- Drama and Conflict
Conflict goes to the very heart and essence of storytelling – without conflict, there is no drama! Good drama shows characters in confrontation with each other as a result of their having opposite objectives. And when you put characters in conflict with one another, the audience experiences this conflict and they are drawn to the story.
“Without conflict there is no action; without action there is no character; without character there is no story. And without story there is no screenplay.” Syd Field, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (Dell Publishing, 1979)
Example #1 (No Conflict) – A Man comes home from work.
Husband – “How was your day dear?
Wife – “I had a great day. And how was your day dear?”
Husband – “My day was great.”
Example #2 (Little Conflict) – A Man comes home from work.
Husband – “How was your day dear?”
Wife – “I had a great day. And how was your day dear?”
Husband – “I just got fired!”
Example #3 (More Conflict) – A Man comes home from work.
Husband – “How was your day dear?”
Wife – “I saw the Doctor today and we’re going to have twins!”
Husband – “Oh my God! I just got fired!”
Eight Sources of Conflict
1 – Man against Man
Movie Example: Hell in the Pacific – Lee Marvin
2 – Man against Himself
Movie Example: A Beautiful Mind – Russell Crowe
3 – Man against Nature
Movie Example: Twister – Bill Paxton
4 – Man against Society
Movie Example: Philadelphia – Tom Hanks
5 – Man against Supernatural
Movie Example: Ghost Busters – Bill Murray
6 – Man against Machine/Technology
Movie Example: The Terminator – Arnold Schwarzenegger
7 – Man against Destiny/Fate
Movie Example: Excalibur – Nigel Terry
8 – Man against God/Principle
Movie Example: The Mission – Robert DeNiro
- Story and Plot
(by Michael Bruce Adams)
Depending on who is doing the story analyzing (writer, director, film critic) you can have varied perceptions of what story is and what plot is.
From a writer’s perspective story is every element that goes into building the narrative opus that will inspire the next Golden Globe including but not limited to story structure, characters, subtext, dialog and plot.
Plot in its simplest expression is the story events in sequence that your characters (hero, allies and opponents) journey through.
There is some confusion about the importance of plot in writing. Due to a glut of feature films that were heavy on plot and low on character (which translates to low on substance) filmgoers began to crave anti-plot films. I don’t even know what the heck that means.
Plot is vital to story. *John Truby in his book “The Anatomy of Story” tells us that plot and character are two sides of the same story coin. I agree. Plot should be treated with the same respect and care in the story structure process as character, subtext, motivation, etc.
When most writers begin setting up a story they think of plot first. They try to get down a cool sequence of events that their characters can sink their teeth into. Unfortunately, what that means is they have to pigeonhole their characters, regardless of the transformational story arcs and motivations, into that ‘cool sequence of events’. Or worse, reverse engineer character arcs based on that cool sequence of events. (Shudder!)
The key to understanding plot and building great plots is to view plot as the result of your characters motivations, decisions and actions.
Motivate your hero into making their first decision. The action they take from that decision, and their reaction to the result, will naturally motivate them into their next decision and action. If you work to find the broadest spectrum of truthfully motivated possibilities for your hero’s decisions, actions and reactions you will never run out of ideas or end up in a clichéd situation. Your plot ‘organically’ moves forward based on realistic motivation.
*John Truby, The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (Faber & Faber, 2007)
You are good in drama