Chapter 1

Review of Fundamentals:

Plot, Character, Format

 

Every single project that pours out of a writer is hard work, whether it is the 400th poem, a short story in high school, a first novel or the 28th screenplay. Believing that concept puts all writers on an even playing field. We understand and appreciate one another without hubris or ego giving anyone superiority. We are all slaving away to create.

The creation—the writing—also involves a bit of magic. Each project teaches the writer more about his or her own process and stimulates a growth in confidence. The flip side is the discovery of the adage “The more I know, the more I discover I don’t know.” For the obsessed professional writer that leads to reading industry magazines and texts by the experts then perpetually tweaking the writing process, improving some areas and uncovering what has been taken for granted. The attentive and hungry writer will consistently seek more knowledge from the experts while writing. The belief becomes “You cannot write without learning along the way.” Accept it. Get used to it. It’s okay!

Most people who love storytelling devoutly read books and watch movies to feed their imaginations. With many it is not escapism, but a need. Routinely wallowing in the make-believe, they develop preferences in genre or types of stories. Some take that taste for granted, but others are very aware of the criteria that satisfies them. The types of plots and characters in genre/category fiction are not necessarily rigid, but the aficionados evolve expectations. Misinterpret or skew something and the devout will eat you alive! 

That is why the writer who takes on a genre needs to understand its guidelines and expectations. Floundering ignorance will result in disappointing stories. So, the astute writer needs to examine and understand each category of fiction to plan plot events, character and nuance that will satisfy the lover of that genre. 

Here’s the kicker, though: careful consideration can also result in mixing in elements from other categories to create a story with cross-genre appeal that is unique and far beyond stereotyping. That means a bigger audience and ultimately bigger box office which everybody wants.

The world of entertainment competes for the consumer’s time. Books, TV, music, movies, gaming, electronic media. The more unique the stories and characters, the better a screenwriter’s chances are to sell. The wise screenwriter appeals to as many people as possible. Creativity grows, the writer is challenged, the audience is satisfied and the production bean counters are ecstatic.

This book is intended 1) to move you beyond fundamentals to in-depth concepts, 2) to examine the principles of each of eleven genres, 3) to identify concepts and genre in two exemplary films for each category, and, ultimately, 4) to encourage you to apply the lessons learned. You will get the how and the why then the reinforcement of that knowledge at work in cinema. The application part is up to you. 

 

GETTING STARTED

Let’s assume you come to this book with a fundamental grasp of screenwriting, A review of sound principles of storytelling in general—and screenwriting in particular—will drive those concepts deep into your psyche so you can habitually recall them when needed. You must never take them for granted because they are the skeleton to the muscle and blood of your story. Not only is habitual recall vital when revising, it is also necessary when pouring words on the paper. 

These first two chapters are intended to be an abbreviated review. They are not intended as an in-depth explanation of everything but merely reminders of information you should already know. Perhaps you heard the terminology and explanations in a previous class or book, nodded then promptly shoved into a corner of your mind. Well, a bright light is about to shine on those corners to call out those terms and concepts to dance at the front your mind’s stage while you write. 

 

ALL STORIES HAVE SIX ELEMENTS

Whether it is a short story, a novel, a stage play or a screenplay, all narrative forms of fiction’s lies have six basic identifiable elements for them to qualify as “stories”:

1. Main Character/Protagonist to care about

- Unique, multifaceted, motivated, activist

2. Environment/Physical Setting of time & place to feel

 - Credible, effects character, depicts era, sets tone

3. Objective/Goal . . . immediately apparent quest based on desire/want

 - Vital to Protagonist, highly personal, intimate

awareness, provides tension

4. Obstacles/Opposition to Goal THUS Conflict

 - Powerful effect on Protagonist’s psyche/response &

relationships

5. Chain of EVENTS/Logical Causality of stimulus-response

 - Specific, effects character actions-reactions & option

awareness

6. Unity wherein every element & word contributes to the whole

- Every word/scene concise, meaningful (or out!)

 

ALL STORIES HAVE STRUCTURE

A cinematic story is still . . . a story. Even around the caveman’s fire, the storyteller had to begin the story, keep the listeners enthralled with a series of events and end the story. If the telling was not interesting and believable, do you think the caveman got any attention when he wanted to tell another? Aristotle discussed the concepts of Beginning, Middle and Ending in his “Poetics.” (If you haven’t read the essay, find a copy and do so as part of your fundamental education.) He provided the rock on which modern culture has built its stories. 

 

Beginning’s Set-up and Questions

Approximately one-fourth of any story is the “Set-up of the Ordinary Life” the main character is living. In that “Set-up” you must establish your ability to ignite curiosity and tell a credible tale with characters the audience can care about. You have to establish the five W’s of 1) Who the story is about, 2) Where the story is taking place, 3) When the story is happening, 3) What is happening to main character and 5) Why that “What” is important to the main character. The audience must immediately be asking questions they want answered, that have to be answered in the balance of the story. 

