4. Real time character build: Part Four
25 March 2025
Alison Rocket Ross
Aaron needs to grow.
Which means he needs problems, drama, wants, needs. Let’s make a list of voids and shortcomings in his life.
Potential Problems for Aaron (35) Landscaper
No Romantic Partner- Aaron has had short-term, shallow relationships in the past, but connecting with someone long term in that way has been difficult for him. He would need to open himself up and learn to trust someone to change this.
He Lives in a Bubble- Aaron has built a very specific life for himself. It’s good enough and he’s happy enough so he stays within his comfort zone. This has caused him to be trapped in a repetitive cycle. The further into this cycle he goes, the less he’s able to understand why anyone else would live any other way.
Let’s stop there.
As I’m writing these problems, one major thing sticks out to me. Aaron is lonely. That’s pretty easy to see and very common feeling that others could relate to. It is of his own device.
His issues in childhood have led him down this dark path of self-sustaining isolation. It’s not on the extreme side, since he does his landscaping in the community and lives for trivia night, but at the end of the day, he only has himself.
This will ultimately be his driving force and where he will grow.
What kind of lonely?
This is a big one. We need to decide if he’s going to be bitter, longing, or completely unaware of the fact that he’s lonely.
Bitter doesn’t fit. He may be bitter about the past, but the fact that he has people in his life proves to me that he’s not bringing that bitterness into the present day.
Longing? That also feels off. He’s pretty good at distracting himself and keeping busy. I also think he enjoys his alone time to an extent. Let’s not forget that he’s a massive clean freak and maintaining his own home and property is a top priority.
(Which could be a good counter characteristic for the complementary character — they could be messy and that would cause conflict)
That leaves us with him being totally unaware of his loneliness. Now this… this fits Aaron. He may have moments where he wishes he had someone to hold or a friend to talk to, but for the most part he is so wrapped up in his routine he doesn’t realize how bad it’s gotten.
What does this mean for the story?
In Act One, we’re going to need some time to set up Aaron’s cozy little life. We’re not going to do any justice to Aaron by jumping right into the action. We need him steady, then we need to slowly introduce someone or something that comes in and confuses him.
Already this is feeling more like an emotional arch and less like a plot. Considering I’m not much of a Rom-Com writer, I’m excited to try my hand at a love story.
Even writing that last paragraph felt off. I don’t think Aaron is ready for romantic love. I think we first need to give him a proper friend. Someone who is not afraid to challenge him.
Before we leave to process, let’s think of twelve ways to show Aaron’s life in the beginning of the story. Something cool.
Twelve Introductory Ideas to Aaron’s Cozy Life
Landscaping a Yard — Shows him in action. Leaves room for cool shots. We could do some interesting mundane-with-subtext dialogue. We could also throw in some foreshadowing or hide easter eggs.
Cleaning his Apartment — This sounds boring, I know, but I never said all of these ideas would be good! This kind of scene also allows us to show who Aaron is through what he has, how he organizes things. We get to work with shape, color, and light without relying on dialogue to our work for us. Depending on the the story and tone, we could even make it just the tiniest bit scary.
The Grocery Store — Everybody has to go to the grocery store and Aaron is definitely not the kind of guy who wastes money to get his groceries delivered. The grocery store also gives us an opportunity to see how isolated Aaron is. There are people all around him and yet he doesn’t appear to be part of the community. They don’t know him. Not to mention the amazing character work we can do by what he puts in his cart, how he talks to the cashier, etc. Lots of potential here.
Hiking a Trail — I’m already not a fan of this one, but let’s explore it anyway. He lives in the city, so the trail would probably be pretty populated. So we can show him being around people but not really belonging with them. We also have his love of nature and the outdoors, but there are cooler ways we could do that.
Car Crash — Yes, it’s been done and done and done. If we had Aaron get into a little fender bender, we could see how he handles stress. But this feels more like an inciting incident and less like a set up for the character.
(SIDE NOTE: I’m remembering now certain advice about having a character make a choice right away to show us who they are. I wonder what we could do with that.)
6. Amber Alert — A better way to do the car crash and have him make a choice. Perhaps he’s in traffic and an Amber Alert goes out. He’s checking every license plate and in doing so, he rear ends someone. Adds a bit of thrill in the beginning, but still feels like an inciting incident. And honestly, it feels out of character for Aaron. He’s the kind of guy that would look at the Amber Alert, but then go about his day.
7. The Dog Pound — Aaron could be picking out a pet! Or… better yet… perhaps he’s returning a dog he adopted because it was too messy and destroyed his apartment. We’re going to want to be careful with this one because we don’t want him to come off heartless. It is an interesting idea… It could symbolize how he has difficulties connecting, but wants to. Maybe he tries to trade in the dog for a new one. One that’s cleaner and better trained. Now that could be cool.
8. Clothes Shopping — He wears roughly the same thing every day. We could see him purchasing a “new” outfit then going home where we see he has ten of the same shirt. We could work on it.
9. Buying a Present for Mother’s Day — Despite his rocky relationship with his parents, he’s still a good son. But he doesn’t know his mother. So perhaps he’s asking someone for help at the store. Through some awkward dialogue, we could get a sense for who he is and why. Not my favorite idea, but we could make it work.
10. ANTS — This one just seems fun. He’s got ants in his apartment and it’s driving him absolutely insane. He’s setting the traps and everything, but nothing is working. There are lines of ants marching through his space throughout the entire movie. He doesn’t get it. He’s so clean. Where are the ants coming from? This could also get into his confusion over his loneliness. He’s done everything right (he thinks) why does he have no one to love?
11. The Vineyard — Perhaps Aaron is being recruited by a vineyard to help their grapes grow better. He could get a tour of the grounds, see the winery and the people enjoying their day. He could lose himself in the beauty and feel closer to a life he’s never been a part of. The vineyard could also be a primary setting. I’m not sure if we can really show Aaron’s character fully through this, but I think it could spark some interest. We don’t need to reveal all of Aaron right away. This is definitely something to think about.
12. Trivia Night — Of course. It’s his one special night a week. This would also allow us to introduce other characters right away and we’d have a cute little ensemble of fun dialogue and development. We’d have to end it with Aaron going home alone to his super clean apartment (with ants). I am hesitant with this one. I don’t necessarily want that many characters that quickly. Plus it’s loud and rambunctious. There’s a potential to shape it with sound design and certain camera angles, but it just feels too big for this particular character. More of an Act Two kind of scene.
We’ve got a lot to think about here.
Next time, I think we ought to try writing some of those scenarios out. In doing so, we may even come up with some story ideas.
Remember, we’re just building a character. If this does grow into a proper story, we’ll take our time to outline and plan. Don’t skip steps.
That’s all for now.
Love, Rocket