Syd Field | Q&A Notes: "Making Yourself the Main Character"

From The Art of Visual Storytelling Webinar Archives
Q: Jennifer asks: “Is it dangerous to insert yourself into your own story?”
A: The answer is yes. It is extremely dangerous to put yourself as the main character in your storyline. I’ve tried that a couple of times and it doesn’t work because sometimes reality is not as effective as a dramatic reality. And when I used myself as a main character in one of my screenplays, I reached a point where I did not know what my actions would be and I became so drawn within that I lost all creativity. It will be fine for the first 60 pages or so. After that, you become dried up creatively because you are depending on how you would react. So I would say as a rule, you are not your character. You are not your character! So it becomes very dangerous to insert yourself into your storyline.