Monday, May 23, 2005

Writing: Plot and Story

Our friend Alex over at Complications Ensue is currently entertaining one of the perennial "three-act structure: useful tool or misleading cross-dresser in the bar" discussions. He (as do many guys in both TV and the action movie world) goes for the "sequence" model, while I still hew to a modified version of three act structure. This nicely leads into a whackload of questions about plot and breaking stories I've received. (we'll get to that urgent "How to rewrite" question too, this week ...) Everyone's got their own personal thing. Akiva Goldsman's told me he likes the three act 40/40/40 structure. I'd choke on that long a first act, but he's got an Oscar, I don't. Elliot likes thirty two-minute scenes. I tend to structure plot out in three-page sequences over a 25/50/25 three-act story structure ( I always run fat, that low count's my safety net). So frankly, whatever gets you to page 120.

This difference between TV writers and film guys is pretty common, actually. As one of the relatively few guys who flips back and forth I think this is because in film, a plot's something you move your characters through to change them. In TV, generally, your characters inhabit the plot, but don't really change. (this is evolving, but slowly). The goal of TV characters -- and I'm not even going to try to dive into the meta-osity of this -- tends to be to resume the status quo. TV characters may shift attitudes somewhat at the end of an episode, but they are essentially unchanged. Interestingly, if you look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you can see that there only only incremental changes at most to the characters in each episode, but the seasons produce radical changes in the personalities and lives of each character. I'd say Joss Whedon created 7 movies over 140-odd sequences. Or 1 long movie over 7 emotional swing points.

In short (too late), I believe TV writers have a fundamentally different relationship with story than film writers do.

Back to the discussion at hand. For the newbies, it's important to understand the difference between plot and story. For probably the thousandth time you've heard it:

A story is what happens. Plot is how it happens.

The story is about your characters. What they do, their changing relationships with each other and their surroundings, the choices they're faced with , the results of those choices and how they play out, all illuminating whatever little inner mystery you're trying to explore.

The horrible overly-used term for the character's journey is called, by various annoying executives who've taken a Bob McKee class, the character arc. There is something valid here, however, to focus on, even though there are subtleties in arc theory*. In a movie, your character starts somewhere, and ends somewhere else. Their emotions and the emotions of the tale change. Tracking that journey, breaking it down -- well, let's state this plainly: Breaking your story is not quite the same thing as breaking your plot. And that seems to be where a lot of you young'uns are getting hung.

Let's examine the story and plot breakdown for The Transformers script I just wrote.

... psych.

Let's look at Alex's example of THE INCREDIBLES (his breakdown, not mine):

/* SPOILERS */

Act One: Mr. Incredible stops all kinds of mayhem. Gets married. Act out: he's sued.
Act Two: Mr. Incredible has miserable ordinary life. Gets in trouble. Act out: Gets fab job offer.
Act Three: Mr. Incredible defeats giant robot. Life is good. Then turns out it's all a setup. Act out: he's nearly killed.
Act Four: Mr. Incredible sneaks into bunker. Act out: Is captured.
Act Five: Mr. Incredible and family fight to defeat Syndrome and destroy his bunker.
Act Six: Mr. Incredible and family fight in the city to defeat Syndrome's robot.
Act Seven: Mr. Incredible and family fight Syndrome and win.

/*end spoilers/

Now, at first glance, that kind of blows the three-act structure out of the water. But the thing is, you're looking at the plot here. The sequence of events which occur around Mr. Incredible's (the family's, actually) story. What complicates matters is that Alex has chosen a movie with essentially a stagger-step, a jump to a new narrative chain in the middle.

If you track Mr. Incredible's story, it's about rejection, isolation, ego, and family. (Here's a fun game to play. Take your favorite movies or unproduced scripts. Say what they're about in one word. It's very interesting.)

Now, I'm not going to go parsing out Brad Bird's genius here. But first, note that the movie is called THE INCREDIBLES, not MR. INCREDIBLE. If you look at Mr. Incredible's relationship with his family and their relationship with each other, and his own internal emotional state, the three act structure's pretty useful.

