The birth of a character - Spanish version below

I was recently having a conversation with someone on the subject of writing and she said to me “how do you do it?” “How do I do what?” I said. “Come up with all those ideas, the sorties, I could never do it!” and with a smile I said to her, “You know those voices in your head that some times people say you hear? Well, it is not the first sign of madness, it is the characters from my stories asking me to write them down!”

Back in 1990 I directed a great play at the Putney Arts Theatre in London by Luigi Pirandello called “Six Characters in Search of an Author”. In his play, Pirandello explores the idea that a character is only born when an author writes it down. This character only comes to life when its put down on paper (or a computer screen nowadays!) and its birth is that moment when his or her story is told, when people can read his or her life. In Six Characters we see this being played out in a very cleaver setting. Pirandello takes an ordinary theatre group who seems to be struggling to get anywhere with their current rehearsal when six mysterious characters walk in looking for an Author. “There is no Author here, we are rehearsing a play that has already been written” shouts the very exasperated director who is now being interrupted by this strange looking crew. “Perhaps, you would like to write our story then” says the main character, a remark received by laughter from all except the director who is intrigued by this. He agrees and the characters begin to tell their story as the Director’s producer is writing it down and six characters are born. In the end the director discovers that these characters where lost as their original Author had refused to write their very tragic story, a tragic story that had to be told.

For me, directing this powerful play helped me understand as a scriptwriter the importance of my writing, not only because I love creating stories that are enjoyed by others, but because I began to see it as my duty to give birth to all those characters that have come to me asking me to write their stories down.

Now, I am a scriptwriter and my work is brought to the stage for people to see these stories being enacted by actors. Yes, actors bring characters to life in their performance, but the birth of that character happened when the script was written. So you don’t have to be a scriptwriter to bring a character to life, to give it its birth and right place in the history of story telling. Anyone who thinks of a story and writes it down has given birth to that character. Best selling novels are the work of an Author who has given birth to those characters, telling the story of their lives. Even a cartoonist who draws a character and in his or her story through pictures has also brought that character to life.

My 8-year-old daughter has a very vivid imagination. In a way it reminds me of my self when I was her age. She loves to make up stories and has begun to write them down. It is something that I have encouraged her to do. She has a little book and there she writes her stories. Will she become a writer and follow my steps? That I cannot tell. But what I do believe is that she has a responsibility, as an imaginative person, to write those characters down. She shows her work to me and her friends and that is what writing a character is all about, she has told their story, she has given the opportunity for others to enjoy their tale, she has given birth to those characters who are now immortal and part of the world of literature.

Do you hear those voices in your head? Do you have the gift of being able to use your imagination to tell stories? If so, for me writing then becomes easy. I am not referring to the technical ability of knowing how to write correctly, this is difficult, but the ability to share stories, to bring them to life. Here is how I believe it works:

First is listening. Listening to your character. I did a brilliant Sitcom scriptwriting workshop last year from The Sticomission group. In this workshop we learned to understand our characters by asking some simple questions. What does your character want? What does he/she needs? And why are they trapped in that situation? These are very powerful questions to ask your character, it defines many aspects of their story. But of course if you ask you have to listen! And listening to your character is not easy (is not easy to listen to human being let alone a character!) but you’ve got to listen to it not with your ears but your heart. In other words, what is he or she feeling? What is going on inside them, in their hearts and minds? Where are they going and why? And most importantly why are they where they are?

Second is telling. Telling his or her story. No one tells stories that are not interesting, that do not have a meaning or a message; therefore, your character has something to say about their situation. Think about what is happening to him or her. They are telling you this for a reason. It’s like listening to a friend telling you something that happened to them. Most of the time your friend just wants you to listen, but they want you to listen to the message behind their story. It is the same with a character. He or she wants you to tell their story not so that people see the obvious but the message behind. Harold Pinter did this beautifully in his plays. Take “One for the road” as an example. In this play Pinter tells the story of a man and his family being interrogated by a man named Nicolas. Pinter gives you very little information as to whom Nicolas works for and why he is interrogating this man and his family. But the message behind Nicola’s story is what Pinter wants his audiences to see. Nicolas enjoys power and oppressing people, he wants you to know this, and why he does it. In my opinion, Pinter was the master of his time for bringing character’s stories to life for audiences to really understand what is behind each of those characters.

Writing is wonderful thing and everyone should do it! Think of all those great characters we have been able to enjoy in our lives because someone took the time to put them on paper. I don’t have enough time to write all the characters that come to me with their stories. I wish I did. So what I do is to make notes around them and their story, to prepare for their birth as it were. I do not want any of my characters to wonder off in search of an Author!