Script Analysis: “Eighth Grade” — Part 2: Plot

Read the script for the hit movie which won the Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay Award.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this Go Into The Story series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Plot.

In every scene, something happens. A plot point is a scene or group of scenes in which something major happens, an event that impacts the narrative causing it to turn in a new direction.

A relevant anecdote. Years ago, I was on the phone with a writer discussing a script project. My son Will, who was about four years old at the time, must have been listening to me talking about “plot points” during the conversation because after I hung up, he asked, “Daddy, what’s a plop point?”

That’s in effect what a plot point is. It’s an event that ‘plops’ into the narrative and changes its course. So when you think Plot Point, think Plop Point!

The value of this exercise:

• To identify the backbone of the story structure.
• To examine each major plot point and see how it is effective as an individual event.
• To analyze the major plot points in aggregate to determine why they work together as the central plot.

This week: Eighth Grade. You may download a PDF of the script here.

Written by Bo Burnham.

IMDb plot summary: An introverted teenage girl tries to survive the last week of her disastrous eighth grade year before leaving to start high school.

Writing Exercise: Go through the scene-by-scene breakdown of Destroyer and identify the major plot points. Post your thoughts in comments and we’ll see if we can come up with a consensus.

Major kudos to Denise Garcia for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Eighth Grade, go here.

For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown discussion, go here.

For more movie scene-by-scene breakdowns, go here.

For the Go Into The Story Script Read and Analysis series archives, go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Eighth Grade.