Film Courage: I’m hoping we can talk about a character with a goal and a character with no goal. How will I be able to see that my screenplay has a character with a weak goal?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: Interesting. I think most movies mainstream movies that you watch are really built around a character pursuing something, right? I would say they all have pretty definable goals. Any movie that you see that is in the theater…I take that back…not any movie that you see…most movies that you see are designed around somebody who wants something very badly and goes after it, right?
I would say if you’re trying to figure out whether your character has a weak goal probably the places that I would start is at your Break in [Act] 2, this is assuming you have already written the script. At your break into 2 do we know what your character is going to be pursuing over the rest of the movie?…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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