Now that you have answered some general questions about the story, it’s time to go into specific detail about the overall story.
What is the PLOT? (This is the A-Story that carries the action.)
What is the SUB-PLOT (This is the B-Story that usually carries the theme.)
What is the INCITING INCIDENT? (This is the event in Act One that happens to the main character. This event, or incident, forces them to take some kind of action and sets the story in motion.)
What is the SPINE of the story? (The spine is basically the reason for the character’s journey. It’s what the character wants and the spine of the main character usually runs parallel to the central theme of the script.)
In any film, a character should have only one spine for the whole story and to find a character’s spine, look for that character’s transforming event (in Act 1) and its end result (in Act 3.)
What is the MAIN QUESTION to be answered? (This is the main character’s problem (situation) set up in Act 1 that has to be solved by the end of Act 3.)
What are the all the ACTION POINTS? (These are all the dramatic events in the story that cause the main character to react in some way. These events could be physical or emotional.)
What (or who) is the main SOURCE OF CONFLICT? (This could be an event, situation or a person.)
Who is the PROTAGONIST? (This is the main character of the story who has to take the hero’s journey.)
Who is the ANTAGONIST? (This is the main adversary the hero has to face throughout the story and who the hero must defeat by the end of the film.)
Is there a second ANTAGONIST? (This could be another person, a mental state or a special environment. (Examples: The schizophrenic mind of the main character in A Beautiful Mind. The tornado in Twister. The planet Mars in The Martian. The sinking of the ship in Titanic.)
Who is the MOST INTERESTING CHARACTER? (This does not always have to be the main character.)
What is the RESOLUTION/CONCLUSION? (How does the story end?
What happens to all the characters? How is the theme resolved? The ending should be worth the wait for an audience – it should be an event in itself.)
