Martin Cook Chapter 17 Summary

Chapter 17 covers why carefully crafting ones characters is important. It talks about why it is important to know your characters backstory, while also not overwriting someone’s past. Knowing a character too completely can cause forced writing. Martin Cook also suggests that if possible it is best to base characters off of people you actually know, because, it is easier to predict how a character will react in a given situation that way. Cook also suggests making at least some of your characters likable, even if those characters are anti-heros. People are far less likely to watch a show if they don’t have sympathy for the characters. Martin Cook also points out how important minor characters are in a story line. He points out how Fraiser Crane
He takes about making sure that each character has a unique voice. He points out that no two characters should sound too much alike. Cook also says that writing dialogue should be like a game of ping pong, no one person should talk for too long. For this reason it is also best to avoid long phone conversations, instead try to have characters talk in person as much as possible. Cook goes on to talk about how important diverse dialogue is, especially as we see more and more diversity in television. He suggests that if you are writing about a group you are not as familiar with it is best to ask someone who is familiar with them to look at your writing and make sure that it is accurate. This is also true when writing about a specific profession. You want to make sure that your dialogue matches the slang people from that profession would actually speak in. He also suggests that when having characters speak it is best to not have them come out and say exactly what they mean right away, because, that is not how we talk in real life. People will be more subtle first. He cautions people not to use characters names too often, as again that is not how people actually speak. Finally Cook suggests that when you finish a script you go back to the beginning and make sure that each character does in fact have a unique voice too