Happy
Solstice!! It’s the first day of summer, and naturally our minds turn to thoughts
of shark attacks. I mean, of happy days at the beach.
I
know that many of you are doing Junowrimo. And you know my advice at this point
is JUST KEEP WRITING. But this is the point in a book that you may feel a bit,
well, lost. And so I’m going to give you my best advice about how to get
UNlost:
When
all else fails, go back and take a look at the hero/ine’s PLAN.
• What does the protagonist WANT?
• How does he PLAN to do it?
• What’s
standing in her/his way?
Then
once you’ve got your initial plan, you need to be constantly blocking that
plan, either with your antagonist, or the hero/ine’s own inner conflict, or
outside forces beyond her or his control. If the hero/ine were able to carry
out the plan without a hitch, it wouldn’t make for very good drama, would it?
So throughout
the second act, the antagonist has his or her own goal and plan, which is in
direct conflict or competition with the hero/ine’s goal. We may actually see
the forces of evil plotting their plots, or we may only see the effect of the
antagonist’s plot in the continual thwarting of the hero/ine’s plans. Both
techniques are effective.
This continual
opposition of the protagonist’s and antagonist’s plans is the main underlying
structure of the second act.
The hero/ine’s
plans should almost always be stated. The antagonist’s plans might be clearly
stated or kept hidden, but the effect
of his/her/their plotting should be evident. It’s good storytelling if we, the
reader or audience, are able to look back on the story at the end and
understand how the hero/ine’s failures were a direct result of the antagonist’s
scheming.
I’d
like to demonstrate all of this by following a plan through a classic movie. And
to celebrate the first day of summer, of course that movie is JAWS.
Book by Peter Benchley
Screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottleib
Directed by Stephen Spielberg
When
in Jaws, Sheriff Brody is confronted
with the problem of a great white shark eating people in his backyard (ocean),
his initial PLAN is to close the beach to swimmers. He throws together some
handmade “Beaches Closed” signs and sticks them in the sand. Problem solved,
right?
Yeah,
right.
If
that initial plan had actually worked, Jaws
wouldn’t have made a gazillion dollars worldwide, not to mention cinematic
history. The whole point of drama (including romance and comedy) is that the
hero/ine’s plan is constantly being thwarted: by the main antagonist, by any
number of secondary and tertiary opponents, by the love interest, by the
weather, or by the hero/ine him or herself (because you know, we’re all our own
worst enemies!).
So
almost always, the initial plan fails. Or if it seems to succeed, it’s only to
trick us for a moment — before we realize how wretchedly the plan has failed.
That weak initial effort is because it’s human nature to expend the least
effort possible to get what we want. We only take greater and more desperate
measures if we are forced to. And a
hero/ine being forced to take greater and more desperate measures is one of the
cornerstones of dramatic action.
Now,
in Jaws, the primary antagonist is
the shark. The shark’s PLAN is to eat. Not just people, but whatever it can
sink its teeth into. (Interestingly, that plan seems to evolve….)
Brody’s
initial PLAN of closing the beaches might actually have solved his problem with
the shark, because without a steady supply of food, the beast probably would
have moved on to another beach with a better food supply.
But
Brody’s initial PLAN brings out a secondary antagonist: the town fathers, led
by the mayor (and with a nice performance by co-screenwriter Carl Gottleib as
the newspaper editor). They don’t want the beaches closed because the summer
months, particularly the Fourth of July weekend, represent seventy percent (or
something like that) of the town’s yearly income. The officials’ PLAN is to
keep the beaches open, a direct conflict to Brody’s plan. So the town fathers
obliquely threaten new Sheriff Brody with the loss of his job if he closes the
beaches, and Brody capitulates.
This
proves disastrous and tragic when the very next day (as Brody watches the ocean
from the beach, as if that’s going to prevent a shark attack!), another
swimmer, a little boy, is killed by the shark practicing its PLAN.
The
town fathers hold a town meeting and decide on a new PLAN: they will close the
beaches for twenty-four hours. Brody disagrees, but is overruled. Eccentric
ship’s captain Quint offers his services to kill the shark —for ten grand. The
town fathers are unwilling to pay.
In
response, Brody develops a new PLAN, one we see often in stories: he contacts
an Expert From Afar, oceanographer Matt Hooper, a shark specialist, to come in
and give expert advice.
Meanwhile
a new antagonist, the grieving mother of the slain little boy, announces a PLAN
of her own: she offers a bounty for any fisherman who kills the shark that
killed her son.
