Writing A Screenplay: The Main Character
In reality, your audience doesn’t have to like your main character, but they need to care enough to stay and watch the film to the end.
As writers, we all know that our audience (readers first, before the screenplay can be turned into a film) need to care for the main character. If they don’t… well, the script will be disappointing for them and, most likely, that will be a pass.
Remember that some people care for characters and others don’t. For example, I don’t care about characters in horror movies because I don’t watch those movies and cannot connect with the thrill of being terrified and the string of illogical decisions most of them make. I also don’t care about zombies, but that is a totally different conversation.
For audience members to connect with our main character, we need to make our character relatable, especially for our niche audience. Every film is made for a particular audience; no film is made for everyone. Keeping in mind your niche audience while writing a screenplay will help you answer many questions further down the process.
In my case, awareness of relatability comes with the second draft. From that, every scene I write I analyse and see how connected I am to the character and if I can…
