Four Crucial Questions for Your Protagonist

Screenwriting can be boiled down to four simple questions. By thoroughly answering these questions, you'll have a rough outline for a script.

I admit, telling you a good script can be born off of just four easy steps is a bit naive. Screenwriting takes a great deal of practice and hard work. However, answering these four steps will help you create a protagonist that's active, allowing you to have a solid foundation for a compelling story. It takes more than answering four questions, but by thoroughly doing so, you'll be on your way to a great story.

Here are the four critical questions for any story:

1. Which character is the main focus of the story?

2. What does your Protagonist want?

3. What's standing in your Protagonist's way?

4. What's your Protagonist going to do in order to achieve their goal?

That wasn't so tough, was it? Despite the questions seeming obvious, so many writers don't address them, leaving their protagonists passive and their stories weak.

1. Which character is the main focus of the story?

Every story needs someone the audience can root for, but if that person isn't someone we want to spend two hours with, we'll quickly lose interest. It's important to establish a connection between the audience and the Protagonist to keep an audience invested and engaged.

While we need to bond with the Protagonist, he or she doesn't necessarily have to be George Bailey in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Most of the time, you'll find "good" heroes, but that's usually because a producer thinks that's what people want. But your hero doesn't have to be a traditional "hero" or even a nice person.

I n GONE WITH THE WIND, Scarlett O'Hara isn't exactly a model citizen. In THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Daniel Plainview would kick your puppy even before you have your back turned. But those two are examples of the most memorable and gripping Protagonists in cinema.

When you envision either of them, "active" immediately comes to mind. Things didn't happen TO them, they happened BECAUSE of them. They have a clear vision of what they want, and not even war is going to stand in their way.

Writing active Protagonists is essential. So many scripts are submitted to executives where the protagonist is protected and passive. If your Protagonist isn't active, your story is going to lack energy and bore the reader.

How to be clear you're writing an active protagonist:

Your protagonist should know exactly what their goal is and actively make efforts to not only achieve it, but to also plot and plan how to overcome any obstacles that stand in his or her way. Ultimately, it is because of their own actions that they get the chance to achieve their goal in the climax of the film. Bottom-line: The goal of the movie has to be achieved because the protagonist was active in the outcome instead of merely allowing plot points to happen in spite of them or happen to them. The protagonist has to drive the story instead of being moved along in the story passively.

There are far too many passive protagonists in spec scripts, which typically translates into a boring person no one wants to follow for 110 pages.

So, why are writers writing passive heroes?

Perhaps writers protect their protagonists because people are inherently resistant to change in their own lives. In order to evolve, like our characters, we need to stop protecting ourselves from our wounds and face them head on. We often create our protagonists because we relate to them, but we can't relate to that person so much that we aren't able to shed their veneer and help them face their fears, even if it means facing our fears to do it.

Your hero has to have a desire to achieve that goal that is so great it will pull them out of their comfort zone. The first step in achieving that is for the writer to get out of their comfort zone too.

2. What does your Protagonist want?

Your Protagonist must want more than anyone else in the story because that is how you and your Protagonist will move your story forward. Additionally, your Protagonist must want whatever he or she wants, really, really bad. If he or she doesn't want what they want bad enough, you're giving your audience nothing to live vicariously through. You're not allowing your audience to jump on the Protagonist's train and ride all the way through to the end of the trip. If that doesn't happen, it's very likely that your script will fail.

If you watch enough movies, you'll notice good protagonists always have what we call, an OUTER goal. It's this outer goal that your Protagonist must try to achieve by the end of your screenplay and hopefully, eventual movie. Before writing the climax of your story, consider what the climax actually is. Define it as the exact point in the story for your Protagonist to achieve their outer goal and answer the central question of the story.

Remember... Your entire screenplay should be structured in such a way as to push your Protagonist to this exact point in your story.

Why outer goal?

