What Are Your Characters' Wants vs. their Needs? (Backward Engineering Your Script/Project)

5 months ago
11

When writing your script, it is important to remember that one way to get past challenging moments is to ask yourself what are some of the conflicts that are facing your characters not only in your script as a whole, but in an individual scene. Let's say there is a conversation between your lead, a detective. Their WANT is to find out a clue from a suspect or potential witness. Their NEED may be to find empathy with that person in their situation. In a romantic comedy, someone may WANT to find a quick hook up, but their NEED could be a reason to settle down. These terms can be interchanged with PLOT GOAL vs. THEME GOAL (the way I learned them) or OBJECTIVE vs. INTENT.

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