Welcome back to Graphically Minded, a publication about writing and storytelling, relating the lessons I’ve learned in a 20-plus-year career as a comic book writer and author.
Some years ago, I was at New York Comic Con and got invited to a big Disney panel. They were showcasing some of their upcoming movies, and one of those was Up from Pixar.
I am generally of the mind that Pixar makes consistently good-to-great films, and so I was looking forward to seeing what they had coming. I knew nothing of the film beyond the title. And for the sake of this moment, I want you to try to imagine that you are new to it, too.
Co-writer and co-director Pete Docter came on stage and gave a little setup and started the screening. It opened in a city, a small home in the midst of a construction site. An old man, Carl (the legendary Ed Asner) lives in the house and wants to escape the annoyance of the world. Adding to that annoyance is Russell, a boy who pesters Carl.
There’s some shouting and then Carl releases a fleet of helium-filled balloons, and the house floats away—unwittingly toting Russell along. They make it to South America, where there are talking dogs and a big, dumb bird and a lot of pratfalls. There’s a fight with some mustache-twirling villain. And mostly Carl just groans and complains.
The screening ended, and I was stunned. It was TERRIBLE. Not just bad, but, like, among the worst movies I’ve ever seen. I hated all the characters. I didn’t care about the tension. The jokes were lame. Somehow, Pixar had made a bomb. And then…
Many months later, Up came out. And people LOVED it. Critics, audiences, everyone. I was so confused. Had they not seen the same movie?
So, what happened?
We rented (a DVD!) of Up and put it on, trying to figure out how I’d gotten it so wrong. And the movie started. But not with a grumpy old man at a house. It started with, well, you know:
An opening montage that covers most of Carl’s life in less than five minutes. The boundless hope of youth. Falling in love with Ellie. The joy of their marriage. The challenges of life that kept them from their longed for adventure. The sudden appearance of old age. Ellie’s illness and death.
And Carl, left all alone, without the one person who always brought him joy, and with the subconscious knowledge that he failed to give her the trip that she always desired.
We were sobbing on the couch, and as it continued we were totally sucked into the story. It was great! But, aside from that opening montage, it was exactly the same movie. All the same annoying, dumb stuff that I’d hated before. And, yet, I loved it.
Your first job as a storyteller
I thought about this a lot. Kind of obsessed over it. How could essentially the same movie be two totally different movies? Well, because, it was two different movies.
Protagonist 1 is a grouchy old man who hates the noise of construction and hates to be bothered and just wants freedom.
Protagonist 2 is a man who faced life’s hardships with charm and joy, but when his wife died it broke him and left him deeply incomplete.
My experiences were different because I was following the emotional journey of completely different characters. And here’s the essential part: The first one I didn’t care about at all. And the second one of them I cared about deeply.
Which leads to the big realization, and the thing I want to focus on today—as a writer, your first job in storytelling is to make your audience care emotionally about your protagonist.
Sounds simple, right?
Easy enough. Just throw a heartwarming montage at the start of your story and show your plucky protagonist striving against the odds!
Well, no. You can’t do that. Up did it, and you can’t just rip off Up.
There’s also a bigger factor to consider. Making your audience care about your protagonist does not mean making your audience like your protagonist.
Think about tragic stories. Let’s go with a great modern tragedy, Better Call Saul. Saul Goodman (nee Jimmy McGill) is a man who goes on a journey to become a great lawyer, but his greatness comes through his willingness to do pretty much anything to succeed. Work with criminals? You bet. Lie? Constantly. Take advantage of others? Sure thing.
So how do we get an audience to care about a scumbag?
One neat trick to get your audience to care about a scumbag
There is a brokenness to Saul, a desperate need for approval, for more, that fuels his actions. When you meet him, you get a sense of this quickly. This guy who was broken as a kid and never overcame it.
At the same time, Saul is smart as a whip, endlessly clever, funny and charismatic. And that chip on his shoulder almost always leads to him punching up—taking on whatever big bully lands in his crosshairs. He’s good at what he does.
And so you have this dichotomy. Someone who is skilled in an interesting way. Yet he is also deeply flawed. These two things are always in contrast (and conflict) with each other. They’re established right from the jump.
He’s a public defender fighting for his clients, all while working (and living) out of the boiler room of a Vietnamese salon. Yet he’s also clearly street wise, and he puts that experience to use.
(The character had the benefit of having previously appeared in Breaking Bad. Also, Bob Odenkirk is a genius.)
And that leaves the audience in this really compelling space. I like this guy’s personality. I also kind of hate him. Mostly, I really want him to make better choices so that he can fix his emotional brokenness. And I’m going to be crushed when I see that, in fact, he mostly makes worse choices.
Who do you care about?
Think back on the stories you love, and particular the characters you love or love to hate. (Hell, think about the real people that fit that bill.)
Then think about WHY you care about them. What happened in those first moments of the story that pulled you in?
There is no formula (but here’s the formula)
You need to figure out how you want your audience to feel about your protagonist. (And other characters, but the protagonist has to come first.) Which means you need to understand the emotional state of your character.
I ask myself this question while planning a story: When I meet [protagonist], where are they emotionally?
Then I ask: In what way is this character broken? Broken in a way that is self limiting, that makes challenges even bigger. Characters that feel whole are, well, deeply boring. You can go that route, but it’s going to be a challenge. Because we love to follow characters that NEED something.
So I ask: What does this character need? What is a tangible goal that this character thinks will give them completion? Note that this is an external desire (to rob a bank, to float a house to a waterfall, to defeat a man-eating shark).
And then: How does that external, tangible need relate to the (more important) internal, emotional need of the protagonist?
Finally: What makes the character exceptional? A skill. An aptitude. A willingness to just keep going despite the challenges faced.
Then you just figure out how to exhibit all of those things in one scene at the start of your story, and to do it super quickly, in a way that doesn’t feel like exposition, while also introducing your audience to the world of the story, and not copying Up or any other stories. No biggie!
I’m writing a new comic book series right now, and the introduction of the main character has been killing me. I’m really struggling to get it right. I’ve rewritten it four times already. This is hard work! And I’m not going to say I’ve always succeeded. But I know it matters, and I try.
It’s the difference between an awful story and one that makes you sob on the couch, determined not to let your own life’s adventures pass you by.
Oh, yeah, a new book!
The collected edition of BYLINES IN BLOOD, my comic book series about a neo-noir future where facts no longer exist, is coming out on August 24. If you’re inclined to pick it up, I recommend your local comic shop or bookstore, but you can also order a copy here.
As always, I hope this is helpful to you as you write and tell stories. If you’d like to learn more about me and my writing, please visit vanjensen.com. You can like and comment on the post below! Till next time…