Live Action Character Development

By Adam Renfro

Writers should not develop characters as just another plot device to pull the reader to the next plot point. The characters themselves should drive the action. Live Action Character Development is a new style of character development that drives the conflict, action, and plot. It is not a stand-alone character development process that is isolated from the plot development. This new method discards the wooden character-profile checklists of height, weight, eye color, favorite foods, and other details that border on minutiae. The sum of a writer’s character development cannot be reduced to character trivia.

The old character-profile checklists are often called Frankenstein checklists because writers try to assemble parts and pieces into a whole character. Just like Frankenstein, writers end up creating a monster, and it is their readers who chase them out of the village with torches and pitchforks.

Live Action Character Development uses character cards as its centerpiece. Writers develop each character using two cards: The Background card and The Dance card.

The Background cards is a single-page, tight resume for each character. Questions about the Claws, Conflict Reaction, the Ghost from the backstory, the Dreadful Alternative, Desires, and more develop characters on The Background card. A character’s psychological, emotional, and motivation traits that determine how a character acts rise to the surface.

Characters play off one another with The Dance cards in a dress rehearsal before a writer creates a scene. This taps into the processes used by Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, Jim Harrison, Joyce Carol Oates, and Yiyun Li.

The old Frankenstein checklists are too often lost in the hopeless “Character Development Binder” that collects dust on a shelf. Live Action Character Development is not an exercise in developing characters. This process takes your development straight to the written page. This development guide is essential for your writing toolbox.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adam Renfro
• Release date: Sep 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370435722

Adam Renfro

Adam is a graduate of Indiana University. He has BAs in English and Psychology. He has taught literature and writing and mentors a group of emerging writers. He writes professionally for the website Getting Smart and the design group 2Revolutions. His novel Far From Okay is set for release this fall.

Book preview

Live Action Character Development

by Adam Renfro

Copyright 2016 Adam Renfro

Published by Adam Renfro at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

The primary purpose of this ebook is to educate writers on the craft of character development. All quotes are offered to illustrate storytelling techniques and are published in compliance with the Fair Use doctrine, Title 17, Chapter 1, Sec. 107 of the United States Copyright Law.

Table of Content

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Live Action Character Cards

The Background Card

The Dance Card

The Art of the Dance

Moving from the Cards to the Page

Character Types

It's a Wrap Party

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many writers assume what’s good for the reader is good for the writer. That’s a faulty assumption, but one many writing teachers have fostered.

As a new teacher, I found that many of the tools and practices we used to teach reading and literary analysis had been retooled for the writer, and these tools were inadequate for developing a narrative. An advanced screenwriting course showed me a new way. My process evolved. I soon developed my own techniques. My writing, teaching, and even literary study and film analysis improved. I soon became a paid writer.

What follows is my own concept that is built on academic studies, professional writings, both teaching and learning at workshops and seminars, and various discussions (read: tirades) on Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs (when those were a thing).

If you would like to connect via social media, I will include my contact information at the end. I’m here for you, and I want to you tell the world your story in the best way you can.

Please forgive my need to attach a small fee, but it helps to keep the lights on.

I would like to thank a few people. Chris Soth, screenwriting guru and SHOCKWAVE co-writer. Arjay Hinek, LOADED writing partner. Eric Hyman, linguist and mentor. Paul Strohm, Indiana University literary legend. Jim Wooten, language master who risked it all for his students. Bryan Setser, futurist, mentor. My amazing family, Denise, Taylor, and Arjay.

"Frankly, there isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love once you’ve heard their story." –Mary Lou Kownacki

INTRODUCTION

"That trite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand; it is as old as the quills. My characters are galley slaves." --Vladimir Nabokov

What is Live Action Character Development? It’s a new style of character development that drives the conflict, action, and plot. It is not a stand-alone character construction that is isolated from the plot. It discards the wooden character-profile checklists of height, weight, eye color, favorite foods, and other details