Great screenplays are built on great characters. Not clever dialogue. Not twist endings. Not even compelling plots. Characters. Before you write a single scene, make sure your protagonist can answer these five questions.
Plot is what happens. Character is why we care.
1. What Do They Want?
This is the external goal — the thing driving the plot. It should be concrete, specific, and visual. Something a camera can show. Something the audience can root for.
"Happiness" is too vague. You can't film happiness.
"Win the championship" is tangible. "Get the promotion" is tangible. "Find my missing daughter" is tangible.
Your character's want creates the spine of your story. Every scene should either move them toward or away from this goal. If a scene doesn't connect to the want, ask yourself why it exists.
Tip
Test your want: Can you say it in one sentence? Can you picture what "success" looks like? If the answer to either is no, get more specific.
2. What Do They Need?
The internal goal — often the opposite of what they want. This is the deeper truth they can't see yet, the lesson the story is teaching them.
They might want revenge but need forgiveness. They might want success but need connection. They might want control but need surrender.
The want is what they chase. The need is what they find.
The gap between want and need creates character arc. At the beginning, your character pursues the want. By the end, they should realize what they truly needed all along — even if it costs them what they wanted.
Note
Want and need don't have to be opposites, but there should be tension between them. If getting the want automatically satisfies the need, there's no arc.
3. What's Their Flaw?
Every compelling protagonist has a flaw that holds them back. It's the thing that makes them their own worst enemy. The internal obstacle that's harder to overcome than any external villain.
Common flaws: pride, fear, selfishness, distrust, obsession, naivety, perfectionism, dishonesty, avoidance.
The flaw should directly relate to the need — it's what prevents them from getting what they actually need. It's the wall they've built around themselves.
A character without a flaw is a character without growth. And a character without growth is boring.
Warning
Don't confuse quirks with flaws. Being messy or awkward or bad at cooking isn't a flaw — it's decoration. A real flaw costs them something. It hurts relationships, sabotages goals, creates consequences.
4. What's At Stake?
Why does this story matter now? What happens if they fail? Stakes are the engine of tension. Without them, scenes feel weightless.
The stakes should escalate throughout the script. What starts as "I might embarrass myself" should become "I might lose everything."
But here's the secret: great stakes are personal.
"The world will end" sounds big, but it's abstract. "I'll lose the only person who ever believed in me" is smaller — and infinitely more powerful.
Make us feel what they stand to lose. That's how you make us care.
Tip
Ask yourself: if the character fails, what specifically happens? If you can't answer in one sentence, your stakes might be too vague.
5. What's Their Ghost?
The wound from the past that created their flaw. Something happened before page one that shaped who they are. The inciting incident of their psychology.
Maybe they were abandoned as a child. Maybe they failed someone who depended on them. Maybe they survived something they shouldn't have. Maybe they made a choice they can never take back.
You might never explicitly show the ghost, but you should know it. It informs every choice your character makes, every wall they build, every reaction that seems out of proportion.
The ghost is the why behind the flaw. Know it, even if the audience never sees it directly.
Note
Some writers reveal the ghost explicitly. Others let it remain subtext. Either approach works — what matters is that you know the wound and let it shape behavior consistently.
Put It Together
Before writing, fill in these blanks:
My character wants _______ but needs _______. Their flaw is _______, which was caused by _______. If they fail, they'll lose _______.
That's your character in one sentence. That's the engine of your story.
Tip
Do this exercise for your antagonist too. The best villains aren't evil — they're protagonists of their own story, with their own wants, needs, flaws, and ghosts.
Now you have a character worth following for 110 pages. Someone who wants something badly, needs something deeper, struggles against themselves, and has everything to lose.
Go write them.