Only a week left for pre-orders. If you have any interest in preordering (and getting a Felicia Day headshot, which she’s extending to all hardbacks ordered before 2/22) definitely do it now. Onto my next writing column:

SCREENWRITING TIP #3: Plot (1)

Some describe the plot of a screenplay as the spine of your story. Some say it is a series of red dots, each red dot being an important emotional or/and expositional step in the story being told. And then there is the old architectural standby, the plot is the support beams, the super structure upon which rests your story and characters.  Whatever you call it, what you are trying to lay out is the inevitable order of your story.  Not one scene too many, not one scene missing.

I think the best screenplays are the ones told with the minimum number of scenes, each one a truly BIG scene, not a string of little moments but a series of monumental scenes with as much depth of character and plot as you can muster, full of conflict.  Also with as little shoe leather and transition scenes, as possible.

You also want the audience, the reader or the moviegoer to become a participant in the story telling.  The human mind is always trying to make order and sense out of everything around us.  We look at the stars and without the proper science, make a mythology to explain what we see up in the night skies.  We explain the illogical untimely deaths of beloved men and women with conspiracy theories. So a good writer takes advantage of this predilection by leaving out parts of the story, the pieces that are obvious, and making the audience fill in those bits, forcing them to become a participant in the storytelling itself. Making them invest in the tale.

The hazard is that you can leave out too many bits and confuse your audience – and lose them.  Once they pull out of a movie and turn to the person next to them and ask, “What’s going on?” you have lost them. The suspension of disbelief you’ve worked so hard to achieve is gone and you have to start all over again.  Difficult enough the first time, even harder the second. So abbreviate carefully.

Also, be careful that you don’t beat the audience up with one big action or emotional scene after another.  A scene can be important, BIG, but still be quiet.  There is a natural rise and fall in good drama where the valleys are as important as the mountains.  As in music, the silent rests are as important as the notes. A grace note here and there can give the audience some respite and also set them up for the next tense scene. 

More about plot in the next update.