The Audience Will Forget Your Plot But Not Your Characters - Jack Grapes

Jack Grapes, Artist, Writer, Author,  Instructor: I saw another guy eat the white   without touching the yolk never touched the  yolk until all he had was the yolk in the   center of the plate and then he took his fork  and he slid it under the yolk picked it up. Film Courage: We don't care about plot, we  care about the human being in the story? Jack: Yeah the human being is what matters. If the  reader doesn't care about the human being, they   could care less about the plot. Everybody tries  to come up with plot. I mean plot's important   and I could do a whole lecture on the  difference between plot and story.   There is a difference. Story is the  chronological sequence of the events. A plot   is how you arrange the sequences and sometimes you  don't always start at the beginning go to the end.   Sometimes you start at the end and then you go  to the beginning and then you go to the middle.   Then you have a flashback. Plot is much different  than story but when you're writing a story or your   plot if the h an if the protagonist whether it's  first person or third person if the reader doesn't   care about that character why would they  care about the plot they they care about a   character and then they want to see what's going  to happen to the character and that's the story so   character is most important every writer will  tell you that it's almost a cliche grab any   writer any published writer off the street and say  what's the most important thing in every character   now once you've got your character your character  will lead you to your story and to your plot   even if you've already got it made up and figured  out and outlined it characters change their mind   characters don't always do what you want them to  do they will tell you what they want to do and   what they want to say and all of a sudden your  character leaves for for tierra del fuego and   I didn't plan on that but now they're on a ship  going to tierra del fuego and they're meeting a   tall dark woman with a long cigarette holder and  a cigarette that has a long ash whoa where do   I go with that you don't know it's accidental so  once you've got character then the character will   create your plot and where does character come  from character comes from the voice if you're in   the deep voice and the character is narrating from  the deep voice or the third person narrator is in   the deep voice that creates compelling character  so voice creates character character creates plot   and it can be no other way right can't reverse  I would never say it can't be any other way   what I'm saying is that in general if your story  does not have a character that people relate to   your story isn't going to be enough and the way  you get people to relate to a character is through   the authentic voice they hear that intimate voice  and suddenly that character is real and is alive   but I'm not because it's the only way it's the way  I think it should be because that will succeed for   you like I said I don't think there's a writer out  there that will tell you character doesn't matter   they're going to tell you character matters   what are the steps to developing and building  a character I actually teach a class in that well one establishing the voice how does  that character talk how do they see the world   what is their attitude toward the world and  then you've got to collect a lot of details   that I have my students make a character  checklist not for any one character but for   any character and you should be keeping this  checklist for the rest of your life anytime   you see something that looks interesting about a  character or you think about it or you see it in a   movie or you read it in the book make a note of it  and then when you start developing your character   riffle through your your checklist and see  what you got that's kind of interesting   so you want to find things that make the character  compelling because of little little things what   do they keep in their refrigerator how do  they wear their clothes how do they eat eggs   how do they eat sunny-side up eggs so you should  be paying attention you know a lot of writers they   don't pay attention they've been to a coffee  shop or cafe a hundred times and they've never   really looked at how people eat if you look at  how people eat everybody eats a particular way   the way they hold a fork the way they cut their  food sunny-side up eggs you should watch 10   different people eat sunny-side up eggs and every  one of them will do it differently I saw one guy   he cut the white put it on the fork dipped  it into the yolk okay and eat it and   the yolk would come up white you know  so he would he kind of kept doing that   I saw another guy eat the white without touching  the yolk never touched the yolk until all he had   was the yolk in the center of the plate and then  he took his fork and he slid it under the yoke   picked it up and I tell you I get this to me  there's I couldn't do that gets his fork under   the yoke and the whole thing like he'd been  waiting the whole meal to get to that yoke   now to me yolk creeps me out i've got to mix it  up when I was a kid my dad would have to cut it   all up for me because I didn't even want to dip  it in the I wanted it all cut in little pieces   and all mixed together it would be a scrambled  sunny-side up egg and I would eat it that way   dipping my toast into it if you look at people  eat their food you'll find a lot so you could do   a checklist on hundreds of little things about  people what does their refrigerator look like   everybody's refrigerator is looks differently  and when I go visit a friend or anybody's house   even if it's a stranger you know someone says  oh let's go over my friend's house or something   I look at their refrigerator and I look at their  medicine cabinet oh and I look at their books oh   interesting I can tell more about a person by  their medicine cabinet the refrigerator and   the books they have than anything else whatever  they are acting like I know I'll know about them   by that now as a writer I'm going to make notes  of things I find interesting so that I'll use   that in a in a book for a character you know  people who have 10 day old milk in the back or   or they have lots of Tupperware and everything  is in there and it's going it's already moldy you   know how do people arrange their refrigerator some  are are you know obsessive-compulsive they've got   everything neat and perfect so same with the  medicine cabinet boy cabinet tells you everything   oh like what you know someone's got a tube of  cream that's been blick and the cream hasn't been   used in about a year but they've kept it because  who knows that rash may come back and you can see   the top the cream that was squished out of the  top is now brown and it's you know they didn't   even press it neatly or something one guy's got  his toothpaste and he rolls it as he goes another   person is squishing it here and there and it's a  mess so there's all sorts of little eccentricities   that you can find in a medicine chest  make a note of them and keep it on your   checklist because one day you'll be writing  a story and you'll have a minor character and   you'll have an opportunity to mention something  in their medicine chest that will be interesting   what about books what does that tell you about  well I always look at books see what people are   reading you know I mean you never know what people  read and and you always you'll find anomalies too   you'll you'll find all their books about one  subject and