“How should I plot my screenplay?”
In ten years of teaching creative writing, these
are the questions I’ve been asked more than any other. I’m not sure what kind
of answer is expected. Something about the Hero’s Journey? Three Act Structure
anyone? How about a dash of Vladimir Propp or Gustav Freytag?
I have just started teaching a course on plotting
novels and screenplays for Writing School Leicester, so these questions have
been much on my mind. And I have been researching the ways different
writers go about it.
Some do indeed build works of long fiction on an
understanding of archetypal plot structures and story blueprints. But many
others do not. Whereas most structural models tend to be quite similar to each
other, there is a wide variation in the approaches to plotting used by writers.
I find that diversity strangely comforting.
Some people recommend plotting everything first
and then – when the story has been completely conceived – writing it down. Others
like to start writing about an interesting situation, but have no knowledge of
where the story is going to end up. And between those two extremes, the total planners
and the story explorers, there is an infinite range of possibilities.
“How should I plot?”
The short answer seems to be: “In whatever way
suits you best.”
