Rewriting Your Script (Part 5): Structure
In November, upward to 1,000 writers — myself included — took a crack at pounding out a script as part of the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge. Many of them reached FADE OUT / THE END. They’re probably like me, staring at my 86 pages of diamonds-in-the-rough amidst pages and pages of verbal manure pondering this question: How the hell do I rewrite this mess?
So I thought it would be helpful to do a GITS series on the rewrite process.
The first thing to acknowledge is that the same thing applies to rewriting as to writing: If there is no right way to write, there is no right way to rewrite. Every writer is different. Every story is different. And every rewrite is different.
That said, this week and next, I will lay out some keys to the rewriting process. If they help you, great. Use them with my blessing. If they don’t help you, feel free to chuck them… and find your own way.
But know this: Starting January 1, I invite you to join me in Rewrite Draft Thirty One: 31 days devoted to rewriting an original script. Hashtag: #RW31SCRIPT.
I will be hacking my way through my zero draft. If you have a draft from the recent ZD30 challenge or any script in need of revision regardless of its origin, mark your calendar. Take part in a communal effort to take our stories to the next level in this time-defined challenge.
Part 5: Structure
Normally when people talk about a screenplay’s structure, they focus on the Plotline, the positioning of major plot points and organization of sequences. That is only half the story.
Structure is comprised of both the Plotline [External World] and the Themeline [Internal World]. Think about it: Is a movie simply a series of events in the External World, action we see and dialogue we hear? If it is, it is inevitably a bad movie.
Events only impact an audience if they have meaning, and they only have meaning if there is something else going on in the underlying emotional life of the story.
Every scene must have something going on in both parts of the screenplay universe: External World and Internal World.
Therefore as a writer, you must think of screenplay structure as being comprised of Plotline and Themeline.
How best to do that? In almost every story, it is the Protagonist character [or characters] that drives this discussion. A Protagonist will almost invariably have a Want and a Conscious Goal, and a Need and an Unconscious Goal.
Their Want largely exists in and shapes the Plotline.
Their Need largely exists in and shapes the Themeline.
Because these two goals represent aspects of one character and eventually combine in the story’s final act, it is easy to grasp why the Protagonist is a key figure in creating the spine of your screenplay’s structure.
As a result, every scene, every major Plotline point, and every sequence must in some way be tied to the Protagonist’s twin goals of Want and Need.
So what approach to structure should you use when rewriting your script? Since I believe there is no right way to write a script, I don’t believe there is one structural paradigm or formula. I have my own take, what I call Narrative Throughline, but it is simply one approach to structure, not the approach.
One of the strengths of Narrative Throughline is it does track Plotline and Themeline. Ten Plotline points. Four Themeline points.
PLOTLINE: The Opening, The Hook, The Lock, Deconstruction Test, Transition, Reconstruction Test, All Is Lost, On The Offensive, Final Struggle, Denouement.
THEMELINE: Disunity, Deconstruction, Reconstruction, Unity.
By the way, the sequence approach slots right into Narrative Throughline.
Whatever your take, when you rewrite your script, you need to pay attention to its structure, both the events that occur in the External World and the movements that take place in the Internal World. And this leads to the next consideration: Pace. That is the subject of Monday’s post.
DON’T FORGET! Starting January 1, you are welcome to join me in #RW31SCRIPT, a month-long challenge to rewrite an original script from FADE IN to FADE OUT. Who’s with me? If you’re into it, join the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook page here.
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