Dispatch from The Quest: Rob Pilkington

Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the third week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Rob ponders the wonders of plot points:

After nearly two weeks of Quest prep I was enormously uncomfortable with, we finally tackled something this past week that felt like putting on a perfectly worn, tried-and-true pair of sneakers: Plot points. Ah yes, that warm n’ cozy sweet spot between discovering a brand spankin’ new script idea and the willingness to rat out your own mother just to stop having to goddamn outline anymore. Look to the plot points, my friends. For they are powerful. And I like them quite a bit.

I first heard of some different version of them years ago from Syd Field’s Screenplay, one of the first (and few) screenwriting books I’ve ever taken a gander at. Admittedly, Field’s four plot points might be the only thing I remember from his book — but they really resonated and now I’m finally seeing why. It’s a visceral feeling to hammer down these tent stakes that will keep your story upright. That’s exciting stuff you wanna beat your chest to… right, neanderthal who single-handedly discovered space travel?

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Less exciting, of course, is knowing that after nailing these bad boys down in your script structure, you’ll have to actually fill the spaces in between them. The dense first act. The crackerjack homestretch. The impossible chasm of act II. Having these four anchor points is great, but tethering the path between them is likely to be tricky. Like rickety-Temple-of-Doom-fall-to-an-alligator-death tricky.

Whaddaya say, boys? Maybe we 86 this whole bridge thing all together, see?

But let’s not dwell too hard on that now. Let’s savor, for just a moment, the mighty plot points. They’re the earliest evidence of your story’s narrative thrust. The instance in which the single point of your idea becomes a line of breadth and direction. That sublime, blink-and-miss-it moment when the fertilized egg quivers into two… and then four cells.

Let’s all hope we’re creating a monster.

Your story’s beginning. End of Act One. End of Act Two. Ending. You don’t know that, you don’t know your story.

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch from The Quest.

About Rob: Boston writer headed for LA. Lover of Kubrick, Nolan, McDonagh, and the Coens. Okay, good talk. Back to writing. Twitter: @HeroesAreBoring. Note: Rob has officially relocated to LA.