Have you ever watched a movie and felt like it had no
spine. Did the story kind of meander all over the place
with no direction only to create a complication at the
end of the second act? Then it quickly spiraled into a
convenient resolution. This is the sign of a story with
no spine. It had no direction. The spine of
a story is the part that holds the story together. It
should provide the frame work. Think about your
spine and all the bones that connect to it. These
are the subplots and nuances that make a story
interesting. Each disk builds on top of the next
disk creating a strong foundation and core for your
story
The key to giving your story a spine is to use the plot
and then creating subplots that support the core of the
story. You have the B story or the romance with
the love interest. I always try to have more than
just one subplot. The subplot could be what ever
complication is going on at work. The love
interest and the work issues should help move the plot
forward.These are just two examples of what you can use
for a subplot to give your story's core some substance.
The other important aspect is to be sure they relate to
each other in some way. For example the
responsibilities at work could be getting in the way of
the relationship with the romantic interest. The
complication could be how to jugle both work and private
life. These struggles should relate to your protagonists
over all dramatic need. What is the quest of the
story? What does your main character want to
achieve. Ideally he doesn't realize this until the
story unwinds and at the midpoint of the movie there is
a realization that more change is needed.
Keep in mind these are general examples but the concept
is universal. Let's use an example from the
movie The Kings Speech. This movie won many
awards at the 2011 Oscars. The story was about a
royal prince who had a speech impediment. This is
the plot of the movie, his quest to be able to talk in
public. The subplot was his struggle to over come
his feeling of failure which manifested itself in his
relationship with the speech teacher. This feeling
of failure was also evident with his relationship with
his father. The stages where raised when his
brother decided to be with his mistress who was not only
a divorcee but also not royalty. So his older
brother could not be kind. This created another
subplot. How he struggled with supporting his
brother and not looking like he was undermining the
legitimacy of the thrown. The other subplot was
his relationship with his wife and children and how he
was a good father despite all the responsibilities of
being royalty. This was a story with
numerous subplots that built on each other. Each
subplot augmented the over all plot and moved the story
forward. As you can see this story has layers that
blend together to create a richly painted tale.
When you think about the spine of your story be sure to
remember that if needs to enlighten the audience and
entertain at the same time movie the story
forward. In order to achieve this support for the
plot the subplots and bones of the story need to fit
together like joints.
There are more articles on How To Write A Movie Script on Scott Youngs blog.
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