Ninja vs Penguin

Penguin December 14th, 2007

Over at John August’s blog, he’s posted a great little tip about plot structure and how to make it seem natural:

Screenwriting books make everything seem so tidy, when actual screenwriting is gory and difficult. Plot and structure are really just the answer to a single question: what happens when?

Look at your story from your main characters’ perspectives. What are is they trying to do at each moment in the script? What do they know, and what do they learn?

Then look at it from the audience’s perspective. What do they know, and what do they expect will happen next?

A good plot keeps surprising both the main characters and your audience. Probably the reason your plots feel contrived is that you’re trying to drag your characters through some pre-determined series of structural benchmarks, rather than focusing on what’s interesting and surprising right now in this scene.

It’s a great mini-lesson for all you budding screenwriters out there. Remember, your story has living breathing characters. Don’t drag them through the mud of your story, instead, have them react to them. How do the events and circumstances that you create for them get in the way of what they want? How does it change them? And once you’re happy with it, you’ll make something you’ll be happy with.

-Penguin

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