I try to research or make up for myself what happened in any character's life. From when he was born until the first page of the script. I fill in the blanks.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
This basic thing I always do: 'What happened between the character's birth, and page one of the script?' Anything that's not in the story, I'll fill in the blanks.
I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.
It's hard to know whether certain characters come to life or not, they either come to have their own life or they don't. I've written many things in which the characters just remain inert.
I get sent a lot of scripts which feature him as a kind of all-purpose Victorian literary character and really understand little, if anything, about him, his life or his books.
Character develops itself in the stream of life.
If there is a book that the script came from you have to read it, you have to see what you can get out of it: mood, back story and things that may not even be in the film. They kick off your imagination and broaden the character, I think.
The biographical novel sets out to document this truth, for character is plot, character development is action, and character fulfillment is resolution.
All writers write about the past, and I try to make it come alive so you can see what happened.
I'm always saying that my books are not autobiographical because they're not. I can't choose any one scene and say, 'Oh, this is exactly what happened to me!' I just use little snippets of things as a starting point!
I really believe that when you're playing a character that everything is contained in the script. If I'm pulling from things from my own life, then I think I'm being disingenuous to the character and the story.