Screenplay

Your subject will find you, given the opportunity. It’s very simple. Trust yourself. Just start looking for an action and a character.

When you can express your idea succinctly in terms of action and character—my story is about this person, in this place, doing his/her “thing”—you’re beginning the preparation of your screenplay.

The next step is expanding your subject. Fleshing out the action and focusing on the character broadens the story line and accentuates the details.

subject is really looking for you. You’ll find it someplace, at some time, probably when you’re least expecting it. It will be yours to follow through on or not, as you choose

The writer must always exercise choice and responsibility in determining the dramatic execution of the story. Choice and responsibility—these words will be a familiar refrain throughout this book. Every creative decision must be made by choice, not necessity. If your character walks out of a bank, that’s one story. If he runs out of a bank, that’s another story.

Every screenplay dramatizes an action and a character. You, as the screenwriter, must know who your movie is about and what happens to him or her. It is a primary principle in writing, not only in screenplays but in all forms of writing.

Screenplays are no different. They have a definite beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order.

Some of you may not believe that. You may not believe in beginnings, middles, and ends, either. You may say that art, like life, is nothing more than several individual “moments” suspended in some giant middle, with no beginning and no end, what Kurt Vonnegut calls “a series of random moments” strung together in a haphazard fashion.

A formula, however, is totally different. A formula never varies; certain elements are put together so they come out exactly the same each and every time. If you put that coat on an assembly line, every coat will be exactly the same, with the same pattern, the same fabric, the same color, the same cut, the same material. The coat does not change, except for the size. A screenplay, on the other hand, is unique, a totally individual presentation.

The paradigm is a form, not a formula; it’s what holds the story together. It is the spine, the skeleton. Story determines structure; structure doesn’t determine story.

The dramatic structure of the screenplay may be defined as a linear arrangement of related incidents, episodes, or events leading to a dramatic resolution.

What’s the distinction between form and formula? The form of a coat or jacket, for example, is two arms, a front, and a back. And within that form of arms, front, and back you can have any variation of style, fabric, color, and size—but the form remains intact.

Do all good screenplays fit the paradigm? Yes. But just because a screenplay is well structured and fits the paradigm doesn’t make it a good screenplay, or a good movie. The paradigm is a form, not a formula. Structure is what holds the story together.

Plot Point II is really the same as Plot Point I; it is the way to move the story forward, from Act II to Act III. It is a story progression. As mentioned, it usually occurs anywhere between pages 80 or 90 of the screenplay.