Verisimilitude and Film Story: The Links between Screenwriter, Character and Spectator

• Main Author: Antonio Sánchez-Escalonilla
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de Navarra 2013-04-01
• Series: Communication & Society (Formerly Comunicación y Sociedad)
• Subjects: verisimilitude; screenplay; character building; emotional strategy; narrative structure
• Online Access: https://revistas.unav.edu/index.php/communication-and-society/article/view/36124

Verisimilitude is an essential quality to the perfection of fictions, from the tragedy competitions in Pericles's Athens to current Hollywood screenplays. This article explores the structural and emotional resources available to the writer to build and tell a credible story. To get this aim, the Aristotelian notion of mimesis is taken as a starting point, the writer's creative motivations are discussed through thematic aspects and their reflection in characters building. At the same time, human mysteries are considered as meeting points between writer, character and spectator. This study of narrative resources is done according to the dynamics of dramatic conflicts, present in every story. The article uses as references recent contributions of script experts, formulas to creative production and examples taken from film scripts.