Three Questions

It's been said by…someone that a character WANTS something. It's one of the ingredients that makes a compelling character. It's also something that makes a character relatable, even one who's very different from the reader/audience.

Most of us aren't centuries-old robots, but we can relate to Wall-E and his desire for companionship, and maybe other elements of his character.

Anyway, that's not the point today - I wanted to highlight an interesting approach from a screenwriter who
outlined his approach to character and story, which is to create three questions in a story: a professional, a personal, and a private.

Ha…when I looked up the video, I realized he's talking about three central questions in a story. It's plot related, but it also helps put a main character together. It helps define a character AND a story.

So three questions that a story asks…

The Professional Question means a lot to a lot of people.
The Personal Question means a lot to a few people.
and The Private Question means a lot to one person.

He gives the example of Star Wars, where the Professional Question is "will Luke and the rebels destroy the Death Star/defeat the Empire?"
The Personal Question is "will Luke and friends save the Princess?"
and the Private Question is "will Luke become a Jedi like his father?"

I didn't think this applied to every story, or even to every big, commercial movie. Actually, multiple stories came to mind that didn't have a Professional Question at all - the stakes were smaller, and only mattered to a few people. But these can still be wonderful stories and characters.

But I like it as a tool that we could use to define a story and a Protagonist.

when I heard the writer say this, other examples popped into my head right away, including SCREAM:
Professional Question: will Sidney and her friends survive the killer?
Personal Question: will Sidney and her friends unmask the killer? Who is the killer?
Private Question: will Sidney come to terms with the pain surrounding her Mother's death?

Did this make sense? It struck me as a useful tool to define a story and a Protagonist.

Here's the video on the Film Courage YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COseDCSobDM&t=370s

See you next time!

Banes


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