I was reading The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, and he wrote that after you have come up with your premise, you are suppose to create characters to fit that premise. Afterwords, you are to pick the character that is the most interesting, and make that your protagonist.
However, I find it rather difficult to create characters based on having come up with the premise only. It seems to me, that I would have to create a lot more of the plot, before I knew which characters I needed to fill that plot. I would also have to create the ending first, so I know what characters are required to build towards that certain ending.
So I am wondering what you think of to creating characters, after coming up with the premise only, and not the climax and ending you want to build into yet.
For example, in one script I wrote, after I was finished almost the whole first draft and finished with a lot of the plot, I needed to figure out how the protagonist would locate the villain in certain situation. I then came up with a the method of him blackmailing a computer hacker to hack into the villains bank records and set up a whole plan to lure him out.
However, I was not able to come up with the hacker character, until after I had already thought of most of the plot. Before then, I had no reason to come up with the hacker character based on the initial premise alone.
So I am wondering how do you create characters after coming up with the premise only, and how do you decide which of those characters is the most interesting to make the protagonist, since you want to make all your characters as interesting as you can, and it's all relative to the viewer?
However, I find it rather difficult to create characters based on having come up with the premise only. It seems to me, that I would have to create a lot more of the plot, before I knew which characters I needed to fill that plot. I would also have to create the ending first, so I know what characters are required to build towards that certain ending.
So I am wondering what you think of to creating characters, after coming up with the premise only, and not the climax and ending you want to build into yet.
For example, in one script I wrote, after I was finished almost the whole first draft and finished with a lot of the plot, I needed to figure out how the protagonist would locate the villain in certain situation. I then came up with a the method of him blackmailing a computer hacker to hack into the villains bank records and set up a whole plan to lure him out.
However, I was not able to come up with the hacker character, until after I had already thought of most of the plot. Before then, I had no reason to come up with the hacker character based on the initial premise alone.
So I am wondering how do you create characters after coming up with the premise only, and how do you decide which of those characters is the most interesting to make the protagonist, since you want to make all your characters as interesting as you can, and it's all relative to the viewer?