12d • General discussion
Here are David’s recap notes from yesterday’s event
I don’t think he’ll care that I’m sharing this here, since most of you signed up for it. See you tonight!
Seminar Session 1 recap: Great storytelling emerges from Character, not plot
Story doesn't emerge from plot mechanics — it emerges from character.
More specifically, from what a character is avoiding, denying, or refusing to look at when the story begins. We looked at scenes from Rugrats, Shrek, Signs, Toy Story 2, and It's a Wonderful Life to examine how strong stories introduce characters who are already under pressure. Not blank slates waiting for an inciting incident.
In these films, the plot doesn't give the character a problem. It exposes one that's already there. A big part of the discussion was distinguishing between:
- Characters who carry a wound or misconception
- Characters who are functional but untested, and only discover the cost of love, belief, or responsibility once the story forces a real choice We talked about how denial and avoidance turn into behavior — often irrational, often self-protective — and why those behaviors are what make characters feel deeply human.
Two examples we spent time unpacking:
Signs
- Wound: Graham's unresolved grief after his wife's death.
- Lie: The universe is random and meaningless; belief is a comfort people invent.
- Healing: He realizes signs have been around him, everywhere, all the time, even in his darkest moments. And chooses to be the man his family and community need by embracing faith, despite the loss of his wife.
- Why this matters to the audience: Every person who has ever lived on this planet has questioned whether there's a greater power in the universe that cares for us or not. It's an absolute PRIMAL question to everyone who's ever lived.
- Toy Story 2
- Misconception (not a wound): The Love Woody feels for Andy is somehow always going to be there and will never cost him a thing.
- Pressure: Woody's ripped arm and Jessie's story forces Woody to confront the inevitability of loss, aging, and abandonment. Andy will eventually move on, leaving Woody behind. Prospector: "Do you think Andy's going to take you to college? Or on his honeymoon?"
- Growth: Andy's given the chance to live forever admired, in a museum. Where he will never grow old and have the pain of abandonment. Woody makes an adult decision to choose love anyway, knowing it will hurt, and that the pain is the price we pay for true love.
- Why this matters to the audience: All of us will be crushed by love at some point. Either those we love will break up with us or die. Or our children will grow up and go on to their lives, in a sense leaving us behind. We can either choose to love deeply and accept that pain, or live a life of isolation. Everyone faces that choice.
For Thursday's session, participants are coming in with:
- A fully formed character
- The specific avoidance or belief shaping their behavior
- A situation that puts pressure on that avoidance
- A logline that reflects the internal struggle, not just the premise
Sometimes the story doesn't exist to correct the protagonist at all. Sometimes the worldview being tested and broken belongs to the antagonist — or even the world itself.
In those stories, the protagonist functions less as someone who changes and more as a moral constant — a fixed presence the argument of the film crashes against.
Two examples:
The Dark Knight
The Joker isn't trying to defeat Batman — he's trying to prove an idea: that morality collapses in chaos and that people are only good when it's convenient. Batman doesn't "learn" a new belief by the end of the film. He absorbs the pressure, pays a cost, and refuses to validate the Joker's worldview — even if that refusal requires becoming the villain in the public eye.
Forrest Gump
Forrest doesn't change his understanding of the world. He moves through it with moral clarity while the world around him spins, fractures, and overcomplicates itself. The story isn't about Forrest growing wiser — it's about everyone else being revealed in contrast to him.
In that sense, Batman and Forrest are doing a similar job. They're not there to be corrected — they're there to hold. We'll dig more into that distinction — between stories that transform a protagonist and stories that stress-test an idea — in a future session.
Question for anyone who's bothered to read this far! 😂:
Which films do you think have protagonists who change vs. protagonists who hold a worldview that the antagonist crashes against until broken?
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Here are David’s recap notes from yesterday’s event
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