Reader Question: Structure is character. Agree or disagree and why?

Art asks:

Structure is character. Agree or disagree and why?

If by structure you mean story structure or plot, and if by character you mean the characters in a story, and if your implication is a story’s plot should arise from character, I agree 100%. However I have a bit of a different language system.

My first screenwriting principle is this:

Plot = Structure

Screenplays are unique narrative forms in that they are a blueprint to produce a movie, so naturally there is, as there ought to be, a significant focus on their structure. But more than that, as Aristotle indicated with his articulation of beginning, middle, and end, Joseph Campbell with The Hero’s Journey, and others, there are innate universal elements to story, a sense of structure all humans share, both consciously and subconsciously. So when we talk about plot — and in particular a screenplay or TV script plot — we are first and foremost talking about structure.

My second screenwriting principle is this:

Character = Function

Just as there are innate aspects of story we share as human beings, there are also universal character archetypes, five of which we see in movie after movie: Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster. The reason these character types are ubiquitous is they provide necessary functions in the metamorphosis process that most Protagonists go through in movies. For in the two realms of a screenplay universe — the External World (Plotline) and Internal World (Themeline) — the Protagonist’s psychological journey is almost always one grappling with their fundamental sense of Disunity, forced to confront the many varied aspects of their psyche, these ideas articulated, of course, by Carl Jung.

The beauty of approaching the story-crafting process from this vantage point is that for the first time — at least to my knowledge — we can truly put flesh on the bones of the old adage, “Character is plot.” Starting with the Protagonist, we begin a process of discovery that reveals what lies at the heart of their Disunity, an end point (Unity), characters who engage the Protagonist in their metamorphosis journey, and a Plotline that serves as a backbone for the overall story. All of that and everything else in the story emerging from the characters.

So do I agree “structure is character?” Basically yes, although as indicated above, I have a slightly different language system.

By the way, these two principles are two of eight I teach through Screenwriting Master Class in eight Core classes. Plus I use them with writers in the Prep: From Concept to Outline, Pages I: The First Draft, and Pages II: Rewriting Your Script workshops. In combination, I think these principles and corollary ideas represent a truly unique and cutting edge approach to screenwriting, starting the process where it should begin — with characters.

[Originally posted May 18, 2011]

NOTE: My next session of Prep: From Concept to Outline begins Monday. Learn a professional approach to working out your story and use it for all your future writing projects. Plus you actually speed up your first draft process and increase your chances of finishing the script by wrangling your story in prep. Sign up here.