Believable characters exhibit character traits.
Giving the characters in your screenplay individual traits is a great way of diversifying them and making them feel more real and human. A trait is a small detail particular to one character; it could be something about their physical appearance, or about the way they think , or the way they speak, or any number of the particulars that make up an individual, but it has to be something special to one character.
A trait is not whether the character is good or evil, or what decisions they make. A trait is a scar, a potty mouth, an unerring passion for Twinkies.
Watch our video below to find out more about character traits:
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Brett Welcher was a student at Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY, USA) where studied Public Relations at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He is interned at the Raindance Film Festival the summer or 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed his time working with professionals and learning about different aspects of the film industry. In the fall of 2007 Brett returned to the States where he will be finishing his last year in school.
Since then we have lost touch and found this excellent article in the archives. Brett – if you see this, get in touch! We miss you!
