Describing screenplay characters
Screenwriters usually add a description when they introduce a screenplay character for the first time.
It will probably look like this, in the screenplay action text:
SPONGEBOB (square, yellow, spongy, but with a face bearing an annoying buck-tooth smile) walks in.
While doing this is fine, you can do this more gradually, throughout the script, in way that may create interest because they are part of the narrative rather than in boring brackets. So you may have characters commentng on SPONGEBOB'S sppearance and identity as a sponge throughout the screenplay that tells the script reader more about the script character SPONGEBOB. Hence:
SQUAREPANTS
Gee, Spongy. I alway wondered what it would be like to be an actual, ya know, sponge, like you is. How come water don't just leak outta ya all the time when you drink?
SPONGEBOB
Well Squarepants, I'm not your typical sponge, see. I'm a magical kinda sponge made by people who dream up cartoons. So I'm not a real sponge, not really. I'm more like a spongy person, and that person can drink water whenever they wanna.
Etc. So the description of Spongebob has emerged during the course of the story rather than being crammed into brackets when we first meet Spongebob.
Of course, this description may be used as more than a revelation. It may take the form of a beat. So:
ANNIE:
What ya mean you're a sponge, Bobby!? If you can't carry inside your body all the way to the water processing plant in Dallas downtown by sundown, the whole world's gonna end!
SPONGEBOB
I am what I am, Annie. Sorry I didn't tell you. It's because, see ---
ANNIE
I know, Spongy. I know. But now it's too late. We're all gonna die.
Etc. The description of characters can reside in the relationships they form, too - and in which allies they make and which enemies - and in what these characters say to our hero over time and under pressure.
I speak about this on my new YouTude channel here
Needless to say, Spongey, if ya wanna Like and Subscribe ...
Happy screenwriting!
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