… But there’s something
In your eyes that says
Maybe that’s never
Never say never
Romeo Void – Never Say Never
Unless you’re a character in a script. In which case, say never at least once if possible.
This is because never is wonderfully extreme. It’s filled with conviction. And it, whatever it is, defines your character.
Best of all, it begs the NEVER to be tested.
Put another way, it’s a great dilemma waiting to happen, by making your character(s) make really hard choices in relation to this NEVER. If you can do this, you’ve got story gold. This is because a character’s choices define them — and hard choices define them clearly and dramatically (or comically).
Example time:
In Bridgerton, a character in the story makes it very clear that they will never do something. As viewers, we know that this character believes that they will never do this thing. But we also know love is coming to town, and this character will be forced to choose between love (and fulfilling this love) and maintaining this pledge to never do this thing. It tells us so much about this character. It’s great story stuff.
In the series The Crown, the queen often declares by words and actions that she would never do anything that is contrary to her duty as the crown. And in fact, she’s pretty damn good at maintaining this conviction. But what’s important isn’t that she maintain this conviction or not, but that it’s tested. And tested vigorously. And through these tests and the resulting choices she makes, her character is wonderfully and dramatically revealed.
As an example from one of my scripts, there’s a scene where two characters laugh about the impossibility of their son doing something. In essence — they say they’d never let that happen. An immediate reaction to this exchange by someone giving me notes on the script was– Now I want to see that thing happen! Of course they do. It’s exciting. It would mean the story would have to move, and there would be transformation in both plot and character. Simply put, some serious fucking shit would have to happen to go from NEVER to DOING or ALMOST DOING.
So think about what your characters would never do (relevant to your story), and then think about what would have to happen to get them to do that thing or almost do that thing. In Bridgerton, it’s love that tests the character’s conviction to never do something. And as we know, where love is involved — never say never.
Charlie Lyons Writes 