Back when we lived in Athens, I turned on the TV one day. To my delight, I discovered a quirky little BBC serial about a space-time traveller and his friends. He ran all over the universe in a battered blue police call box that was bigger on the inside than the outside. The show tickled my fancy: the acting and scriptwriting were way above par, and the 'special effects' were ludicrous. Just the sort of thing I like.

The actor playing the space-time traveller was ridiculously tall, with outrageously curly hair. Since I hadn't seen the show before, I wondered: what's he doing on Earth? What's his agenda? I soon found out. The traveller told his companion that he really couldn't be going on like his predecessor. (I didn't understand that part yet.) He really couldn't be trucking around Earth, solving petty problems. He needed to get out and about in space-time, because he was a Time Lord. As he told Sarah Jane, it was his mission to 'walk in eternity'. Ah. Now, that made sense, in a science-fiction kind of way.

The Doctor makes sense as a space-time traveller with a mission to 'walk in eternity'. He's not English, he's Gallifreyan. Good job, writers – including, of course, our founder. Characters need a mission. How do you provide it?

Agents and Goals

One US history course I worked on concentrated on the idea of Agents and Goals. Agents were the historical players: Pilgrims, say, or Wampanoag Indians. Goals were what they wanted out of life: a place to preserve religious identity, a peaceful and productive hunting ground. Then you asked: can they get what they want? How do they go about it? What happens when they do? It's not a bad approach to history, although there are others.

Look at your stories as history lessons – only without the quizzes. (The critics will write the essay exams.) Who are your agents? What's their agenda? After all, that's what drives the story.

Let's look at some successful, or at least moderately successful, television series. Agents? Goals? Obstacles?

Now, look at that list. Which of these stories do you think will be most productive? Which ones are in danger of stagnating due to a thin premise? How much can you tell from the motivation of the main characters? A lot. Take Life. It ran on beautifully until it solved its central problem: who framed the main character for murder? Then it stopped. Job done – well done, we might add. Sherlock sustains itself nicely for three movies a year, simply on the basis of extending the Doyle oeuvre into the present day, because the motivation of the main characters is kept strong.

But consider Eureka. The character's motivation is rather vague. Do his job? What's that about? To give the writers credit, they milked that premise delightfully for five seasons. But they had to push the reset button a couple of times, and they kept Jack and his gf apart until the very end.

Now look at Dracula. Aside from its other sins, which are many, the series suffers from an almost terminal case of forced tension. Since they aren't clear about goals, they can cheat and change their minds. But the audience has little idea what they're after. Add bad dialogue, and, well, there's only so much you can do with Kensington gore, folks.

How about Almost Human? It's quirky, funny, and the CGI is kind of cheesy. But the premise is so loose and vague that there's little tension. Within a few episodes, the show has bogged down in a predictable sameness. One measure of this was that one day, hulu.com skipped a whole segment, and we didn't even notice. The character needs a bit more going for him than survivor guilt and a general distaste for smarmy androids.

What gets your character up in the morning? Does (s)he have an itch that can't be scratched? Who/what is standing in the way? Above all, can you make this interesting, at least for a short story, a novel, a poem, or a film's worth? Once you know what your character wants, and what's hindering the happy flow of events, dig deeper. Exploit the situation. Probe the wounds. Show them thinking, planning, and acting. As they always said on Doctor Who, 'We must act. Quickly.'

This tip isn't good only for sci-fi and cop shows. It works for everything you write, fact or fiction. Find the motivation, and you're halfway to a narrative. Let us in on what makes your character tick.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

03.03.14 Front Page

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