Speaker 1: If you want a story that is compelling and full of conflict, you need to pick the right cast of characters. Today, I'm going to teach you how to build a cast from scratch. What's up, guys? My name is Brandon McNulty. I'm a writer, I'm the author of Bad Parts, and welcome to my writing channel. Today, we're going to talk about the subject of casting your characters, and this is such an important thing because if you go into the battle with the wrong cast of characters, the writing process is just going to knock you on your ass. So, you need to get that right up front. And when it comes to, you know, drawing up a cast of characters, one of the key things you need to remember is that there should always be conflict going on between them, whether it's hero and villain or hero and supporting characters. We're going to get more into this over the course of the video, but I just wanted to say that up front. Conflict is key to making an interesting story. Now, the first thing you should do when coming up with your cast of characters is figure out who your hero is and also who your villain is. I think we often, we're always focused on who the hero of our story is, but typically writers tend to, you know, push the villain off to the side until later. Maybe they're not certain about who this villain should be, or maybe they just don't want to write about them at all. But typically, you need to get them both down at the start of the story. You need that hero, and you also need the villain because the villain is typically the one who will drive the action early on in the story. If you know anything about plot structure, you know that in the first 25% of a story, the hero is usually just going through their daily life. They're not really taking action or going after anything they want, or they're afraid to go after what they want. And usually what sets them in motion is that villain who is taking action, who is forcing the hero to act. So you need the two of them. And when you are coming up with your hero and your villain, one key thing to remember is that they should be two sides of the same coin. And by this, I mean they should have some common ground. And within that common ground, there should be differences, somewhere where they branch apart from one another. For instance, in the movie Rocky 1, you have two characters, Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, who are both boxers, and they both want the heavyweight title of the world. However, their methods of going after it, and their backgrounds, and everything else, their attitudes toward who they are, they are very different. They branch out from there. For instance, Rocky Balboa, he's a club fighter from Philadelphia. He's down on his luck. He thinks of himself as a bum. He's very insecure. But on the other end, we have Apollo Creed, who is the heavyweight champion of the world. He's very high on himself. He has a big ego. He loves to dance around. He's a showman. He's a businessman. He's Mr. Excitement. And, I mean, comparing the two, they're night and day, but they have that similarity. They are both boxers, and they both want that same goal. Now, once you've figured out your hero and your villain, the next thing you need to do is figure out your supporting cast, and particularly the supporting cast around your hero. Now, I think that word, supporting, can be very misleading, because newer writers will often think that a supporting cast should just do that. They should just support the hero. But that's not the case. They should be challenging the hero. They should be getting into conflict with the hero, butting heads with the hero. That's what makes a story interesting. In the original Star Wars movie, the supporting cast is constantly getting into conflict with the main character, Luke Skywalker. Yes, they all want the same thing. They all want to stop the Empire. But what makes this movie interesting is how the supporting cast gets into conflict with Luke. For instance, Obi-Wan is constantly challenging Luke to learn more about the Force, and to come with him to Alderaan, even though all Luke wants to do is go to the Academy. Then, later on, when Luke meets up with Han Solo, they are constantly butting heads. They have different values. Luke represents idealism, whereas Han Solo represents cynicism. And every time Luke exclaims that he has a good idea, or he can accomplish something, Han is constantly knocking him down a peg. And then, later on in the story, when Luke and Han rescue Princess Leia, she is very critical of her rescuers. She's angry at them because they didn't strategize enough. They didn't plan their escape route well enough to get them out of the Death Star. So, I mean, these are the kind of things that they end up playing out throughout the course of the story. They challenge our hero, Luke, who, toward the end of the story, grows stronger and is able to blow up the Death Star because the supporting cast challenged him throughout the story. And, of course, the fact that these characters get into conflict with Luke is what makes the story so interesting. And it's also the reason why Luke is split up from the main cast in the second movie. Because, if you remember, at the beginning of Empire Strikes Back, Luke and Han are best buddies. And Luke and Leia are, well, this. There's no real conflict between Luke and the other two characters in this story. So that's why the writers decided to split them up. They put Luke on Dagobah with Yoda, who is constantly challenging him to learn more about the Force and to overcome his fears and to, you know, just learn to be a Jedi. Whereas we have the other plot line where Han and Leia are together and they are in conflict with one another. Leia is constantly criticizing Han and his methods of doing things. And, meanwhile, Han is trying to teach her that sometimes you have to take risks in order to survive. So the important thing to remember is that if you have a cast of characters and they are in total agreement with one another, you need to do something about that. You need to find a way to inject conflict into the story. Or you can do what Empire Strikes Back does and you can split up the characters into different plot lines where they are in conflict with different people. Now, before I wrap up this video, I want to give you some quick and easy tips for injecting conflict into your cast of characters. And one of the best ways of doing this is to make some of your characters family members. Family is the easiest way to create conflict among people because whenever you have family members, there is always going to be grudges from the past and guilt and all sorts of things that are associated with, you know, growing up with your brother or sister or, you know, issues you had with your parents or whatever it is. Family is just... there will inevitably be disappointments and with those disappointments, there will come conflict. And those conflicts, even though they may have happened 10 or 15 or 30 years ago, they will still be at large later on in people's lives. If there's ever a situation where you have your characters, you know, yelling about how mom loved you more or I always got the Hamney Downs or whatever it was, keep those things in mind. Family is a great way to create conflict and it's also a great way to just connect the characters in general. Another thing to do if you don't want to go the family route, focus on personal history. You can have characters who knew one another in the past. Maybe one betrayed the other when they were in grade school and they never got over it. Or there might be some other issues from years ago when they both worked at the same job together or whatever it is. There are so many possibilities and if you are ever stuck with coming up with conflict for the present, always look to the past. So I hope this helps. Let us know in the comment section below. Thank you guys for watching. Be sure to check out my other videos. Hit the like and subscribe buttons for me. Share this video with a friend if you don't mind. Pick up a copy of Bad Parts if you haven't already. And as always, remember to keep on writing.