We think over game characters and dialogues on the advice of writers and on the example of supporters of the theory of a flat Earth

As a person who started making his first game as a hobby without any programming experience, I constantly read various tutorials and guides on game development. And as a person from PR and journalism who often works with text, I want a script and characters, and not just gameplay mechanics. We will assume that I translated this article for myself, as a reminder, but it's good if someone also comes by.

And it also understands the nature of the characters on the example of supporters of the theory of a flat Earth.

Screenplay for Apocalypse Now (1979), based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899)

foreword

I'm working on a game with a lot of characters. But writing characters is not my forte, so I started dating real writers. Their feedback is invaluable.

We met on busy streets, sat in pubs over pints, emailed and argued. I have met people with different opinions on the same issue. But I managed to highlight a few general points for the basis of writing characters.

I will now show my notes from the meetings with the writers and supplement them with thoughts from John York's book Into The Woods - such notes will be marked with the abbreviation ITW. Hope they are helpful.

Character versus characteristic

At the heart of character is the conflict between how we want to be perceived and how we really feel [ITW]. Or in other words: the conflict between our characterization (image) and our real character is at the heart of everything (drama).

Therefore, for a character to be interesting and versatile, he must conflict in some way. He should have an image of the characteristics that he considers useful (consciously or not) and which, over time, begin to interfere with him. To win, he will have to give them up.

And while maintaining their image, the characters speak the way they want to appear in the eyes of others [ITW].

Writing dialogues

When a character says or does something completely atypical for him, the drama comes to life. Dialogue should not just explain behavior, should not explain what the character himself thinks - it should show character, not characterization.

The key to natural dialogue is having a character that you can visualize in your mind rather than thinking about every single line. Leave work with strings for later. A lot of writers just sit at a blank page and think about what their character has to say. Instead, create a character that speaks for itself.

So the first thing is character building.

To create a character, you must consider the character from as many sides as possible. Here are just a few questions about the character that you should be asking yourself (this is not a complete or best list, but a good place to start):

• What is he like in public? Kind, quick-tempered, constantly in a hurry?
• When he is alone in the toilet, away from everyone, what are the first thoughts that come to his mind?
• Where is he from and where is he going? Is he from a poor or rich place? Quiet or busy? Is he torn between them?
• What does he like? What does he not like? If he came on a date, and he was ordered food that he does not like, how will he react?
• Does he know how to drive? Does he like to drive? How does he behave on the road?
• He found his old photo: depending on when and with whom the picture was taken - how will he react?

And so on. The more answers you have about a character, the deeper and more engaging it becomes. Eventually, the character will become so specific that he will write his own dialogue.

Woman, she is between 26 and 29 years old. During her school years, her life was rather boring. She had few friends and left town immediately after graduation. In a new place, she gathers her courage and decides to go out for a drink. There are thousands of people in a big city and the chances of meeting someone are quite high. She enters the pub. She has to push through the crowd. Suddenly, she notices that she is the most unfashionable in the establishment. She needs time to find a free place. Finally, she sits down. Two hours later, a man approaches her.

“How are you?” he asks.

She replies, “Okay. Thank you".

“I’m fine too,” the man says.

“Mm, I see,” she says. The man clears his throat.

Obviously, the man is more confident than she. He didn't wait to be asked how he was doing. "Hmm, I see", said the girl. She is confused. Firstly, because she felt embarrassed, and secondly, because the man was a little rude to her. She was not accustomed to the fleeting, fussy city life in which a man grew up. He was expecting a conversation at the pace he was used to in the city. He realized his mistake and cleared his throat in embarrassment. The subtext here is that they both have a lot to learn about each other. Their lives move at different speeds, and if they want to make friends, they will have to learn and grow.

A good example is the opening scene in The Social Network (2010), where the characters are talking. There are a lot of videos with analysis in the search, so I will not repeat myself.

The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)

So, in order to create a dialogue, we must create a character. In a way, writing dialogue is acting out a character. Those. a description of what the character would actually say if they existed.

Character references

To create things, you need other things. This also works in creative fields. People are characters. You are a character. Therefore, you must talk to people in order to collect material. People keep in themselves hundreds of stories from life. All you have to do is ask and almost everyone will be happy to tell you about themselves. Just listen carefully.

Once in a pub I got into a conversation with an alcoholic. Once he was a good developer and realtor. He told one interesting thing - his theory about the degeneration of men. It sounded like this: in the 70s and 80s, they began to massively close men's clubs. Because of this, they had practically nowhere to hang out with other men (meaning without wives and women). With one exception - bookmakers. Therefore, the demand for rates increased sharply, new offices opened by leaps and bounds, and men became more and more degraded. I asked him if the closure of the mines in the North (and subsequent massive unemployment) had contributed to the emergence of betting shops. He agreed, pleased with this addition to his theory. But then he tapped his temple with his finger and said, “But people like us don’t fall for that—you know, smart people. We don't waste time at these bookmakers." With a nod of triumph, he gulped down what was probably his 25th pint of the week. By day, in a gloomy pub. The conflict is personalized.

Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, can talk about it for hours. Collect and retell the stories of real people as they begin to live their own lives. Be sure to look for any performances by Chuck.

But in addition to communicating with real people, you need to read other authors, anonymous blogs, listen to confessional podcasts, study movie characters, and so on.

There is such a documentary Behind The Curve (“Beyond the bend”, 2018) about a group of supporters of the theory of a flat Earth. It doesn't go into much detail about their ideology, but it's a great film to explore the characters themselves.

One of the characters in the film, Patricia Steer, runs a YouTube channel dedicated to discussions about the flat earth theory and the community in general. However, she does not look like a conspiracy theorist at all. In addition, she was not always a supporter of the theory, but came to her through various other conspiracy theories. When her channel gained popularity, conspiracy theories began to appear around her.

The problem for members of such communities is that their beliefs are constantly ridiculed - the "big, bad world" is always against them. In such an atmosphere, they naturally begin to feel that everyone who does not share their faith is an enemy. But it can also apply to other members of the community. For example, if their beliefs suddenly changed.

There is a moment in the movie where she says something like (not verbatim): “People called me a lizard, they said that I work for the FBI or I am a puppet of some organization”.

Then comes the moment when she is on the threshold of awareness. You can see how she freezes at the thought that the things that are said about her are stupid and not true. But she said the same about other people. Was it stupid? What if the flat earth theory is not true? Was she right all this time?

Then a logical explosion should have occurred in her head, but she dismisses all thoughts with some kind of comment and continues to believe in what she believed. The conflict within the character has just erupted in a monumental internal battle and the illogical side has won.

That's a wonderful five seconds.

People can be a collection of irresistible five-second flashes.

Eventually

Are you still staring at a blank sheet asking what your characters will say? It's just that you haven't developed their character enough yet to be able to speak for themselves. You will first have to work out all the facets of the character to get a dialogue. And a quick search for character building questions is a good place to start.

Is your character ready but they are too tight and not attractive? He needs conflict and image, friction and confusion.

Characters create new characters.

Look for characters around you in real life.

Source: habr.com