WRITING AND PRODUCTION
THE PLOT
Is the basic pattern of events that constitutes the essential action of the
writing.
It is the fundamental development through which the rise, progress
and resolution of the conflict are revealed to the audience.
It reveals how one event influences another and why people act as they
do.
DEVELOPMENT OF PLOT
Plot usually revolves around characters and two aspects of their lives:
the decisions they make and the struggles they face.
Characters play an important role in plot development.
It is the characters who face problems that build on the conflict in a
screenplay.
Characters help advance the plot in two critical ways:
1. Decisions by characters
Here a screenplay writer has to place a sequence of decisions that
characters must make as they confront their problems.
Point of distress
Suppose you have created a teenage lady with a great passion for music
who wants to pursue a career in music against her dad’s wish. The dad
wants her to be a lawyer and take over the family law firm and swears
that he would disown her if she go to law school.
The decision she makes, as she is pushed first in one direction by her
dreams to be a music diva and then in the other direction by her desire
to remain obedient to her father and loyal to the family tradition,
constitute basic steps in the development of the plot.
The conflict generated by the intense nature of the choices the lady
character has to make generates interest and seizes the attention of the
audience as the two choices are vital and significant to the young lady.
You can further heighten the conflict by having the young lady who
continues secretly with a music dream in school win an award and a trip
while at the same time the dad is taken ill.
Note that in a situation where a character is struggling to make a
decision, the goal should not be self-evident
2. Characters struggle to reach a goal
In this situation a character has made a decision between two
competing and conflicting choices and he/she has to struggling to
accomplish a certain goal.
The plot does not advance because the character is trying to make a
decision but because the character has to achieve a certain goal based
on the decision.
For instance, in the event that the lady character created above has
decided to pursue music, then the plot will advance as we will move to
a situation where she is struggling to make ends meet as a disowned
teenager who seeks to be a music star.
Note that a screen play maybe
Decision-centered – plotted around the choices made by the
leading character
Goal-oriented – struggles of a leading character as they seek to
achieve a goal.
Deal equally with decisions and goals but the onus is on the
screenplay writer not to bite more than they can chew.
Action in plot development
Action is not the same as activity in a screen play even though activity is
important in providing movement.
Simply put action refers to change and there is action in a screenplay if
changes are constantly taking place.
Important changes occur when characters make decisions as they try to
achieve their goals.
For instance, our teenage character may cause an important change by
deciding that she will lie to the father that she has quit music and try
and do music as she goes to school. This will definitely lead to a set of
actions as the plot develops as she will have to live a double life. The
other choice could be to disagree with the dad and get disowned in
which case she will be kicked out of home and the dad will stop paying
her fees etc. the second choice is likely to move the plot forward in an
interesting way and you can fast track the teenage character
irrevocably down the path to her lowest ebb by introducing more
actions that would develop the story further. For instance, her being
kicked out is likely to cause some sort of disharmonious change at home
as we see her struggles away from home.
Other types of actions/change that results in development of plots
include transition from success to failure or from failure to success that
characters experience as they make various moves in their struggles to
achieve their goals.
Think of sportspesa and the betting craze in Kenya and figure out how
you can create a house wife character and build a story of failure to
success out of her betting addiction against the husband’s wish.
DIALOGUE/SPEECH AND ACTION
Dialogue or speech can only be an action and a conduit for plot
development if whatever two or more characters are saying grows from
a decision made by one of these characters and leads inevitably to
another change.
For instance, if you remember the “weka condom mpangoni”
commercial that had two market women talk about “a mbugua” then
there dialogue or speech would have been a great action if the husband
of the one who was sleeping with Mbugua would have heard. Why
because it would have resulted in a change which would have propelled
the plot further.
Any dialogue between characters that is not directly related or relevant
to the basic issues of the play will only give rise to scenes that lack
action.
NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
What is the point of distress?
Creative Writing Project Title (make it evocative and inspiring)
Who is your audience? How will you reach them?
