Dramatists Guild Writers Group tip. What is the 'must-do' for a character? At the Actors Studio, everyone -actors, directors, writers- had to do dramatic improv. We were always asked, 'What must the character do?' The teachers never said 'want.' A character can want many things, but they must-do one thing for their survival or to maintain their emotional sanity. And you can judge a want vs. a must-do based on how someone would react if denied that.
Growing up, I played the violin. I was a B-average, second-chair violinist in some local childhood symphonies. I practiced about 3-5 hrs a day. Btw, 3 hrs was the absolute minimum to just maintain my skill level; 5 hrs was when I was improving my skills. While doing this, I also used my free time to write. If I were in deep-focused writing mode and someone interrupted me, I would get extremely upset. I couldn't explain it intellectually because I was a kid. But I would lash out and throw a tantrum. On the other hand, if the phone rang while I was practicing the violin, I would totally answer it. No problem, 'hey, just practicing...Yeah, I can talk. What's up?' I wanted to be a violinist. My teacher even said I could have a career if I dedicated 5-6 hrs a day. And I thought, 'Oh, that would be kind of cool.' I imagined myself playing with a professional orchestra and felt good. Proud.' But it wasn't core to my being. Meanwhile, I knew that whatever I did, I would continue writing. Doesn't matter if I were a violinist, bus driver, or a therapist; this thing would continue because there was something unexplainable that brought me to the page.
But my grammar is terrible. Doesn't matter. But I haven't read enough books. Doesn't matter. But more time is spent on the violin. Does not matter. I'm working as a high school janitor, and I'm an alcoholic...but I'm still going to write. There is a core magnetism behind a 'must do.'
So what must they do to be or exist? That's a must-do vs. a want.
Must-dos have at least 4 elements: character, action, time, and contradiction.
CHARACTER
There are 2 types of character must-do's. Situational and personality. Situational must-do is 'I got cancer and have six months to live, and want to go to India. Road trip movie.' The situation forces someone to activate a dream before it's too late or take a job to save their house.' In DOG DAY AFTERNOON, the situational must-do happens before the movie begins: get the girl. How? Well, the girl was actually biologically born as a man, but I'll help her transition her body. In order to do that, I need money for the surgery... so I will rob a bank.' That's what makes DOG DAY a comedy. It's the wrong way of showing love. And then the irony is that in doing this violent act out of love...the entire world starts to love the robber. Everyone except the one person he really wants love from.
A personality-based must-do is a driving passion. "Amadeus" or "A Beautiful Mind." They are obsessed and have a genius that will then show itself. And sometimes a situational must-do meets a character's passion: Oppenheimer. We're in the middle of a war, and we need your genius to help us win it.
ACTION
There are two types of actions with a must-do: survive or thrive. So a character is just trying to get through something...so that their life can resume or they are trying to elevate their life.
Survive what? Slavery, Holocaust, war, poverty, a bad job, a prison stint. A BICYCLE THIEF: Father and son are trying to find some small joy in a day of survival for poor Italians. THE LAST DETAIL: Two sailors are escorting an 18-year-old sailor to military prison. It's not their dream to escort someone to prison. It's a job they are just trying to get through so they can go back to their normal life. In the process of doing this job, they go on a journey and their life changes forever. COOL HAND LUKE, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, and A PERFECT STORM are 'let's just survive this.' But of course, what makes a great survival must-do is that the characters change and -in some internal way- thrive under the harsh conditions. The dream becomes apparent through the survival of hardship.
The " Thrive must-do" is easier to understand: it's a dream, a passion, a location, an unrequited love... maybe it's all of them embodied in one destination. The character's life is 'fine,' or it's maintaining, but they want more. LOST IN TRANSLATION starts off as 'just trying to get through this trip in Japan where I feel dead inside' and it becomes 'thrive through unlikely love.' The two leads are age-inappropriate, and one is married. But they want to live more than they are currently living at the start of the movie.
TIME
Must-do has a time element: it's buried or uncovered. So it either becomes apparent in act one and launches us on the journey...or it happened before the story begins and we find out about it on the journey.
DOG DAY AFTERNOON must-do is buried. LAST DETAIL is introduced in the story 'Here is a job. Go do it. Come back.'
If you know the character, action, and time of the must-do, then there's only one more thing: the contradiction.
CONTRADICTION
You must do something that is diametrically opposed to your status or what the outside world is doing. TITANIC: The status of the two lovers is too far apart, but they must love. Conflict!! LOST IN TRANSLATION: age inappropriate and one person is married, and this is just a temporary feeling that will go away once we're back in the US (or will it?) All this chemist teacher ever wanted was to feel powerful... as a drug lord?!? So he is BREAKING BAD.
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