…to another world.

Or at least, the main characters in our stories can do that.

With our screenplays in working progress, we had a pretty creative exercise that made us realise what kind of characters we have (or don’t have).

We were asked to list as many words as we can describing the ‘world’ of our screenplay. (We haven’t really talked much about ‘worlds’ in regards to screenwriting so I’ll opt from offering up any views because I don’t really know much about it as individual.)

From there, we had to place our main character/s into the ‘world’ of someone else’s story based on the words they had shared. This is what I came up with:

INT./EXT. - BEDROOM/PORCH - DAY 

A glint of light peeks through curtain windows. It shines on HAVEN’s 
sleeping face. Her eyes flutter open and she squints. She sighs and gets 
up, opening her curtains even more. She looks down at her WHITE DOG 
running around outside. 

CORALIE sits on the steps on the front porch watching the dog fight with 
a rubber toy. She whistles and the dog stops his play to look at her. 

CORALIE
Come here, boy. Come on. 

The dog strolls to Coralie with the toy between his teeth. Haven steps 
out into the porch as she ties her robe close. 

CORALIE
Good morning, dear. 

HAVEN
Grandmother. 

CORALIE
Did you sleep well? 

HAVEN
You tell me. 

EXT. BARN HOUSE - NIGHT - FLASHBACK 

A MASKED MAN sits in the dark, under a spotlight, with his hands tied 
behind his back. Coralie circles him. Haven sits across him, with legs-
crossed, playing with her gun. 

The setting of someone else’s story had an countryside vibe and I used a couple of key words from their list (i.e. white dog, gun). It was interesting to see what I had realised when asked what came out of doing the exercise.

And for me, that was the question of ‘who are my characters outside of their anxieties?’ With my story revolving around two characters with anxiety, I realised that I haven’t thought much about their personalities. What are they capable of doing without that? Who actually are they?

It also made me think about the kind of relationship that the two main characters will have. In the scene I wrote above, it proposes that they know each other well as they live in the same house. But in my actual story, though they live in the same apartment building, they aren’t that close to begin with. So the next question to ask myself is how close are they going to be? (Obviously not to the point that they live in the same place, but figuratively speaking).

These are things that I now need to consider and address as I continue to work through my screenplay.