If you have invented your hero and already know a lot about him or her, you'll be able to start inventing a well-chosen Bonding Character.

How does that work?

Well, you know that the Bonding Character needs to be very unlike the Hero.

So if the Hero is a rocket scientist, make your Bonding Character a rock star, a runway model, a flower child, baseball player, a playboy, etc. etc.

(This might be a good time to go back to Chapter 6 and mentally list all the differences between the Heroes and Bonding Characters mentioned there).

Creating the Bonding Character, and developing the Bond between this character and your hero is probably the most important single step in creating a successful screenplay.

Think of all the ways in which you can create an event to force your hero into a bond with another character who is very unlike the hero (and remember that the Bonding Character can be anywhere on the value scale from Lovable to Loathsome).

In your imagining you may need to shuttle back and forth between the Bonding Character and the Bonding Event and build the two elements in synch with each other.

The differences between Hero and Bonding Character create vital screen energy.

Think of the dynamic between Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis in Witness, stemming from the fact that he is a man of violence, and she is a woman of peaceful means.

This polarity creates a whole series of wonderful screen moments, growing out of the fact that the writers chose two characters who were profoundly unlike each other.

You could even begin creating your story by starting with the Bonding Character, who is simply, say, intrinsically interesting to you, but who does not have the stature or the inclination to be a hero.

Again, when you come to invent your Hero, you will shape him or her to be unlike the Bonding Character, and to be naturally at the center of a dramatic event that will bring them together.

There's an old joke that goes something like this:

Why are the Irish always fighting among themselves?

Answer: Because they can't find any other worthy opponents.

In a good story of any kind the Hero and his or her Opposing/Attacking Force must be worthy of each other.

Therefore, the Villain in a typical movie story is the character who is most like the Hero.

For example, John Book and Schaeffer, in the movie Witness, are Hero and Villain respectively. They are both seasoned police officers, they both like kids, they both believe in loyalty, they are both tough, determined, clever, decisive. They are, in other words, worthy opponents.

Some beginning writers find this hard to believe, but really it makes great sense. If you were going to set up a contest that will be full of suspense and conflict, what would you do?

One thing you wouldn't do is to pair up a prizefighter with a chess master or a chef with a ballerina.

In order to be able to attack each other, the Hero and the Villain need to be alike.

Well then, if they're alike, why don't they just become buddies, and there goes your story out the window?

In Witness, Schaeffer believes that as a high ranking police officer, he deserves to be able to sell drugs seized from drug dealers. John Book, on the other hand, as his name suggests, goes by the "book," even though he could be rich if he bent the rules.

In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are very alike. They are both Jedi knights, both skilled fighters, both clever and courageous. In fact they are so alike that they are father and son. The difference is that Darth Vader has gone over to "the dark side."

Which leads us to the connection between the Hero, the Opposing/Attacking Force, and:

Obviously, if you have burning themes you want to express, you'll create a moral position for the Hero (usually on the good side of the issues) and a diametrically opposite position for your Opposing/Attacking Force.

If, on the other hand, you've developed your Hero's moral ground already, you'll want to develop your Opposing/Attacking Force's position in opposition to the Hero's.

When you get to fleshing out the Themes of your movie, you'll want the themes to be a motif in the story events and supporting characters. The positions of Hero and Opposing/Attacking Force can provide a consistent focus for that task.

The Bonding Event is not only the connecting link among the three main characters, it's the springboard to your plot.

This key event embodies a number of features that are key to the success of a movie story.

Heroes and Bonding characters don't decide to come together. They are forced to come together by this event. Sometimes they already know each other, sometimes not, but the Bonding Event is never something routine or coincidental.

Why not?

Because...

Typically, the Opposing/Attacking Force has been planning, building power, and putting things into motion for a long period of time, most of which happened prior to the opening of the story.

And typically the forces and events generated by the Opposing/Attacking Force are responsible for an event which compels the Hero and Bonding Character to come together.

Quite often in movie stories, the Opposing/Attacking Force is unaware of the existence of the Hero at the time of the Bonding Event, and only becomes aware of him or her later in the story.

With the right connections among the right elements, the chances of writing a successful, satisfying screenplay increase dramatically.

The success of a screenplay depends on five vital basic elements: The Hero, The Bonding Character, The Opposing/Attacking Force, The Themes, and The Bonding Event.

Each of these elements contains within it a part of the blueprint for the others.

The Bonding Character needs to be very unlike the Hero.

Creating the Bonding Character, and developing the Bond between this character and your Hero is probably the most important single step in creating a successful screenplay.

The Villain in a typical movie story is the character who is most like the Hero.

In a movie story Hero and Villain are diametrically opposed in their moral and ethical convictions.

The Bonding Event forces the Hero and the Bonding Character to come into contact with each other.