Story Design
Page 8
On the next two pages is a Plot Outline Worksheet that a writer can use as a template for creating a story. Following that is a graph that represents the audience's emotional responses to plot points in a story. This
is one way that a writer can design a story so that the emotional plotting will result in an emotionally satisfying experience for the audience and make the story a popular Hollywood movie.
Writing Assignment:
Design a Prelude, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and Resolution structure for your story. Write a plot outline of your story that contains forty (40) major obstacles, with one for each scene. Arrange the plot outline with obstacles in your Prelude, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and Resolution structure. Study the structure of the scene sequence in the megahit movie E.T.
PLOT OUTLINE WORKSHEET
Unique Object:
Protagonist:
Antagonist:
Love Interest:
Protagonist-Supporter:
Antagonist-Supporter:
Prelude: (10 pages)
Introduces the antagonist: enmity scene (3 pages)
The Inciting Event: changes the everyday world of the protagonist and causes him to begin his quest for the unique object (2 pages)
Act One: (30 pages) with at least 10 Obstacles
The protagonist pursues the first subgoal with resistance,
but for each two steps forward, he takes only one step back.
Obstacle 1 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem Obstacle 2 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem Obstacle 3 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem
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.
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Obstacle 10 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem
The protagonist confronts the antagonist and prevents the antagonist from possessing both the primary objective and the love interest. The completion of the first subgoal results in the first plot twist and sends the protagonist off to accomplish subgoal2.
Act Two: (45 pages) with at least 15 Obstacles
The protagonist pursues the second subgoal (plan). The antagonist dominates this act. For each step forward, the hero takes two steps back.
Obstacle 1 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem Obstacle 2 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem Obstacle 3 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem
.
.
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Obstacle 15 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem
Protagonist's Desperation Scene:
At the end of the second act, the antagonist defeats the protagonist and prevents the protagonist from possessing both the primary objective and the love interest. The protagonist’s situation is hopeless. All appears lost. The completion of second major subgoal results in the second plot twist.
There is a major empathy scene for protagonist. Because of this scene, the audience wants the protagonist to win the battle and defeat the antagonist.
Act Three: (15 pages) with at least 10 Obstacles
The protagonist pursues of the third major subgoal (plan).
Obstacle 1 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem Obstacle 2 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem Obstacle 3 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem
.
.
.
Obstacle 10 - Character overcomes this obstacle-problem
Chase Scene with Ticking Clock:
This creates maximum suspense and excitement for the audience.
Climax Scene:
The protagonist's attempt to achieve the third major subgoal results in several plot twists. The antagonist will have possession of both the unique object and the love interest before the climax scene. In the climax scene, the protagonist will fight with the antagonist for both. During the battle, the protagonist triumphs and the antagonist is destroyed. The protagonist does not directly kill the antagonist, but the antagonist dies as a result of some action he initiated in his attempt to kill the protagonist.
Resolution: (5 pages)
The protagonist either obtains the unique object, or it is destroyed in the climax scene. The protagonist saves the love interest. The community celebrates their victory.
EMOTIONAL PLOTTING
An Emotional Scale ranging from +10 to -10 is used in the template for Emotional Plotting and the graph developed in the following sections.
A rating of +10 represents joy
A rating of -10 represents terror
A rating of +5 represents happiness
A rating of -5 represents fear or anxiety.
A rating of 0 represents emotional indifference
STORY
What's It All About?
Human Values
Virtues and Vices
Community Ideals
Basic Story Design
A-Story and B-Story
Story Climax and Plot Climax
HUMAN VALUES
Throughout the history of civilization, human beings have desired and held almost everything conceivable to be valuable. Although values are often relative to a culture and historical period, most people living would agree that the following human values are worthy of pursuit: life, security, love, freedom, health, wealth, education, and personal growth. Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics, analyzed the relationship between the good, happiness, and the virtues.
Virtue in a character is whatever makes him a good person and causes him to perform his functions well. Moral virtue is a mean between two vices, one that is an excess and the other a deficiency. Some of the virtues that Aristotle identified are intelligence, courage, self-control, generosity, ambition, gentleness, friendliness, and truthfulness.