-- Incredible falls from grace.
-- Incredible is frustrated, angry , unhappy. He feels limited by his obligations to his family. (delineated in really, the only weirdly poor scene of the movie. Mrs. I couldn't be more wantonly bitchy here ...)
-- Incredible gets the opportunity to change his life.
transition:
-- Incredible regains his confidence.
-- Incredible is happy / affects relationship with Mrs. I. (distant from family)
-- Incredible, at the moment of his biggest triumph, discovers this is a false paradise.
transition: (midpoint)
-- Now, ignoring that fact that at this point it's really Mrs. I and the kids' movie, let's keep going. Incredible realizes he misses/needs his family.
-- Incredible learns to work with his family, growing acceptance ...
-- Incredible and his family are now a team.
transition:
-- Incredible's acceptance of his family as team is validated as they succeed in doing what he alone could not.
-- Syndrome at the house is really a weird coda, but it reinforces the same emotional point as the launch into this act, validating the family ethos.

Mr. Incredible moves from frustration to overconfidence to despair to new acceptance. That's the story. The events which bring either motivate these changes or create opportunities for them, that's the plot. You can even see the emotional/relationship change within Alex's own example -- note how in his breakdown, suddenly the phrase "and the family" pops up for second half of the movie. That change is the story right there.

So am I saying that it wouldn't matter what happened to bring Incredible low, or that he could have fought a frikkin' dinosaur instead of a giant robot, or that the plans of the villain were irrelevant? -- hell no. Choosing the cool/appropriate/telling plot points to move your story along is what makes you a good -- or in Brad Bird's case, brilliant -- writer. Melding plot to story, choosing the right plot for your story, sometimes orchestrating your plot so nobody notices the story ... in every way that's the craft.

You'll note I tend to put way, way more emphasis on the midpoint than many people. That's because, for me, it's the tentpole of the second act. I often mock my friend DJ for saying this, but he holds that "The midpoint is where the movie ... becomes an entirely different movie." I have to admit, that wrench is way more useful in the toolbox than I would've thought.

So, if you're stuck, the problem may be that you're tyring to break your plot before you've really structured your story. Try focusing on your story first, in the larger broad strokes of emotional movement, or conflict/obstacle. Then, when you have that working, figure out how the plot works to get you through your story. Just be aware that these are two separate jobs, and that may help you.

Let's say I'm breaking my movie. For example, in my first act, do I need to have introduced every character, every element, every detail ... ? No, I just need to know, by page 28, what everybody's status is, how they feel about it, and promise an interesting change. Complications ensue (heh) from decisions, leading to a big story change/obstacle in the middle, more struggles with obstacles in either heightened or changed emotions, and the in act three, all the decisions come home to roost. Once I've got my story broken, then I can worry about the plot structure and tone appropriate to this particular piece.

Later this week: Nuts and Bolts


*specifically, most executives only consider transformative arcs. There are also revelatory arcs. Almost every big-budget franchise hero (and good villain) has a revelatory arc.

48 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, imho, TV and feature writers (good ones, anyway) look at story and character the same way.

It's just that in television you have a much, much longer time to develop/change your characters. In film you've got maybe a hundred pages for a character arc. In TV you've got sometimes as much as 1200 pages.

Unknown said...

true, they should. I think there's a distinct division between old-school TV guys and the new guys who think in full-season arcs. Also, a big difference between sitcom writers and drama writers, and various shows.

For example, on ER,theychanged the characters over the course of a season. ON CSI,not so much. Also the reason I used Buffy in the example.

Having seen the problems some of my TV friends struggle with when trying to transition over to film, I'm not saying they don't think of story and character -- I'm saying they have a different relationship with thos elements in their toolbox.

Alex Wilson said...

That's gotta be the most informative blog entry I've read in months. For once I'm glad I chose ordinarily-brain-dead-web-surfing over getting work done just now. Thanks.

Alex Epstein said...

Thanks for the link and... I'm wondering why we continue to call it Three Act Structure when what you've described is obviously a Four Act Structure with the big wrench smack in the middle. If this were TV, you would go out just after Mr. I discovers he's hosed. And it's not just a question of plot, as you point out yourself: the story changes.

Aristotle also claimed women had a different number of teeth than men, y'know.

Anonymous said...

Gah. Pet peeve: Transition is NOT A VERB.

Unknown said...

I was using it as a noun. as shorthand for "there's a transition here"

Unknown said...

