I often find myself writing
half of a screenplay, and then throwing it on the scrapheap because my characters
have totally lost their direction. How do I build on my characters to help
me, by taking the story in their own direction?
–Colin
In your case, I would urge you to really figure out the end of your story
before you begin writing. Otherwise, it’s very easy to keep writing scene after
scene and end up with interesting characters in a mess of a story.
One trap that many beginning writers encounter – especially those who’ve read
some of the more notorious screenwriting books – is taking the truism "character-driven
story" too literally. Yes, the most successful and engaging movies are
those where the characters seem to be in control of their own destiny, where
every turn of the plot seems to derive from an element of their personality.
But it’s naïve to think that all a writer has to do is come up with amazing
characters and watch them go to work. The truth is, great characters are useless
unless we see them doing interesting things – and coming up with those things
is the screenwriter’s job. Don’t start writing until you know both who your
characters are and what they’ll be doing.