Character.

I love story. 

I remember my first encounter with the study of story structure.  It was Drama 1 class in 9th grade with Jonathon Dunski.  (By no small coincidence, also the class I was in when the towers went down in 2001…).  We talked about three act structure, exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and the frequently missed denouement.  I was fascinated.  I started filtering everything I watched and played by that structure.

In Acting 1 class a few years later, we learned more about character development.  MOOSASSO, I think was the acronym.  Motivation, Objective, Obstacles, Strategy, Action, something…  something else… and outcome.  All things that every character should have in every scene.  It was the first time that I, as an actor, starting thinking in a more analytic way about character development.

It was unsurprising that when I changed my major to film in college, I focused on storytelling and structure.  I read lots of books (with many more to go).  I analyzed movies, TV shows, raw screenplays, and the video games that I played.  My understanding of story deepened and I grew to appreciate it more and more.  Robert McKee’s Story is a love letter to the screenplay and stories in general.  The Writer’s Journey, though not my favorite tool, is still an inspiring look at the deeper goings-on in the stories that we interact with every day.

Over the last several years, my life has been dominated by stories and storytelling.  The more I learn, the more determined I am to tell a good story with my life.  I don’t think that God has created us to sit idly by, wishing more exciting things were happening to us.  My church often quotes John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  A full life is not one where we never risk anything.  A full life, I think, should leave us full of stories to tell.  Stories about God’s goodness and provision.  Stories of desperate circumstances and terrible choices.  Stories that reflect the magnificent gift of life that God has given us.

The stories that inspire us the most have great characters driving them.  For the next couple of days, I want to address a couple of thoughts that I’ve had in the last few years about being that great character.  What makes a good character in a story?  How can we reverse engineer a storied life from that?