It'a a three act structure because the process of that part of the story doesn't change, even when that big wrench of a complication is sitting in the middle of it. It's still a complication, just a bigger one. Its job in the story isn't any different than the other complications in the second act. Its job in the plot is quite singular. Thinking about it in that way is one of the tools I use to help me integrate my story more naturally with my plot.

The bare bones of story is introduction/complications/resolution. That midpoint complication doesn't change the nature of what those pages are doing. It doesn't resolve anything, it just changes things. Complication. But plotwise, it changes a lot.

I'm not proselytizing the three-act here, I'm just pointing out that the confusion between story and plot leads to a lot of problems for young writers. Specifically, when they're learning how to structure movies, the sequence concept is essentially useless (in my mind) because they try to use it to build up the larger structure of the story, and get lost.

I'll cede (and always have) you can figure out how to pace and structure your PLOT any way you want. But your STORY is still problem/complications/resolution.

However, I think learning how to effectively use your midpoint can help with the "long, dry desert of the second act" issue so many beginning writers (and let's face it, pros) face. I know whenever anyone asks me what the toughest part of writing a movie is, I always say "Page 75. If you don't have a gun in your mouth on page 75, God bless you."

(Also, INCREDIBLES is an odd example. I myself found a weird jaggy bit in my enjoyment of the movie precisely at that point, because I could feel the flow and focus shift.)

DJ said...

Having actually written with Mr. Rogers, I embrace his love of structure. It/he as made me way to much money. But is the thing that has always driving me nuts. Fixing structure is the easiest thing to do in the world. Write something good/interesting/funny/new and they can hire someone to fix it. It is something you can learn in a book. Yes, having knowledge of how to structure a script is very important but it cannot be the paramount thing you are worried about. I remember drinking with Eugene O’Neil when he sad to me “Should we break the first of act “Long days Journey into Night” at page 21 or 23?”

Rogers is a F***king amazing writer and he has made me better everyday. Write something interesting and then worry about structure. We are not plumbers we are supposed to artist. Write something worth selling. They will find you. If you are good they will always find you. Trust me on that.

Unknown said...

And this, my friends, is what you get when your best friend is your actual Id. How It left my body and somehow started sleeping with waitresses, I'll never know ...

William said...

Just what I've been searching for. Looking forward to more of nuts and bolts in the future....Thanks.

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Anonymous said...

Great stuff you have here, but one question: Revelatory arcs? That's a completely new one to me, or at least the term. Can you explain the difference between the two?

Unknown said...

re: Black Background

We go back and forth on this all the time -- this is what the last vote wound up. I personally find it eye-frying on a super-high res monitor, but it's gorgeous on my Powerbook. Go figure.

I'll probably tweak again soon.

Anonymous said...

The distinction between story and plot is awesome. I have a script I'm working on which storywise is three acts and plotwise is six acts! With the midpoint falling in the middle of the story Act II and at the end of the plot Act III.

I wonder if what I call "plot acts" is what you mean by sequences -- or are you using the "traditional" meaning of a sequence being a series of connected scenes?

Love to have your comments about the TV show 24, which I totally worship and which has changed my approach to plotting. What Aristotle basically said, I think, is that the dramatic action should be compressed into as short a time as possible. And this is what 24 does!

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of the difference between transformative and revelatory character arcs before and would love to learn more. Is "revelatory arc" your term? What does it mean and how does it differ from a transformative arc?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I've learned a lot from your site.

Anonymous said...

All stories can be broken down into three (or sometimes four) acts, so this is not a useful method of analysis; the INCREDIBLES is a variation of the Hero's Journey, against which a more insightful analysis is possible...

tom gastall said...

John - sorry to post in a old entry, but I'm rereading the ones on writing - Do you find that 120pgs is still the standard for a feature script, or do writers seem to be writing shorter (or longer) scripts?

Anonymous said...

this is cool but kinda hard to understan sometimes from and amateur's point of view

Anonymous said...

This was fascinating, thank you. I heard an interview once with Christopher Nolan where he talked about how the hardest part of selling Batman Begins was continually running up against the confusion that plot was the same as premise, which I thought about a lot as I read this entry.

Anonymous said...

I woder iof u can help me understand Harold pinter's plot in the dumb waiter.

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eskişehir said...

very nice

eskişehir çilingir anahtarcı anahtar kilit servisi said...

very good

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