What makes a script good? The characters or the story?

Answer 1

it's both. a great story with some conflict for some great characters to act out. the characters should have dynamic personalities but also should be easy for people to relate to.

Answer 2

As the many other answers posted before mine, I will say that it's both the story and the characters that make a script good. You can't imagine a good story that doesn't involve worthy characters. Just think of the great classics, such as Moliere, G.B.Shaw, Shakespeare.... Their plays have been regarded as the best ones ever; I tend to think that characters are the ones that matter the most in a play, because what you see on the stage is the actor that impersonates the fiction. A great performance requires a talented actor, but any gifted actor can't achieve his greatness when he has to become an uninteresting person on the stage.
On the other hand, the plot of the play must be a realistic one, because theater is not just about telling "lies" with art, it's about showing a message to the audience.
And again, it depends on the kind of script you're thinking of. In the realistic literature, the story takes a lot of credit, and the character is regarded as a "social product"; his actions are influenced by the events that happen in his life, and that means that the central "character" of the script is the story. But in the modern literature, the whole story gravitates around the character, developing introspection and retrospection as the main techniques.
Anyway, a worthy script is a synthesis of both of the concepts.

Answer 3

I think you mean "*Which* makes a script good?" Because else, I could say that proper punctuation and formatting makes a script good. :)

Between story and character, either can make a script good. Myself, I think I tend to like a script more for the characters than the story. To support this, I think back to times I've read plays and wanted to play the parts, though I've had little clue what was going on storywise, confused by it, or lost by its superficial vagueness. The story didn't matter to me; I trusted that I'd figure it out eventually.

In some sense, there is no difference between character and story. The journey the characters take *is* the story. If you have no characters, you have no story. Once you have characters, you have story.

Answer 4

I'd say both. The characters should be well developed and but the story should flow and have a good plot. but it doesn't really matter how good the script is, if the actors can't pull it off then it just stinks. on the other hand if the script is really crappy, but the actors are amazing they can make it good.

Answer 5

Neither. I know that sounds stupid but look at it this way. The actors have the ability to turn the lines into something they weren't meant to be, same with the characters. A good example is if you saw the musical the producers. Springtime for Hitler is the musical they are putting on and the characters and play are both horrible and the audience hates it at first. The character who was supposed to play Hitler broke his leg so they replaced him with the director who was obviously gay. The audience took it as them making fun of Hitler and the war. They loved it!!!! With an incredible cast any play can be great :)

Answer 6

Well initially BOTH might seem the correct answer, however I've seen great scripts and performances murdered by less than GOOD acting.

On the other side of that I've seen mundane scripts and characters rescued by the Actors in a cast.

Certainly the writers intent is both, to have a decent story line supported by the characters and their development.

Steven Wolf

Answer 7

Why bother comparing? Both of them MUST be good. The immersive story is not immersive at all if your characters are boring and not worth rooting out for. Then, no matter how good your characters are, the sucking story will just drag them down right into the pits of Onnonolin sewer systems.

Answer 8

Well, it's important to note that you HAVE to have both.

If you have great characters, but the story is lame, you won't hold the attention of the audience.

If you have a good story, but no great characters, the audience could care less where the story leads, because they aren't attached to the characters.

Answer 9

The script only comes alife if the characters have a strong development throughout the story.

Success!

Answer 10

I don't really think you can have a compelling story without interesting characters to inhabit it...nor will a bunch of unusual characters sustain our interest if the story isn't holding our attention.

Gotta have 'em both.