When writing a screenplay, working on a thriller-themed project can be increasingly challenging. Thrillers are typically difficult to write convincingly: it is too easy to fall into the hole of writing generic, easy-to-diagnose characters. The best thriller characters are mysterious and often difficult to work out. To help you create a more compelling character in a thriller screenplay, consider the following tips as you write your characters.

First, though, why does character development matter so much in a thriller? Is the plot not the main feature?

Well, the plot is your key factor, but the characters within the plot are the driving force behind that storyline. Without convincing human characters to push the plot forward, your story's direction does not matter. A thriller aims to have the audience invested in the surface so that when the eventual plot change comes, they are impacted by the plotline.

How Do You Create Character Development In Thrillers?

The Backstory Is All Important

A backstory is one of the first main factors in any well-written thriller character. The backstory will play a key role in adding depth to the character and ensuring their personality makes more sense. For example, if your character has a fear of something, why? What has caused this fear to formulate? How do you work that into the story convincingly?

Remember that your characters need to speak like real people. When do you meet someone in life who tells you their entire backstory? 

The backstory has to be brought into the story through a believable event. This makes revealing their backstory – and why they are the way they are – feel authentic. It is critical to have a clear backstory for why they hold certain personality traits.

Ensure Characters Have Flaws

It is easy to make a protagonist appear nigh perfect, especially when writing a protagonist. This is because, as one of your main characters, the end goal is often for them to overcome challenges and difficulties. Good thriller characters, though, must overcome failures and find success. 

Having inherent flaws and weaknesses baked into the character's personality makes it easier for them to grow as the story evolves. Ensuring that their flaws are made clear so that their strengths can shine through to overcome said flaws is a critical part of writing a successful thriller character.

Standout Attributes Are Useful

You want your characters to stand out to your audience. With that in mind, you should focus on ensuring that your character has something that makes them stand out to the audience. Thriller characters tend to stand out most when they can show a certain level of resilience that other cast members might lack.

For example, they might press ahead even when danger or risk is apparent. Other characters might wilt in the face of this adversity; this particular character, perhaps due to their backstory, does not delay. The audience loves to see someone who pushes through failure – by watching them battle that challenge; we thus want them to succeed.

Do Not Define Morality

Another key skill when writing important thriller characters is to avoid pushing them into a particular moral zone. They might be an otherwise good person pursuing an aggressive, violent vendetta with someone from their past. They could be willing to look the other way or break the rules entirely, despite being an otherwise upstanding individual, if it gets them close to their long-desired goal.

Having more ambiguous morality in characters is very important. It allows characters to act out of nature believably. It also allows you to show your reader how a person can be pushed to do acts that would normally be far outside of their emotional remit simply due to their circumstances. 

Make The Progress Realistic 

Many thriller characters fail to captivate the audience because their ascent or descent feels too unrealistic. Consider how scenarios play out in real life: nobody goes from hero to zero in minutes. Yes, you can find some examples of people's lives changing dramatically in a single instant. But, for the most part, especially when creating characters, it can feel too unrealistic.

It would be bad form to introduce their flaws in one scene and then make those flaws come back to challenge them in the next few scenes. Much like in real life, things should happen at a more gradual, realistic pace. This creates characters who have lifelike experiences, making their plotline feel genuine. 

Use Real Life Duality  

Think about the people that you know in real life. Like you, they will have strengths and weaknesses alike. While you do not want to base characters in your screenplay on someone you know, you can learn from their situation.

The aim of a good character, especially in a thriller, is for the viewer to feel like they could know that person. This is especially true of someone you wish to reveal as a villain. Just as your protagonist should not be painted as a perfect hero, your antagonist should not be cartoonish in their behaviour. It is just as important to highlight the good points of a villain as it is to show a hero's flaws. 

Use real-life examples of people you like/dislike; they will always have traits you admire or dislike. Your characters should be the same. 

Ready To Start Writing?

Now that you can see a better idea of how a thriller character comes to life, it might be time to put your skills to the test. Start with a simple prompt: create a quick backstory and circumstance for a character. See what ideas you can develop that would make someone compelling to the audience. Ask yourself who you would like to read about - who would excite you?

Try and then create that character using the above. You might find it helps to create a more compelling individual. You might even imagine a certain actor or actress playing the surface to help visualise the character better. Especially in screenwriting, visual cues can help you to complete the nature.

See what you can produce using the above. Are you interested in some insight? Then send me your ideas to adammce05 at Gmail dot com!