Image source: Pixabay

Many young up and coming scriptwriters dream of making the next Hollywood blockbuster film. But very few realize that scriptwriting is an art of story-telling where a good movie needs to tell a good story. Scriptwriting is also a process that involves more than the customarily perceived grammar check and creative thinking and writing

In this beginner’s guide, we will look at what plotting entails and the process of plotting a good film script.

What is plotting?

Plotting is the course that a story follows. This consists of a sequence of events that are slowly narrated, sometimes in an unexpected way. Plotting is the nuts and bolts of piecing a script together.

In a plot, a story that has to do with conflict and meaning is turned into moments that reveal character, build suspense, convey exposition and expose emotion so as to deepen the involvement of the audience in the work. The scriptwriter looks for a certain action that will attract the audience to how a specific character acts and react, either emotionally or intellectually. He/she will then create scenes to show the action, convey exposition, and reveal character.

The scriptwriter should find the line that reveals how an action led to the next and so on. This builds a series of events that flows smoothly and in a comprehensible manner. The scenes are made to connect to each other.in the most moving, surprising, and interesting ways. Plotting is the art of creating relationships between scenes so as to create a more meaningful and compelling story.

Emotional Plotting

The best plots build emotions that are important and real. However, seeing a screenplay where feeling flows with the story is one of the most difficult things when working on a script. Emotion is a crucial aspect that influences a character’s actions and reactions. Stories often feel flat if they lack passion or are not integrated well.

Suspense

This is another difficulty scriptwriters face when working on a screenplay. Good suspense can be built in as much as five to fifteen minutes of screen time.  This translates to a couple of pages on the script. A good scriptwriter will know how to identify these segments of the story and build them into powerful parts of the action that contributes to the general success of the film.

Good stories are also made of a particular structure that is utilized in the world of cinema as well as novels.

The Act Structure

This comprises of four acts. The first act is where you introduce a story and get the audience exhilarated to a certain idea or promise. In the second act, you present conflict and get the good guys or hero into trouble with the villain. The third and final acts are the climax of the story, where things come to an end.

Having a good act one is essential as this can actually have it made into a movie. Producers will often read this part and decide whether to produce it or not. The typical length of the beginning act is 25 pages. If producers, after reading these pages are still not hooked, they won’t bother going ahead to turn it into a film. Pay a lot of attention to it if you want to know how to plot any script correctly.

Put Your Characters into Action

The second act of your script is where your story is sustained. Act one sets up the place and introduces the characters. Act two now puts them in action. The most popular plot iN most movies is a dispute between good and evil. Your most favorite movie probably has the plot of a good guy facing off a bad guy.

Learning Curve

Do not peak your story during the conflict phase. This will disinterest the audience in watching the rest of the film. The learning process if learning how to plot a film script is a gradual process. The actual scriptwriting process is also a continuous task. Many people have tried, and many have failed to see their movies turned into films. The best bet is that the scripts failed in the second act stage.

Also, during the third and final act of the story, most of the stories end with the good guy overcoming the odds and prevailing against the villain. Some movies, however, try to be different and choose a different path other than the happy ending. Others even leave the audience in suspense to decide for themselves how the story ended.