WHAT UKRAINE PRESIDENT ZELENSKY CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT CHARACTER WRITING

Or A Writing Lesson From The Man In The Arena

Image from The Things

Braveheart is bad ass.

Braveheart tells the story of Sir William Wallace, a 13th Century warrior poet who led the first war of Scottish independence against King Edward 1 of England. It was an epic historical film with many stirring speeches performed by Mel Gibson, who played the titular Scots hero. One speech I remember was given as Wallace rode his horse, back and forth in front of his army, his face half-streaked with blue war paint, as he rallied the troops.

An excerpt.

Wallace: I AM William Wallace. And I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What would you do without freedom? Will you fight?

Veteran soldier: Fight? Against that? No, we will run; and we will live.

Wallace: Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live — at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!!!

Those bad ass lines made me stand up and cheer for Wallace. Wallace was a bad ass character. But even though Wallace was based on a historical character, nevertheless, you knew you were watching a fictional representation, created by a writer. It was good and powerful but not as powerful as watching a real-life person, in a real time situation, uttering a bad ass line.

A person like Volodymy Zelensky, the President for Ukraine.

When Russian troops began the war, and started raining missiles on Ukraine cities, the world held its breath. How will the country react? What will the President do? Then the Ukrainian armies responded with counter-attacks. Allies condemned the invasion and rallied around the Ukrainian president. The US even offered to fly President Zelensky out of Ukraine.

And this is what Zelensky said.

I don’t need a ride, I need more ammunition.

A greater display of badassery I have yet to see from a world leader.

Even Netflix has taken notice. You cannot accuse Netflix of not having its streaming finger on the pulse of the moment. Netflix has been streaming Servant Of The People — Zelensky’s comedy series where Zelensky played a fictional president, before he became an actual President. The series is a sly dig at the corruption that oils the wheels of power in politics. I cannot imagine a starker example of how art imitates life and life imitates art.

What lesson can be learnt here for writers crafting character stories?

In my previous life as a lecturer, I liked to end my screenwriting lessons with short pithy summaries hoping that they would lodge like a burr in the minds of my students. I would tell students if they wished to recall how to format their scripts, they just have to remember S.P.A.C.E

Space, Present tense, Active voice, Caps Your character intro, Economical.

Or after a lesson on writing dialogue, I’d advise students to remember two axioms.

Dialogue Advances Story

Dialogue Reveals Character

And here’s what I tell my students in Screenwriting 101 when it comes to writing about their characters

ACTION REVEALS CHARACTER

In real life, anyone can claim to be courageous, but until you have demonstrated actual visible bravery, your claims are no more than vigorous hand-waving in the air, signifying nothing. Which is why the time I spent in the army was time spent seeing the true nature of my army mates. When you’re soaked to the bone in a rain storm, huddling in a muddy trench, hungry and miserable, and your buddy shares his last chocolate bar with you, you know you have a friend for life. He does not have to tell you that he’s generous. His action has revealed his character.

When Zelensky was offered a way out of his beleaguered country, a chance to escape the wrath of a much bigger antagonist, a chance that any reasonable person concerned for his own safety would have grasped, he turned down the offer.

Instead, he said –

I don’t need transportation. I need more ammunition.

He did not run away from a fight. He stayed on. That was his action. And that revealed his character.

Courageous.

Defiant.

Stubborn.

Zelensky brings to mind this famous “Man in the Arena” speech by former US President Theodore Roosevelt, who made the speech in Paris on April 3, 1910.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Volodymy Zeklensky, President for Ukraine, in this moment in time and history, is the Man In The Arena.

Lessons From The Man In The Arena

As in life, so in art. As in art, so in life. Admire a character for his bravery only when he has visibly demonstrated heroism. Only then shall his true character be revealed. The next time you write, remember this.

Character is Action.

Action is Character.