Screenplay Structure is More Than Just Plot

A 7-minute video featuring… me.

I pack a lot into this video excerpt of an interview I did back in August with the fine folks at Film Courage — Karen Worden and David Branin. In just seven minutes, I talk about:

• So-called screenwriting ‘rules’
• The fallacy of thinking of screenplay structure as plot
• Plotline and Themeline: The two realms of a screenplay universe
• The importance of immersing oneself in the lives of a story’s characters
• The challenge of working with “slippery” characters
• Why rewriting is an innate part of the screenwriting process

Expanding on a point I make in the interview, I think I understand why so much of the conversation in the online screenwriting community with regard to screenplay structure focuses on plot and it’s this: It’s easier to wrap one’s head around writing a story if the focus is a formula, a paradigm, a layout of this amount of story beats or the placement of those plot points on these pages, e.g., break into Act Two on 25.

Compared to the messy business of directly engaging the story’s characters — interviews, biographies, sit-downs, monologues, stream of consciousness — amassing all of that raw character ‘stuff,’ then sorting through it to make some kind of sense of who the characters, how they relate, how who the characters are influence and shape the story…

That is tough work. And characters are slippery, good ones at least. They’ve got complex personal histories and psychological makeups.

I get it. Character work is challenging. Meanwhile, there’s this book or seminar in which someone lays out a blueprint with a plot all neatly laid out… this happens here, and this happens there.

The problem is that is the path toward formulaic writing. The best way to combat that is to lean into the characters. Messy and complex as they are, that is where your story lies, that is where the plot will emerge from.

Begin with characters. End with characters. Find the story in between.

There’s more of the interview to come over the next few weeks, so check out the video clips at Film Courage. Let me know if you agree, disagree, or if you learned anything from the conversation.

Twitter: @filmcourage