Syd Field| Q&A Notes: "Story, Character, Audience Demographics"

Q&A Notes Webinar: “SETTING UP CHARACTER AND STORY, PART I”
From the Webinar Archives of Syd Field The Art of Visual Storytelling.
Q: So Marianne asks, “Does one expect there to be a particular single character to identify with or will different audience demographics relate to different characters within the story? Is that something TV writers try to achieve?”
A: You are telling a story, and in that particular story, you have a character, Marianne, who is acting or reacting to the situation and dramatic premise of the story line. And TV writers? It doesn’t matter. You have the main characters of your TV episode.
And, again, audience demographics, you either write to your story line or forget it. If you start writing for character demographics, you are not going to achieve anything in terms of a dramatic and effective and entertaining story line. So the answer is: You must know your character, and it deals with the context of the story, not the demographics.