January 2016 – Page 2 – Tokyo Screenplay Contest

BREAKOUT Screenplay Checklist: Advanced Plot Structures

Dynamic story forms evolve; stagnant genres wither.

The protagonist in a group screenplay is the group itself.

Regardless of type, thrillers make unlikely disasters seem terrifyingly real.

“Crossover” science fiction is not primarily about science and when successful does not feature dark protagonists.

Breakout biographical screenplays portray, from their opening lines, lives that are clearly significant.

Today’s historical screenplays usually are not sweeping sagas but are rather some other plot form — mystery, thriller, romance, etc. — set in another time.

To break “out of category,” a romance screenplay must be built on a breakout scale.

When linked short story collections break out, they may be episodic in structure, but nevertheless they feature powerful central conflicts and/or framing devices that unify the stories.

Great stories go in unpredictable directions.

Breakout screenplays tend to sprawl.

Inventing your own advanced plot structure demands experimentation, an understanding of the principles of breakout screenplay writing and a clear vision of your screenplay’s purpose.

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Building Screenplay Subplots

How, then, do you build a subplot? How should it be weighted? How many scenes should it entail? Go back to the three aspects of a successful subplot: connections, added complications and extra range. These dictate the size and, to some extent, the structure of subplots. Let us look at how.

In forging connections between plotlines, character lists and plotline chronologies can be helpful. There are probably unused connections between the plotlines in your current screenplay. Look for nodes of conjunction, such as settings. For instance, suppose in your main story line you have a wedding, while a subplot involves a breakup. Why not have both occur at the same time and in the same place?

Other nodes of connection can be built in backstory. It is a shame when paired characters have only one point of common reference, say childhood or college. A screenplay’s texture is generally much richer when there are multiple connections between characters. Why should a wife’s best friend be only her best friend? Cannot she also be the co-worker who is causing the wife’s husband a problem at his office? Cannot the co-worker’s own husband be the first wife’s doctor, who must inform her that she has cancer? Can the two men be old army buddies? Can the women have an old high-school rivalry?

Interwoven character relationships almost create plot complications all by themselves. They can help make plot outcomes dependent upon each other. In the above example, for instance, the office politics are going to change when the office exec learns that her best friend has cancer. The two army buddies — let’s say that they saved each other’s lives in Vietnam — are bound to fall out to some extent when the doctor can do nothing to cure the cancer killing his buddy’s wife.

Did you follow that hypothetical example? You did? Wow. A four-way plot like the one above poses big challenges. Do all four characters get their own full plot or even point of view? If so, the screenplay runs the risk of being too diffuse. In a three- or four-way situation, it may be better for the screenplay to be primarily about only one person. Which one? Hmm. The answer probably will depend on your own personal interests.

Anne Perry has built her longest-running Victorian mystery series around a pair of characters, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, whose marriage and contrasting backgrounds provide rich connections between plotlines. Thomas is the son of a groundskeeper wrongly convicted of a crime. He is lowborn and burning with a desire always to know the truth. Charlotte is a highborn woman offended by social inequalities and injustices that she sees around her — and there are plenty in 1890s London. They are married, but neither can wholly cross into the other’s world. They can, however, investigate crimes from differing angles, and it is the clash and connections between society and the street that lend this series its interwoven plots and storytelling range.

Connections between characters can sometimes feel a little contrived, of course, but I find most readers willing to accept them provided the connections are drawn in enough detail to make them convincing. If plot connections do not feel natural, it is important to work on them until they do. Take Anne Perry: How does she keep Thomas and Charlotte’s marriage from seeming a contrivance? She does this by making their love for one another warm and wholly genuine.

Range can be added to a screenplay not only by selecting a cast from different levels of your world but by having characters leap between story lines, possibly even change places. Great plot twists come from a sudden elevation, or fall, from one level to another. Altering a character’s role can make a plot twist, too; for example, as with the mystery benefactor who is revealed as the bum sleeping in a cardboard box in the park. Look in your current manuscript for underutilized characters who can cross plotlines. Put them to work. Your screenplay will be richer for the interweaving that you do.

Contrast is also essential in constructing subplots. What use is it to rehash the main story line’s conflicts or its circumstances? Be sure your subplots are truly different from your main story line in purpose, tone and substance. Only then will your manuscript have the multidimensional feel of a breakout screenplay. Repetition adds nothing.

Finally, how many scenes should you give your subplots? As many as they need, but far fewer than the main plotline. If, no matter what you do, a given subplot outweighs the main plotline, then obviously it is richer in inherent conflict and other qualities. It probably ought to be the main plot.

None of the techniques I am talking about are easy. Adding subplots multiplies the work involved in writing a screenplay. It can also multiply the rewards, both for the reader and the screenwriter. Think big. It pays off in many ways.

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