Key Script Writing Terms
Protagonist: The central character in the story, one who is faced with conflict. We follow this character with interest, whether or not he or she is necessarily good or bad.
Antagonist: Any character or force in the story who presents or causes conflict for the protagonist. The antagonist can even be an element of the protagonist’s own nature or personality.
Conflict: A clash of beliefs, needs, desires, ideas, actions, feelings, or goals; a struggle between disagreeing or opposing forces.
Round Character: A well developed, multi-sided, and complex character. It may require an essay to fully analyze the character.
Flat Character: A simple, one-dimensional character. The character is underdeveloped and can be summarized in just a sentence or two. He/she has only a few key traits.
Stock Character: A special type of Flat character. It is a stereotyped figure who has appeared so frequently in fiction that he/she is immediately recognized.
Static Character: A character who does not change in personality, nature, or attitude; he/she is the same sort of person from the beginning of the story until the very end.
Dynamic (Developing) Character: One who undergoes at least one permanent, important change in some aspect of their personality, nature, or attitude.
A Character: A person represented in a drama, story, play, etc.
Characterization: The creation of a fictitious character. In other words, it is the means by which the writer brings a character to life.
A Characteristic: A distinctive quality, feature, or trait possessed by an individual.
Personality: It is the sum total of the physical, mental, emotional, moral, and social characteristics of an individual. It also refers partly to the outer, visible characteristics that determine the impression that a person make upon others. (It also referred to as “character.”)
Nature: The characteristic disposition or temperament of a character.
In Character: Behavior that is appropriate to the character’s nature.
Out of Character: Behavior that is inappropriate to the character’s nature. When a character behaves a particular way on one occasion and then behaves a different way on another without a sufficient reason for the change.
Omniscient Point of View: When the story is told by a narrator who is not a part of the story. He/She is a third person whose knowledge and perceptions are unlimited. This type of narrator can tell us what the characters are thinking and feeling.
Limited Omniscient Point Of View: When the story is told in the third person, but is limited to the viewpoint of just one of the story’s characters. In other words, we are only told what one character is really thinking and feeling.
First Person Point Of View: When the story is told in the first person, with the narrator being a character involved the story.
Objective Point Of View (Dramatic Point Of View): This point of view is similar to omniscient, however, the narrator only tells you the characters’ actions and what they say out loud. The narrator is a simply a spectator who reports without any commentary, interpretations, or insights into any private thoughts or feelings.
Setting: It involves the time in history that the story takes place as well as the length of time covered by the action in the story. In addition, the setting involves the physical setting, the atmosphere, and the time sequence of the story.
Plot: The series of events that make up the storyline.
Theme: The controlling idea of the story that serves to reveal some insight about human nature or state a central generalization about life. To get at what the theme is ask yourself, “What does this story reveal?” Note that the theme is not necessarily the “moral” or “lesson” in a story--those terms may be too confining in some cases.