Creating Characters

Creating the perfect characters seems essential in a sitcom.  It's proved quite challenging in my sitcom.

First, an update.  When I wrote my last entry, I was working on two sitcoms (there's one I think of as "my sitcom", and another that's a collaboration), intending to have both ready to pitch last week.

Well, that's changed.  The collaboration has been presented with a much better opportunity, the deadline for which is in ten days' time.  We decided not to pitch it last week, and I also decided not to pitch my solo sitcom either.

That's partly because my focus should be on this new opportunity, but there's also another reason.

There are two kinds of opportunity.  The "you might as well try!" opportunity, and the "only when you're ready" opportunity.  The former carries very little risk, so there's no reason not to take it.  The latter carries enough risk that it should be weighed carefully against the reward.

Since most of my experience is from standup comedy, here's an example.  Your first ever gig is usually a "you might as well try!" opportunity.  An amateur night that gives new performers a chance to try it out.  Nobody expects you to be amazing, but it offers you a useful experience.  So do it!

An "only when you're ready" opportunity might be a spot in a major weekend comedy club.  Those gigs are very difficult, with long waiting lists for newcomers.  If you're not good enough when you do the gig, you'll earn a bad reputation that's worse than if you'd never done the gig in the first place.

The more I looked into the opportunity I had last week, the clearer it became it was an "only when you're ready" opportunity.  And my solo sitcom isn't ready.  It's not terrible, but it would definitely benefit from further time and development.  So, I withdrew.

I knew its main weakness - the characters.  They're okay.  Slightly funny, slightly interesting, slightly likeable.  And "okay" isn't enough.  How do I go from "okay" to "brilliant"?

I did the same thing I always do when I'm stuck like this - I asked people who know better than I do.  I spoke to professional writer friends, who very generously gave their time to talk me through their methods, and advice they've been given over the years.

There are great resources online to help with character creation - and there are clearly several different approaches - but I much preferred hearing experienced writers outline their step-by-step process.

Here are some tips that stood out to me:

Work out the characters' relationships to one another.  It's not enough to work out their personalities and biographies - how does each pair of characters relate to one another?  Do they get on or not?  Are they formal or friendly when they speak?  Which one has the upper hand?  This was extremely helpful in identifying which characters were underdeveloped, as I realised I didn't know how certain combinations of characters would interact.

Work out the characters' personalities according to the big 5 scales:

1. Extroversion
2. Agreeableness
3. Neurosis
4. Conscientiousness
5. Openness

Memorable characters should be at the extreme end of a couple of these (maybe they're especially agreeable and especially closed to new experiences); being at the extreme end of all five only works for a cartoonish comedy character.

This was part of a much more detailed conversation that went on to explore the idea that even an extroverted character might have some introverted traits and so forth.

Work out the characters' comedy flaw.  This is relevant because it's a sitcom.  This is a personality flaw that causes the character to make the same kind of mistake repeatedly, and it's this that drives the story.  Maybe it's pride, maybe it's greed, maybe it's overthinking.

The main challenge I've found in my solo sitcom project is that I want certain characters to mirror each other, but I don't want them to be too similar.  Getting that balance right has been very tricky - but these pieces of advice really helped develop them more deliberately and purposefully.

I've found - maybe inevitably - that it's much easier to work on the characters in the collaboration.  When my co-writer sends me a draft, I can look at a line of dialogue, and choose whether I accept or reject that interpretation of the character.  Accepting/rejecting something that already exists is much, much easier than trying to create something out of nothing.  The infinite possibilities!

Which I realise is the strongest argument that I should get back to work, to produce more scenes, to be torn apart and rebuilt.