Michael Schilf

A great character name is deliberate — a quiet signal embedded in the story. Gump. Small. Loman. The Dude. The right name doesn't announce itself. It simply fits so perfectly that any other choice becomes unimaginable.

Dialogue should enhance the visual story, never substitute for it. A scene from Lethal Weapon shows how environment and objects reveal character more powerfully than any line of dialogue could.

Three examples from The Sweet Smell of Success — one of Lehman's masterworks. Watch any film with pen and paper, actively hunting for plants and payoffs. You'll never watch the same way again.

A plant is introduced early, repeated as the story progresses, and pays off near the resolution with new meaning. Every film uses it. The best films use it unforgettably.

The personality core is the largest part of the Character Iceberg. Six areas drive everything the audience sees: strengths and weaknesses, complexities, emotions, attitudes, values, and unique quirks.

Once you know the macro — culture, location, period, occupation — you must go micro. This is where a character stops being a type and starts becoming a person.

S = [(C + W) x O] x T. Every good story has a character, a want, obstacles, and a theme. Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds illustrates all four — three brilliantly, and one in an instructive way.

Four foundational areas shape who your character is and how they move through the world: cultural conditions, story location, historical period, and personal occupation. Know the world completely. Then let your character loose in it.

The starting point is always research. General context means filling in the where, when, why, and how your character exists — and the best place to start is what you already know.

Remove the character from a character-driven screenplay and the story collapses. But most great films don't fit neatly into either category — they fuse character, plot, and concept. It's always character that makes it last.

Hannibal Lecter, Scarlett O'Hara, Forrest Gump — all began as a seed of an idea. There's no universal template, but there are four reliable places to start: family, strangers, composites, and symbols.

You don't need a wholly original idea to write a great screenplay. Originality lives not in an unprecedented plot but in a distinctive world and unforgettable characters. Same story. Different everything else.

The tip of the Character Iceberg is what the audience sees — but everything beneath is what the writer must know. Dialogue and action should only hint at the larger personality core within.

Start with what you know — but there's more to it than the catchphrase. Write what you live, what you learn, and what you love. Your voice will follow.

Creating a character the audience will hope and fear for comes down to two things: goal and likability. Get both right and the audience will follow your character anywhere.

A perfect character bores an audience. When flaws, paradoxes, and hypocrisies collide with a character's values and philosophy, a complete human being begins to materialize.

Character, objective, obstacles, theme. Every successful screenplay rests on these four elements — and the most important question any of them forces you to ask is: why must I tell this story?

A good story is about an interesting character who wants something badly and faces obstacles while struggling to achieve that goal. Everything else flows from this.