Welcome to the Ink 2 Screen podcast. I am your host, Amber Bosworth. I am the creator of Ink 2 Screen. A website and resource for beginning screenwriters that want free information and inspiration to help and guide their writing.    You can check it all out at www.ink2screen.net.   Today is all about Character Development. We will go over why it's important. The character arch and then a great exercise to help find your characters voice.    You can get all notes at www.ink2screen.net/page4 and I'll post the link in the show notes below this podcast. This'll be a quick podcast, with some quick tips to help your characters on the page. with a nice little exercise that can really help when you are looking for inspiration.   We are asking our audience to go on a journey with our characters for 90-120 minutes. And sometimes so much more if they decide to watch over and over again. I'm revealing a big secret about me. I have seen Titanic, in a movie theater, 18 times! And it wasn't just the appeal of the ship or the beautiful Leonardo Dicaprio. It was Kate Winslet. I felt for her character more than I knew at the time, being only sixteen years old. As I've gotten older, I realized more and more how much I loved that character. That is what had me spending over 54 hours, just in a theater, with her character. I want to write characters like that. Ones that speak to people on levels they haven't even discovered themselves yet.  

1. Be sure your character is likable early on. The audience needs to connect to your character very quickly. Attention spans have only gotten shorter which makes that connection so vital and needed quickly. You can have a "bad" guy but still make him likable. Dexter, the main character and a serial killer is only relatable because he has a code and kills murders. Most of us can connect with that deep dark desire to punish the guilty. Think of characters that you love. Why do you love them? What keeps them so alive in your eyes? These are the things you want to keep in mind when you are writing your story.
2. Build realistic and detailed characterization. Characterization is so important. You want your characters to be realistic and have depth of character. If not, they will be flat and boring. You'll lose your audience in a heartbeat. 
3. If the character is really good then they will make their own decisions. It will write itself. As decisions present themselves, your characters will have built such a life that it will come so easy.
4. Dialogue, Dialogue, Dialogue.  A great obstacle many writers face, myself included, is finding the voice for each character. I would go back and read my dialogue, only to find that each of my characters sounded a like. That can be easy to do because we write what we know. It's important to give each character their unique voice.
5. Help can be by putting yourself in the characters shoes. Being an actor can greatly help this. 

  There are so many characters that can benefit from this technique.   Finding your character's voice. Without having a wall with a yarn spider's web around it. This technique was given to me in one of my master's classes. Create a pinterest board for your character. Just try it. For any character. Are you having a problem with your antagonist? Maybe he/she sounds too much like your protagonist. Create a board just for that character. What would that character choose? Clothing, food, hobbies, silly cat videos?      The fun exercise. Do this as soon as you can. Do it for every character or just for your main characters. This will give you richer and deeper characters to help find their voices.    A quick recap! Things to focus on to create a well developed character: make your character likable early on, build realistic and detailed characterization, let the characters make their own decisions, create great dialogue, and try putting yourself in your characters shoes.  And please, give the exercise a try. Create at least one Pinterest board for your main character. See if this helps. Some people also create journal entries but for me, I enjoy the visuals that Pinterest creates. It really does paint a picture of my character in my head which also helps create that depth on the page. And that is what you want for your reader and audience.    Another reminder that the May Monthly Writing Madness has now opened for registration. This month the grand prize will get entry into the Masterclass with Aaron Sorkin. Aaron Sorkin wrote his first movie on cocktail napkins. Those napkins turned into A Few Good Men, starring Jack Nicholson. Now, the Academy Award-winning writer of The West Wing and The Social Network is teaching screenwriting. In this class, you'll learn his rules of storytelling, dialogue, character development, and what makes a script actually sell. By the end, you'll write screenplays that capture your audience's attention.   It includes 35 video lessons, 38 page workbook, and the ability to learn anytime, anywhere. This is the prize for the May Monthly Writing Madness. Starting May 15. 5 days to write 5 pages, $15 entry fee and the chance to win the Masterclass, a profile on ink2screen website, and an interview on our podcast. Head on over to www.ink2screen.net to enter the madness now.     If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to subscribe to it no matter where you are listening from. And you can also find us on facebook under Ink 2 Screen.    Well, time to go. Hope to hear the furious scratch on the paper or the gentle tapping of a keyboard. Until next time.