Just as the opening sentence of a novel acts as the hook to capture the reader’s interest demanding that person read on, the very first image on the screen sets the mood for a film . . . be it the uplifting sense of the carefree girl singing in an Alpine meadow of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, the urgency of frontier survival depicted in the race through a forest for the deer-kill in THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS or the overwhelming threat of that huge ship sliding onto the screen in STAR WARS, EPISODE IV. The impact must be immediate and visual. It helps to have it paired with sound effects and music to hit as many of the senses as possible . . . but those are not the screenwriter’s area of expertise. The screenplay is merely a blueprint for all the other collaborators, which this book will repeatedly emphasize. 

Of course, the main character—the Who of the story—is introduced early in a situation that depicts his or her fundamental personality in the midst of life’s complications. The scene must showcase the dominant characteristic that will be vital to the evolution of the story. Yes, that personality can be under-developed or even immature, but implication plants the seed of expectation in the audience. Both Ferris Bueller (FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF) and Marty McFly (BACK TO THE FUTURE) are not going to be somber and edgy like THE DARK KNIGHT.

Ultimately, at the end of Beginning’s sequence, the Ordinary World will be abandoned by the main character who must go questing in a New World and prove worthy of survival.

 

Middle’s Confrontations for Empathy and Involvement

Half of any story will be the Middle where the main character encounters confrontations and problems. The Middle’s purpose is to depict the character’s testing, learning and growing in order to triumph over the negative forces working against him or her. Brainstorming anything and everything that could cause stress-stress-stress can easily give you a series of obstacles that must be overcome on the character’s journey toward an important goal. The challenge of an enthralling Middle is to be unpredictable yet logical in the cause-effect series of events. 

A perpetual rise-and-fall structure of the Middle maintains the audience’s concern about the well-being of the main character. Tension intensifies as the Middle progresses and the audience is led to ask more emotional questions of success or failure. Focusing on worsening circumstances which the main character must actively attack keeps the middle from “sagging.” Every event, every scene must demand the audience’s attention to maintain the vicarious experience of the journey with the main character. 

Not only must the events create jeopardy, but they must also trigger emotions in the audience. The audience must vicariously invest attention and internalized commiseration with the experiences of the characters. A successful film plays on the emotional responses of the audience.

 

Ending’s Satisfaction and Insight

The last one-fourth of the story is the culmination or resolution (not a rehashing) of all that has gone before. The main character prepares for the “battle” of the Climax. The Ending can be relatively predictable. However, the tension of the risks and the price of the battle should always remain in question right up to the very end when one side or the other of positive or negative forces is victorious. Time and again the triumph of “evil” has created “cautionary tales” meant to leave the audience thinking of consequences. The story closer or final scene must be a definitive lasting impression the audience can feel is logical. That ending should trigger the imaginations of the audience, picturing how the characters lived on into the “after-story” world.

 

THE MYTHIC STORY CONSTRUCT

Joseph Campbell (and Chris Vogler’s The Writers Journey) proposed the concept of Beginning-Middle-Ending as “The Hero’s Journey” of discovery and conquest, a reliably consistent story model for planning any story, including a cinematic story:

 

Beginning’s Act I/Set-up, ¼ of the entire story

- Intro the Hero’s Ordinary World (out of backstory)

- Herald’s “Call to Adventure”/change

- Hero’s Refusal of the Call (known world safer)

- Meeting the Mentor (who convinces Hero)

- Cross the Threshold, Plot Point I (Event where life changes 180 degrees)

 

Middle’s Act II/Confrontation, ½ of entire story

- First half reactions to Tests, Allies, Enemies/Learning

- Approach Inmost Cave, Pinch I (Worst Fear glimpsed)

- Supreme Ordeal/Epiphany Experience at Mid-Point (Signal Hero now taking action)

- Reward for Seizing Sword, Pinch II (Acknowledgement / Savoring Accomplishment)

- Road Block / Black Moment, Plot Point II (Superior Antagonist defeating of Hero)

 

Ending’s Act III/Resolution, ¼ of story

- Resurrection when “Mouse Roars” toward Climactic Battle

- Return with Elixir (Triumphant & Committed into After-story)

 

This pattern repetition of this Campbell-Vogler Mythic Story as just explained in comparison-contrast to the Aristolean Beginning-Middle is intended to reinforce the structure! You must learn to think in this structure, especially in the planning stage in order to execute it in the writing stage and eventually analyze in revision to identify any aberrations or missed points in the story flow. 

Many screenwriting and fiction instructors have dissected the above structure into different parts and assigned their own names to those parts. If it works for them (or you) to look at it differently, that’s fine. Remember one thing: the underlying Beginning-Middle-Ending structure is the same in all of them. “A rose is a rose. By any other name it will smell as sweet.” Shakespeare’s comment applies here as well. Different names merely mean analysis is a matter of semantics and not of significantly different framework. 

 

PARADIGM FORM

Many screenwriting professionals utilize an actual form in both the planning stage and in writing. Various experts have tweaked it with their own terminology or structure, but they basically still adhere to principles proposed by both Aristotle and Joseph Campbell. 

Others introduced to this Paradigm have enlarged, laminated or copied it over and over as a tool for plotting and monitoring tight story progression to assure all the bases are covered in a logical manner. The tool is useful to plan and execute the writing of any short story, novel, stage play or screen play. Doing it in pencil allows the writer to erase and revise. Ultimately, the visual tool keeps story structure organized, logical, comprehensive and inclusive of needed material and moving forward from Beginning’s Set-up to Ending’s Resolution.