Because in a screenplay that will hopefully be made into a movie, the eventual audience must be able to see the external version of your Protagonist's goal. Remember... Film is a visual medium. When writing a screenplay, it's more important to SHOW, rather than tell. Because of this rule of thumb, the writer needs to insure they create and develop this external goal in a visual or physical way in order for your eventual audience to actually see your Protagonist achieving it.

In the WIZARD OF OZ, Dorothy returns home. In THE MATRIX, Neo becomes the One and defeats Agent Smith. In THE HANGOVER, the friends of the groom must get him back from Las Vegas in time for his own wedding. Notice in every one of these films, the Protagonist's goal was created visually so we could in fact, see it happen.

Your Protagonist's outer goal must consist of things extremely important to him or her. In fact, these things must be the most important thing(s) in the world to your Protagonist because if they are not that important, why even write the screenplay in the first place?

Once you've figured out what your Protagonist's outer goal actually is, sit back for a minute and ask yourself the following question...

Is there something even MORE IMPORTANT in my Protagonist's life than what I've come up with?

If the answer to that question is YES, then tell THAT STORY instead.

Now that we've defined what your Protagonist's outer goal should consist of, let's discuss your Protagonist's Inner Goal... Your Protagonist's inner goal is that INTERNAL THING we cannot see but should somehow be expressed in your Protagonist's journey to achieve it.

Huh?

Your Protagonist's inner goal should be the REASON your Protagonist wants whatever they want, i.e., the answer to the central question of your story and the achievement of their outer goal. In the writing of this inner goal, you can express this through both exposition and dialogue... Remember to use subtext even when it comes to your Protagonist's behavior.

Let's take the movie, AVATAR as an example... Jake's outer goal was to infiltrate the Na’vi and report back to Colonel Quaritch. Jake's infiltration sets the story in motion. That is of course, Jake's outer goal. However, once Jake gets to know these people, he begins to empathize and sympathize with them. He becomes one of them and of course, falls in love with Neytiri and his outer goal now changes. Jake's new outer goal transforms from him being a spy, to him saving the Na'vi from The Resources Development Administration (RDA). Jake's inner goal is now redemption and purpose. Redemption because he betrayed the Na’vi, and purpose because he now has a reason to live life after having lost his legs. These two inner goals now motivate Jake to achieve his OUTER GOAL, to save the Na’vi from the RDA.

Your Protagonist's outer goal is what your Protagonist wants and needs to achieve by the climax of your story. Your Protagonist's inner goal is his or her's motivation that drives them to achieve it.

For clarification, let's define what a Climax is again... The moment of opportunity for the protagonist to achieve their Outer Goal.

In THE LORD OF THE RING films, Frodo's goal was to make his way to Morder so that he could destroy the ring. The entire trilogy is based on Frodo's want, need, and desire. Having said that however... What happens when Frodo eventually gets to Morder? He can't destroy the ring. Frodo simply cannot bring himself to destroy the ring now because of what's happened to him during this journey. He's changed because of these experiences. Of course, Sam saves Frodo and the Shire.

Another great example of this is an old John Cusak film, THE SURE THING. In other words... Even if your Protagonist makes a decision to decline achieving his or her goal, it was in fact that inner goal that caused them to be an Active Protagonist in the first place. It was that inner goal that caused them to pursue the outer goal which, in and of itself, is in fact your story.

3. What's standing in your Protagonist's way?

First and foremost, you need to understand that what's standing in your Protagonist's way is CONFLICT, plain and simple. Conflict is a key element when creating a believable Protagonist for your screenplay. If, as the writer, you make both your inner and outer goals too easy for your Protagonist, your story will end up being boring and there simply will not be enough of a challenge for your Protagonist to overcome. In other words, who cares?

You must insure that your Protagonist works extremely hard in order to achieve what they want – to achieve their outer goal. The more your Protagonist works at achieving his or her outer goal, the more your eventual audience will engage with them. Audience members are always in awe of a protagonist who's not only good at what they do but work hard at doing it.