The
bounty brings on a regatta of fishermen from up and down the eastern seaboard.
One of these crews captures a tiger shark, which the mayor is quick to declare
is the killer shark. Case closed, problem solved, and the beaches can be
reopened. Hooper is adamant that the shark is far too small to have caused the
damage done to the first victim, and wants to cut the shark open to prove it.
The mayor refuses, and is equally adamant that there is no more need for
Hooper. We see that Brody secretly agrees with Hooper, but wants to believe
that the nightmare is over. However, when the dead boy’s mother slaps Brody and
accuses him of causing her son’s death (by not closing the beaches), Brody
agrees to investigate further with Hooper (PLAN), and they sneak into cold
storage to cut the shark open themselves to check for body parts. Of course,
they discover it’s the wrong shark.
Brody’s
revised PLAN is to talk the mayor into closing the beaches, but the mayor
refuses again and goes on with his plan to reopen the beaches (and highly
publicize the capture of the “killer” shark).
The
beaches reopen for 4th of July and the town fathers’ failsafe PLAN is to post
the Coast Guard out in the ocean to watch, just in case. While everyone is
distracted by a false shark scare, the real shark glides into a supposedly
secure cove where Brody’s own son is swimming, and eats a boater and nearly
kills Brody’s son. (And the timing is so diabolical that it almost seems the
shark has a new PLAN of its own: to taunt Brody and menace his family.)
At
that point the mayor’s PLAN changes: he writes a check for Quint and gives it
to Brody to hire Captain Quint to kill the shark. But that’s not enough for
Brody now. He needs to go out on the boat with Quint and Hooper himself,
despite his fear of the water, to make sure this shark gets dead (NEW PLAN).
This
happens at the story’s MIDPOINT, and it’s a radical revamp of Brody’s initial
plan (which was always to avoid going in the water himself, at all costs). And
it’s very often the case that at the midpoint of a story, the initial PLAN is
completely shattered.
And
yet, Brody is still not ultimately committed. For the next half of the second
act, he allows first Quint and then Hooper to take the lead on the shark hunt.
Quint’s PLAN is to shoot harpoons connected to floating barrels into the shark
and force it to the surface, where they can harpoon it to death. But the shark
proves far stronger than anyone expected, and keeps submerging, even with
barrel after barrel attached to its hide.
And
now a truly interesting thing happens. The shark, supposedly a dumb beast,
starts to do crafty things, like hide under the boat so the men think they’ve
lost it. It seems to have a new, intelligent PLAN of its own. And when the
men’s defenses are down, the shark suddenly batters into the ship and breaks a
hole in the hull, causing the boat to take on alarming quantities of water, and
making the men vulnerable to attack.
Brody’s
PLAN at that point is to radio for help and get the hell off the boat. But in
the midst of the chaos, Quint suddenly turns into an opponent himself by
smashing the radio — he intends to kill this shark on his own.
Hooper
takes over now and proposes a new PLAN: he wants to go down in a shark cage to
fire a poison dart gun at the shark. But the shark attacks the cage, and then
as the boat continues to sink, the shark leaps half onto the deck and eats
Quint.
Brody
is now on his own against the shark, and in one last, desperate Hail Mary PLAN
(the most exciting kind in a climax), he shoves an oxygen tank into the shark’s
jaws and then fires at the shark until the tank explodes, and the shark goes up
in bloody bits. As almost always, it is only that last ditch plan, in which the
hero/ine faces the antagonist completely on his or her own, that saves the day.
I
hope this little exercise gives you an idea of how it can be really
enlightening and useful to focus on and track just the plans of all the main characters
in a story and how they clash and conflict, especially how they FAIL. Because
every time a plan fails, it requires a recalibration and a new action, which
builds tension, suspense, emotional commitment, and excitement.
If
you find your own plot sagging, especially in that long middle section, try
identifying and tracking the various plans of your characters. It might be just
what you need to pull your story into new and much more exciting alignment.
And
here’s a hint: you may find it useful to put those huge failures of the plan at
your Midpoint and at the Act Two Climax — the Dark Night of the Soul/All Is
Lost scene. Every time your hero/ine loses big, it makes the reader wonder WHAT
HAPPENS NEXT, and that’s what we’re after, here. You want your reader to be as
desperate as your hero/ine is to win.
Now back
to writing! Or the beach!
-
Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. e format, just $3.99 and $2.99; print 13.99.
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You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. e format, just $3.99 and $2.99; print 13.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)
- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $14.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $14.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
---------------------
You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
