Make your script stand out with dynamic, compelling, three-dimensional characters that will move, haunt, inspire, and crack up the reader.
Character is King. Executives, agents, managers, and showrunners insist on compelling, complex and dynamic characters that leap off the page. Yet writers often get bogged down with story and plot, losing sight of the fact that it's characters we care deeply about that cause us to tune in to our favorite TV shows week after week. But how do you create a three-dimensional character that audiences will fall in love with, invest in and root for?
How do you create a three-dimensional character that audiences will fall in love with, invest in and root for? During this teleconference with Script Anatomy Founder and working TV writer Tawnya Bhattacharya, we’ll answer this question and discuss some of TV’s most unforgettable series leads. You'll walk away with a game plan and clear tools to use while building what just might be TV's next iconic hero or anti-hero.
The Anatomy of Great Characters
with Script Anatomy Founder and working TV writer Tawnya Bhattacharya
What do Tony Soprano, Selina Meyer, Walter White, Sterling Archer, Carrie Mathison, Omar Little and Kimmy Schmidt have in common? Great characters are unforgettable. We may love them or hate them. But they worm their way into our brains and stay with us — haunting us, inspiring us, cracking us up — long after they’ve disappeared from our screens.
Learn to create memorable characters with drive, characters that provoke emotion, characters that stay with us in this teleconference. Tawnya will show you how to craft compelling and multi-dimensional characters by crafting their backstory, stage of life, flaw, core wound, dilemma andgoal as well as how to design dynamic catalyst relationships and polarities, how to a unique world helps you create an interesting character, and how to design meaningful and emotional journeys and character arcs.
As points of reference, writers should familiarize themselves with the pilot episodes of Bloodline, Jane The Virgin, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Breaking Bad which, despite the fact it’s now off air, is an excellent example of what the bar is set.
About Script Anatomy:
Founded by TV writer Tawnya Bhattacharya, Script Anatomy is LA's most industry-focused TV writing school whose classes are taught entirely by working writers. The company helps television writers reach their writing goals and elevate their craft through classes, workshops and private consultations. Script Anatomy has helped hundreds of writers succeed. Alumni have been staffed, sold pilots, secured coveted spots in every network and studio writing program, signed with representation at major agencies and management companies, have sold pilots, landed writing assignments, and won prestigious contests as a result. Join them at ScriptAnatomy.com.
Tawnya Bhattacharya is a writer, writing instructor, and founder of Script Anatomy. Her teaching career began at Writers Boot Camp from 2005 – 2008. Having seen writers struggle through the process there, it became apparent what was missing, so she created Script Anatomy — a unique curriculum to give writers practical development, writing and rewriting tools based on her own process. She launched Script Anatomy in 2011, just as she was embarking on her own writing career. Bhattacharya brings both a ten-year teaching background and professional writing experience to Script Anatomy’s curriculum. She is currently a Writer/Co-Producer on NBC’s “The Night Shift”and formerly wrote on TNT’s“Perception,” Lifetime’s “The Client List,” and USA’s “Fairly Legal,” with her writing partner, Ali Laventhol. Repped by ICM Partners, they are former NBC Writers on the Verge fellows, winning one of 8 spots out of 1200 applicants and also made semi-finalists for the Disney | ABC Writing Program before getting a job that took them out of the running. Tawnya was also a FOX Writer’s Intensive fellow (FOX optioned her semi-autobiographical pilot).