always remember this saying which I
loved that that kind of framed the idea when I was at spelling television we did a show called Queen
Supreme and there was a quote that one writer used in an episode that we spend the first half of our
lives running away from home and the second half trying to get back it's great isn't it.