then they got one book on Aristotle   and you go hmm what are they reading Aristotle  for but then they'll have another book on   how to make a million dollars in the stock market  or or something you know you just oh this person's   got one of their books that they must have  read in first grade and they've Jimmy Potts   gets a haircut and you open it and it's got little  illustrations in it and it's a story about a kid   who gets a haircut and the barber made a bad cut  and some woman thinks he was hit by a truck it's   you know it's a story for like a third grader and  he still got it I wonder why gee I'll use that   in the novel one day so you make notes of things  that you think are are interesting and you put it   on your checklist and you have hundreds of things  on your checklist all sorts of things just their   emotional truth and just their anything and then  when you start writing a short story and you got a   character you think all right what have I got on  my checklist maybe I can use some of this stuff   you know the way they clean their glasses the way  they wear their glasses the inside of their car   well that's another thing like a medicine  chest the inside of the car I mean I knew   one guy every time i'd get in his car i'd  say why don't you grab a shovel and dust up   you know it was that you know it looked like what  he called the junkyard or the ones with the serial   killer clean where you're like whoa this thing's  been get in the car that's absolutely pristine   yeah wow a little freaky well I don't know I  think I admire this person oh okay they really   worked hard I'll have a penny on the mat on  the you know not the driver's seat but over   there it's been down there for like months  and I just don't feel like picking it up   and I kind of got used to being it down there  I figure I'm not going to pick it up let's see   if someone else picks it up and if someone else  does pick it up I'll go okay character interesting   some people won't let sleeping dogs lie and some  people won't let lying penny sit so you know   you find out little little things that that are  interesting I read a a detective novel a few   years ago a few years ago 30-40 years ago and it  was about a character who's the main character in   all his detective novels who is a detective and a  crooked sheriff in a small town in Florida throws   him in jail for something so he's in jail for like  two days and he's just trying to keep his sanity   and figure out who did the murder but in order  to keep himself occupied he thinks of things   and one of the things he thinks about and  it's a two-page essay you're not old enough   to remember this but when I was a kid and you  had skates nowadays skates are attached to shoes   you just put your foot in the shoe that's got  the the roller skates attached to it but when I   was a boy you had the metal skates that had little  clamps on it and it hooked your shoes not tennis   shoes you had to have shoes that had you know rims  on them that you could hook it on and then the way   you would tighten it would be with a little thing  that looked like a little wrench called the skate   key and you always had to have the skate key  with you because you never knew when it would   change and the skate would fall off and you'd  have to unscrew it put it back on your shoe and   then screw it again so where did you keep that  skate key well 90 of the kids who skated took   the skate key there was a little hole in it and  they put a string in it and then they would tie   the string around their head and this skate key  would hang here he wrote two pages on a skate key   I don't remember anything about that novel  except that essay on a skate key has nothing to   do with the story totally irrelevant to the story  except it tells you something about his character   and it became interesting so little things can be  very fascinating in books even a detective novel   where I remember that and i've  forgotten everything else right or latchkey kids used to have the the string  you know you could always tell in the 80s the   latchkey kids yeah you know and the latchkey kids  would have a string with the key right exactly and   you they we were told to hide them so that people  didn't know that you'd be going home alone right   yeah my observations yeah and an extra quarter  in your pocket in case you had to call your mom   right for a payphone now every kid's got an  iPhone sure sure I remember driving around   somewhere where I was because I had to call my  wife or maybe the person I was living with I   had to call him to tell him I was going to be late  and you're looking for you know a little pay phone   sometime in a movie when that  happens I'll think to myself   why don't they just call them on their iPhone  and I go oh it's 1972. there is no iPhone   yeah I remember being on the phone trying to call  my grandmother letting her know quote everything   was okay it was in a little bit of a rough part  of town and somebody was making a nefarious deal   and yelling about it the paper next to me and I'll  never forget he was really angry and I'm thinking   and my grandma was like is everything okay oh  yeah everything's fine but that's la you know   at that time with the pay phones I don't know it  could be anywhere but you see what just happened   I talked about a skate about stuff in a medicine  chest how you eat eggs a skate key and then you   thought about the latchkey and then we got into  the calling on the phone and you remembered   how you had to call your grandmother to say  everything's fine and someone is yelling over   there doing some kind of drug deal or something it  was bad yeah there's a scene from a novel yeah and   and which has nothing to do with the story but  it might be the the event that the reader never   forgets don't forget your plot sure but they'll  not they'll never forget that moment where you're   on the phone trying to tell your grandmother  you're fine and there's a drug deal going on   there and somebody's yelling and screaming and  you're not exactly in the best part of town right   because a phone is a phone yeah oh yeah you  found the phone go make the call they used   to have three in a row you know you'd go and then  this person came after I already got on the call   and right I'll bet you a hundred dollars that  if I give a young person today a quarter and say   there's a pay phone I want you to make a call  on the pay phone okay they put the quarter in   and then dial the number hi hi bill yeah  I'm I'm calling from a pay phone I just   I'm I'm we have a bet going here okay all right  I just yeah I'm fine I'm fine okay hang up None of them will check the little coin  thing to see if the quarter came back right   but when we did it when we were  young you did it because sometimes   the quarter would drop back into that little  thing and you'd get your quarterback right   it was such a treat but they wouldn't do that  because it wouldn't even occur to them sure. But those are little details too that   details everybody every writing  teacher will tell you details. Question   For The Viewers: What are the best ways to develop a character?

Channel: Film Courage

Views: 111,812

Rating: 4.9682894 out of 5

Keywords: Screenwriting tips, screenwriting 101, screenwriting for beginners, screenwriting techniques, screenwriting advice, writing a screenplay, how to write a movie, Jack Grapes, method writing, advanced method writing, poetry, how to write poetry, writing teacher, author, writing a great movie, filmcourage, film courage, interview

Id: e0K-uoOlOUk

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021