A Writer’s Look at Soap Characters – Part One

When you learn how to write research papers, one of the first things you are told is to find what the experts have written on the topic. Doug Marland was "one of the greatest head writers ever" according to professionals in the industry. His advice is fifteen years old, but still relevant.

 

How Not To Wreck A Show

 

By Douglas Marland Watch the show. Learn the history of the show. You would be surprised at the ideas that you can get from the back story of your characters. Read the fan mail. The very characters that are not thrilling to you may be the audience's favorites. Be objective. When I came in to ATWT, the first thing I said was, what is pleasing the audience? You have to put your own personal likes and dislikes aside and develop the characters that the audience wants to see. Talk to everyone; writers and actors especially. There may be something in a character's history that will work beautifully for you, and who would know better than the actor who has been playing the role? Don't change a core character. You can certainly give them edges they didn't have before, or give them a logical reason to change their behavior. But when the audience says, "He would never do that," then you have failed. Build new characters slowly. Everyone knows that it takes six months to a year for an audience to care about a new character. Tie them in to existing characters. Don't shove them down the viewers' throats. If you feel staff changes are in order, look within the organization first. P&G [Procter & Gamble] does a lot of promoting from within. Almost all of our producers worked their way up from staff positions, and that means they know the show. Don't fire anyone for six months. I feel very deeply that you should look at the show's canvas before you do anything. Good soap opera is good storytelling. It's very simple. Douglas Marland is considered by many as one of the greatest head writers ever. Marland was a former head writer of As The World Turns, Guiding Light, and General Hospital. He worked as a writer on Another World and co-created Loving. He won multiple Emmy awards and Soap Opera Digest awards. Marland, a former actor, loved daytime. He passed away on March 6, 1993. This article was published in the April 27, 1993 issue of Soap Opera Digest. Thanks to SEW for providing a copy of the article.

 

I don't write for soaps. I don't plan to write for soaps. Why do I care whether or not the industry is meeting the standards set by the late Doug Marland?

"Good soap opera is good storytelling." Good fiction is good storytelling. When I watch the soaps and I see what is working and what clearly isn't, I can apply it to my own work.

What I am studying now is character. Character drives plot. Motive drives character.

Soaps are good venues to study character. Most of the shows have characters that range from believable to ridiculous, from transparent to mysterious, and from paragon to pure evil. They can be compelling in the hands of good writers and painful to watch in the hands of the uncaring.

My personal favorite characters are the ones with identity crises. Show me a character who is a stranger to himself and you have a viewer. How do you show aspects of a character and keep them hidden from that character? How do you let the viewer know what drives a character and leave the character in the dark or in denial about his motives? How much do you leave to the viewer's imagination?

Questions, questions, questions. How I love to speculate.

In the next sections, I will speculate about three characters whose identity crises caught my attention. From Days of Our Lives, I will examine Jack Devereaux, as portrayed by Matt Ashford. This character was onscreen for a long time, but is presently off the canvas. From One Life to Live, I will examine Victoria Lord Davidson, as portrayed by Erika Slezak. This character has a long rich history and a major mental illness that is often used to generate plot. Also from One Life to Live, I will examine Jessica Buchanan Brennan, as portrayed by Bree Williamson and formerly Erin Torpey. This character grew up onscreen and is presently central to an ongoing storyline. I will look at their history, what was revealed onscreen, how others interpreted the narratives, and how I would shape their motives if I were writing for them.

This is a thought experiment. I do not own the characters, nor do I wish to make any claims.