A distinction can be made between instrumental values (virtues and vices) and community ideals. Instrumental values are conceived of as 'patterns of interpersonal behavior' that guides one's efforts to obtain an individual objective. The community ideals are those values that a culture or community promotes to maintain its well-being.
The values discussed below that can be considered to be virtues, vices, and community ideals are explained in great detail in The Nature of Human Values by Milton Rokeach.
VIRTUES and VICES
Instrumental values can be conceived of as 'patterns of interpersonal behavior' that guides a character's efforts to obtain an objective. The positive values (virtues) are usually promoted by the protagonist and his supporters. The negative values (vices) are often found in the attitudes and behavior of the antagonist and his supporters.
PROTAGONIST VALUES (The Virtues)
Ambitious (hard-working, aspiring)
Broad-minded (open-minded)
Capable (competent, effective)
Cheerful (lighthearted, joyful)
Clean (neat, tidy)
Courageous (standing up for one's beliefs)
Forgiving (willing to pardon others)
Helpful (working for the welfare of others)
Honest (sincere, truthful)
Imaginative (daring, creative)
Independent (self-reliant, self-sufficient)
Intellectual (intelligent, reflective)
Logical (consistent, rational)
Loving (affectionate, tender)
Obedience (dutiful, respectful)
Polite (courteous, well-mannered)
Responsible (dependable, reliable)
Self-controlled (restrained, self-disciplined)
ANTAGONIST VALUES (The Vices)
Unambitious (lazy, sloth)
Intolerant (prejudiced, dogmatic)
Incompetent (unskilled, inept)
Gloomy (depressed, miserable)
Dirty (untidy, messy, disorderly)
Cowardly (timid, fearful)
Blaming (condemning, censure)
Worthless (destructive, harmful)
Dishonest (untruthful, deceptive)
Ordinary (uncreative, mundane)
Subservient (servile, controlled)
Illiterate (unlearned, low-brow)
Hateful (hostile, mean, cruel)
Rude (discourteous, impudent)
Irresponsible (untrustworthy)
Undisciplined (unstable, hot-headed)
In some movies, the protagonist is developed as an anti-hero, in that his character is a mixture of virtues and vices. Also, when a writer gives an antagonist some virtues, along with vices, he becomes more sympathetic for the audience. This makes the story more emotionally engrossing for the audience, because they are not emotionally certain which is the most evil character. Raiders of the Lost Ark is structured this way with Indiana Jones and Belloc being "mirror images" of each other.
COMMUNITY IDEALS
Many of the megahit movies advocate freedom, true friendship, and family security as fundamental values, with the most common being the pursuit of the safety of a home (getting back home), or the preservation of the home from destruction (saving the world or the community). Other fundamental values expressed as community ideals are:
An exciting life (a stimulating, active life)
A sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution)
A world at peace (free of war and conflict)
A world of beauty (beauty of nature-creativity in the arts)
Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all)
Family security (taking care of loved ones)
Freedom (independence, free choice)
Happiness (contentment)
Inner Harmony (freedom from inner conflict)
Mature Love (sexual and spiritual harmony)
National Security (protection from attack)
Pleasure (an enjoyable, leisurely life)
Salvation (saved, eternal life)
Self Respect (self-esteem)
Social Recognition (respect, admiration)
True Friendship (close companionship)
Wisdom (a mature understanding of life)
BASIC STORY DESIGN
A story can be designed by choosing a unique concrete object that both the protagonist and antagonist desire. The protagonist desires it because it represents a positive value (such as national security or world preservation). The antagonist should want the same concrete object because it represents for him the opposite value (in this case, the destruction of the world so that he can create a new order with himself in power).
The antagonist's and protagonist's values express opposing community ideals. Assign a set of positive instrumental values to the protagonist (loyalty, compassion) and the opposite negative instrumental values to the antagonist (disloyalty, hatred). Next, create imaginative conflict scenes in which the protagonist and antagonist, along with their supporters, fight for the unique concrete object. In popular movies, the protagonist will eventually be the victor and obtain the objective, but in a way unexpected by the audience. Variations of this dramatic structure can be found in many of the megahit movies.
The theme of the story is revealed through the interplay of instrumental virtues and vices. Which values help or hinder the protagonist in the pursuit of his objective becomes the explicit theme of the story. The theme of the movie can also be considered to be the premise of the story.
