JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
How do you structure a story where your main character needs to change his mind, where you're actively suggesting he was wrong to begin with, sort of like The Grinch Who Stole X-Mas I guess, but I am having trouble wrapping my mind around what this would look like with my story.
Nobody is going to buy him thinking one thing, then the next scene he has a conversation, "Gee, well, you changed my mind!" No. It has to be something slow where an accumulation of events or things he sees sells him on the fact he was wrong, because no matter how great someone is, people tend to be stubborn about changing their minds on major issues. So what does that mean during the progress and obstacles stages, like Act II basically, that he continues to have more reason to believe he's wrong?
The problem here is he needs some sort of other goal I suppose, or it seems like it, where through that goal he comes into contact with elements that change his mind, people, visions, events, etc. And it seems to me it would be tough for his goal to be *actively* opposing whatever it is that he disbelieves. In other words, he's working against it, then he starts to change his mind. I am not sure that will work.
If I have this character basically holding my viewpoint from the start, there is no real character arc that I see, because he'll still feel the same way at the end (he is one of four characters in this film, all with equal screen time and separate stories). That is not dramatic and it doesn't really work, especially not compared to the other three characters' clear story arcs. So he needs some sort of clear story arc himself, and since the other 3 characters basically take the opposite stance to this guy (well, 2 do, the other 1 is a bit more on the fence simply because it is a pain in the butt for him but he knows it's the right thing), it's good to have one character at the start representing the views of some of the people in the audience who may feel similarly. He can be the conduit for change, like through what he sees, and if you identify with him at the start, you may identify with how he changes his mind and why if it's very well done. That's the key here, a very important part of the story.
So the question is... how is that done? How do you take this character and make him slowly and convincingly change his mind, not just suddenly, "Boy, I sure was wrong, gee golly gosh, I can't believe I didn't see it your way!" saying to his friend or something, haha, not going to work. But I feel if he's TOO adamantly against this viewpoint at the start, given the very limited time I have to develop him (25 pages of the 100), there's simply no way that you can make him about-face believably. Grrr...
I guess what's thwarting me here is that he CAN'T make progress towards his goal, whatever that is, because if things are going fine and dandy I don't see why he'd be likely to change his mind in the first place. It's almost like things have to get progressively worse and worse until he re-evaluates things and figures out he was in the wrong.
Nobody is going to buy him thinking one thing, then the next scene he has a conversation, "Gee, well, you changed my mind!" No. It has to be something slow where an accumulation of events or things he sees sells him on the fact he was wrong, because no matter how great someone is, people tend to be stubborn about changing their minds on major issues. So what does that mean during the progress and obstacles stages, like Act II basically, that he continues to have more reason to believe he's wrong?
The problem here is he needs some sort of other goal I suppose, or it seems like it, where through that goal he comes into contact with elements that change his mind, people, visions, events, etc. And it seems to me it would be tough for his goal to be *actively* opposing whatever it is that he disbelieves. In other words, he's working against it, then he starts to change his mind. I am not sure that will work.
If I have this character basically holding my viewpoint from the start, there is no real character arc that I see, because he'll still feel the same way at the end (he is one of four characters in this film, all with equal screen time and separate stories). That is not dramatic and it doesn't really work, especially not compared to the other three characters' clear story arcs. So he needs some sort of clear story arc himself, and since the other 3 characters basically take the opposite stance to this guy (well, 2 do, the other 1 is a bit more on the fence simply because it is a pain in the butt for him but he knows it's the right thing), it's good to have one character at the start representing the views of some of the people in the audience who may feel similarly. He can be the conduit for change, like through what he sees, and if you identify with him at the start, you may identify with how he changes his mind and why if it's very well done. That's the key here, a very important part of the story.
So the question is... how is that done? How do you take this character and make him slowly and convincingly change his mind, not just suddenly, "Boy, I sure was wrong, gee golly gosh, I can't believe I didn't see it your way!" saying to his friend or something, haha, not going to work. But I feel if he's TOO adamantly against this viewpoint at the start, given the very limited time I have to develop him (25 pages of the 100), there's simply no way that you can make him about-face believably. Grrr...
I guess what's thwarting me here is that he CAN'T make progress towards his goal, whatever that is, because if things are going fine and dandy I don't see why he'd be likely to change his mind in the first place. It's almost like things have to get progressively worse and worse until he re-evaluates things and figures out he was in the wrong.
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