The other week I watched a new TV series and thought, “Meh, why should I care?”  The characters were flimsy, their relationships superficial and the jokes had been done a million times before.  This show is now on the chopping block – no surprise.

How do you make sure people care?  To start with, you should care.  What is it about this story that sticks with you?  What made you have to write it?  It doesn’t have to be something that happened to you, it could just be as simple as you think it’s a really great story with an important message that hasn’t been said.  Whatever it is, you have to make it personal.

Just because you care, doesn’t mean anyone else will.

Your passion and enthusiasm has to come through on the page.  It has to come through in your pitch.  You need to be the driving force behind this project from start to finish because no one else will.  This project will likely take up years of your life so your passion for it cannot wane.  Put the time and effort into creating lifelike characters, a compelling story and make sure the message you’re so passionate about is on the page because that is what will sell it.

Make your lead care about your message.  If the characters care about something, their passion will spread to your audience.  This is why your characters need to be active, not passive.  Who’s going to care about a guy who sits on his sofa watching TV while life passes him by and he constantly moans about how bad his life is?  They’ll care about him if he gets up off his lazy ass and starts trying to change his life.  Now the audience has something to root for.

You need to give the audience someone or something to root for otherwise, they too feel like they’re passively going through life.  People watch movies to get that vicarious energy that comes from doing something about your problems.  Whether or not these people will ever actually change their own lives isn’t the issue; the point is you create something that inspires others to change.  A few will and that’s all that matters.