Wizard of Oz exhibits the connections between the concrete objects that the characters desire and the values that these objects represent: Elmira Gulch wants Toto to be killed in order to obtain revenge. Dorothy desires a home as a safe haven from her problems. The Scarecrow desires a brain in order to obtain intelligence. The Tin Man desires a heart in order to have feelings and compassion. The Lion desires courage in order to have freedom from fear. The Wicked Witch of the West wants the ruby slippers to obtain absolute power in Oz.
Shrek
To achieve happiness, one must share their home with others. (Happiness)
Spider-Man
With great power comes great responsibility. Preservation of the community from crime necessitates fighting and destroying the sources of evil. (World Security)
Matrix Trilogy
Preservation of the community from terror necessitates fighting and destroying the source of evil, even if it requires self-sacrifice. (World Security)
Harry Potter: The Sorcerer s Stone
Sometimes one needs to break all the rules to save the world. (World Security)
Lord of the Rings
Preservation of the community from terror necessitates fighting and destroying the source of evil.
(World Security)
Writing Assignment: Assign three (3) virtues to your protagonist and three (3) vices to your antagonist. Write a scene showing the protagonist using the virtues when confronting an obstacle, and write a scene showing the antagonist displaying a vice when dealing with an obstacle
or problem. Study scenes from the Wizard of Oz and E.T. movies.
A-STORY and B-STORY
The A-Story in a movie tracks the efforts of the protagonist to obtain his primary objective. It is the sequence of actions he takes to overcome obstacles and problems that prevent him from achieving his goal.
The B-Story of the movie tracks the character's arc and transformation of his values as he pursues his objective. It usually also involves the changes in his relationship with the love interest of the story. The main emotional thrust of the movie is to be found in the B-Story.
E.T.
The A-Story is about getting ET back home. The B-Story is about Elliott earning self-respect plus the esteem of Michael's friends and his family.
Batman
The A-Story is about the fight between Batman and the Joker for control of Gotham City. The B-Story is about Bruce Wayne finally being able to share his secret life and tell Vicki Vale that he is really Batman.
Pirates of the Caribbean
The A-Story is about Barbossa getting the last Aztec coin so that he can end the curse. The B-Story is about Will Turner accepting that he can be both a pirate and a good man.
Writing Assignment: Describe the B-Story of the protagonist in your movie. Study Batman, focusing on the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale.
STORY CLIMAX vs PLOT CLIMAX
The plot climax answers the following questions: What happens to the primary objective? Who obtains the objective at the end of the film? What is the outcome of the battle between the protagonist and the antagonist?
The story climax answers a different set of questions: What is the final choice of the protagonist? What is the value expressed by this final choice? What code of behavior does this choice represent?
The plot climax focuses on the things that happen to the protagonist during his final battle: the events and obstacles that he has to overcome to obtain the final prize.
The story climax focuses on the final choice of values that the protagonist makes in his last battle with the antagonist. At this last moment before the completion of his "life and death" struggle with the antagonist, what interpersonal code of behavior does he ultimately choose?
In some stories, the primary objective itself is transformed when the hero decides that the "prize" is not worth the destruction of certain values that he holds dear. For the plot, it is the final events that are important. For the story, it is the final choice of the protagonist that is significant.
Matrix Trilogy
The story climax occurs when Neo accepts that he is the ONE and sacrifices himself to save the people of Zion. The plot climax occurs when the Machines stop destroying Zion.
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The story climax occurs when Frodo decides not to destroy the Ring. The plot climax occurs when Gollum falls into the lava river holding the ring, which is then destroyed.
Writing Assignment: Describe the Story-Climax and Plot-Climax of your movie. Study the climax scene in Star Wars.
SCENES
Creating those Special Moments
Point of Attack
Crisis
Confrontation
Climax
Resolution
A Model Scene
Opening Scenes
Introduction of Protagonist
/> Introduction of Antagonist
Climax Scenes
Resolution Scenes
SCENE MOMENTS
Scenes are the basic units through which a story is told. In each scene, the characters are in conflict over some "objective" that is necessary for the completion of either a subgoal or the primary objective of the story. By the end of the scene, one character will win the "objective" and the other will lose it. During the conflict over this scene objective, characters will make choices about their values, and character transformations will occur.