This is probably a good time to mention making sure your Protagonist is the quintessential representation of whatever kind of character they are. Think Lt. Daniel Kaffee in A FEW GOOD MEN. Think Frank in THIEF. These are quintessential protagonists. Make sure your Protagonist is also quintessential.

You can actually learn a valuable lesson from great antagonists in films. Think about Hans Gruber in DIE HARD. Even though he's the bad guy, we, as an audience almost enjoy how diligent he and his crew are at thwarting John McClane. In fact, Gruber is much more appealing as an antagonist than any bland protagonist.

Suffice to say... Just make sure you give your Protagonist a difficult enough goal to achieve and one that takes an enormous and serious amount of effort to obtain. Otherwise, nobody is going to care about your story and certainly, nobody is going to end up recommending your screenplay.

Having said that, don't get too outrageous with giving your Protagonist a goal. It can't be ridiculous. It can't be something we, as an audience will immediately disbelieve he or she can achieve.

Take a look at a great comedy, HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE. All Harold and Kumar want are some White Castle burgers. Not a huge goal. Not even a ridiculous goal because of the way the writer sets up the story. In fact, the title alone makes us wonder, how hard can it be to simply go out and get some burgers? We do this all the time and we don't have any problems. No conflict there, right? However, HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE pushes on for almost 90 minutes and it keeps our attention because as a comedy, the writer successfully sets up a crazy world these two Protagonists live in, then throws even more hilarious obstacles in their way just so they can eventually enjoy some White Castle burgers. As an audience, we root for them the entire time. We want them to get their burgers. After everything they've been through that night? They deserve their burgers!

Try to think outside the box when it comes to raising the stakes. Do not simply keep raising the body count your Protagonist has to plow through in order for them achieve their goal. Rather, figure out what it is that your Protagonist finds IMPORTANT to them. Once you figure out what's important to your Protagonist and it actually makes sense to us because you've properly set all this up, we'll easily get behind your Protagonist all the way through the story. Once you truly know your Protagonist, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out what's always standing in their way and what's specifically standing in their way of achieving their goal by the end of your story.

Remember, we can't know your Protagonist unless YOU KNOW YOUR PROTAGONIST. By the same token, knowing your Antagonist is both the easiest and most direct way to figure out what kind of obstacles to throw in front of your Protagonist. Even if you decide not to have a traditional antagonist, always be sure to clearly and visually demonstrate whatever obstacles are standing in the way of your Protagonist. The clearer the better. The harder the better. The harder your Protagonist works, the better.

4. What's your Protagonist going to do in order to achieve their goal?

An active protagonist never sits around wondering what to do next. They just do what they need to do next! Sure, if you're using some form of The Hero's Journey as your structure, your Protagonist might refuse the call to action but even that refusal will be an active decision. Make sense? When it comes to your Protagonist taking action in your story however, they need to want what they want bad enough to go out and take it. They need to be dedicated and possess enough resolve to get the job done and achieve their goal. It's their resolve to achieve their goal that motivates an audience to live vicariously through them for the 90 minutes to two hours we're investing in your story. We like to project ourselves into the action we see taking place right there on the screen. That's actually why we want to live vicariously through your Protagonist.

Think about how often in our own lives, we are simply not in control of anything or how often we can't take action on anything because we work. We have obligations – responsibilities that take precedence over taking action.

It's because of REAL LIFE we want to live vicariously through REEL LIFE. Don't forget that.

Additionally, never forget to humanize your Protagonist when you can. We want them to succeed but of course, just like real people, reel people are going to have those tiny moments of self-doubt, confusion, dilemma. Even so, it's the fact that through all that, they still overcome and persist through the story in order to achieve their goal.

That's WHY we love our protagonists. That's why we're willing to see them again again through sequels, prequels, and reboots.

To work with Bill Pace, the script consultant who came up with the Original '4 Steps To Creating A Truly Active Protagonist', follow this link.

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