More for Forest People (plot point)


If you took my "shortcut" advice about structure, then you are writing your script in four files or modules. And as you leave the hero's call to action, you should notice that you have only 5 or 10 pages left in which to turn your story around into a surprising new direction.

As a forest person, your guidelines are in your head for the most part. So you need to pay attention to the structural demands of the script at each stage of development, which is another reason I recommend the "four file" approach because then you have less to worry about at one time.

The plot point that happens here can seem to come out of nowhere - Jake discovers that Mr. Mulray is dead in Chinatown - but it will have to have dramatic justification later. It has to make sense.

When the Greek playwrights got stuck in their stories, they dropped one of the gods down from the heavens to fix everything right - what is now called the deus ex machina. We don't allow that here.

Try to have a physical sense of the length of your file/module as you write act one, and when the hero commits to what will be the story, which happens more than halfway through this part of the script, realize that you have little time now to introduce the act's closing plot point.

It's easier for forest people than for tree people to go off on tangents. Sometimes, just for the heck of it, you may want to let yourself go with the flow, just to see if anything interesting develops.

But realize you are in a hugely economical writing form, where every scene must be justified, and understand that these little excursions probably will not lead to useful places and even when they do, your work will have to be pruned considerably.

The more you keep your hero center stage, the easier it will be for you to keep on track and in focus.

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MODULE 5: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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