Screenwriting : Characters in the story by Ilhamsah Dwikurniawan Putra

Absolutely! I think you can't help but be attached to them. They are almost like your kids, in a way. LOL. That's not to say I LIKE all my characters, because some of them are SUPPOSED to be unlikeable! LOL.

Emotionally attached? Never. They are just character's in my screenplay. This is just a business and I don't get attached to anything I write.

Only on the ones who are still standing at the end.

If the story touches me, then yes. Even thinking of the moment of my characters tragic death makes me tear up.

I think of their story, emotions, inciting incident as something that needs to be told. I am writing their voice before I have to write the next one.

Not really. Writing requires one to "kill your darlings" on a regular basis, so I try not to let myself get too attached to any body of work or the characters therein.

I guess we'd have to define what attached means. I love my characters - how could I not, after spending so much time with them? I enjoy watching them walk around the page, and I have enormous sympathy for their struggles as well as impatience with their bad decisions, but I also have no problem making them suffer. And if I need to kill one of them off to serve the story well, it's been nice knowing you, character...

I wrote a book two years ago and one day I realized I was in love with one of the characters. Now that I'm writing a script it's happening again. Jody Ellis interesting point of view.

I get attached to them, sure but I have no problems killing them off if I need to.

Yes. For about two minutes. Yes. During the writing (especially during the first draft) I become attached to certain characters. If you don't then how can you write convincingly? You want to feel the trials, tribulations and triumphs of your characters. I shine them up from the inside by establishing traits and characteristics that make them people. After the first draft, I have to let them go. A few weeks after I let a draft rest, I turn into Mr. Editoral, critical of any and everything. This is when I put aside feelings for a character and concentrate on what will help the story. Cutting down lines, rewriting scenes, reordering events, checking continuity. Using the story elements, I shine them up from the outside by enriching the world they are living in and interacting with. Once complete. Start pitching and move on to the next.

Yes. If I'm not lovin or hatin, laughin' or cryin', with my characters when I'm writing/reading, nobody else will

Very interesting. Thank you everyone and have a nice day.

I"m with Shawn.

I feel like my characters are beings unto themselves, somehow filtering through my grey matter upstairs. Where do they come from? Why are their stories so complete? Why do some of them reveal themselves so slowly while others arrive fully formed and demanding page time? I feel like I owe them something. I owe it to them to write their stories, and it gnaws away at my own self-esteem if I don't. Sometimes, a character is SO nasty, that I stop writing them. But it doesn't mean they go away. They're still in there. What's strange is that once I've finished a story, I feel I've done my duty. However, now that I'm learning the incredibly arduous skill of re-write, it's super hard to remove myself from them, to see them from an outsider's point of view....I can't easily discern what's missing, what I forgot to describe. Also, I find I want to go deeper into character arc with a re-write, and there's the potential for the b-story (love story, emotional arc) to take over the plotline. This is a great question, Ilhamsa. What's your response to your question???

I feel like I have been in an adventure with each of my characters, so, yes, I feel close to them. In a way, I feel like they are actors, who pour their heart and soul into playing their roles and then we all go hang out and have a good time, because we all are all best friends.

Sometimes I let them run wild and do what they will to me.

Ibsen used to say, about writing plays, that in the first draft your characters are strangers. In the second draft they are friends, and by the third they are close family.

I am my characters.

I was pretty much balling my eyes out when I wrote my protagonist's death scene. So I would say, yes, I get attached to my characters. :)

It depends on what I'm writing but in all of my original projects, the answer would be yes. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but I certainly do. (That doesn't keep me from treating them like crap though lol.)

yeah sometimes loool

Not much. Can't say I'd ever cry if killing one. That goes a bit far.

There should be some of you in every character you write. After all you are the writer.

What do you say when you're laughing because you think you've read a funny joke, but you're not sure? Love you guys! Happy Sunday :)