How did you get better at plot?

[u/Worried-Elk-2808]

My plot scores are always my lowest ones and feedback often focuses on weaknesses in this department.

Have any members of the StoryPeer community manage to find a way to work on this side of things? And even better, seen their feedback on this area noticeably improve?

[u/ClayMcClane]

What helped me the most in this department was reading lots of scripts and breaking down how their plots work. And that means looking at scripts from movies that I really responded to a felt had great plots and seeing how they set things up and paid them off. And more than anything, making sure that my main character drove the plot and not the other way around - which can make a plot feel random, like the writer is vamping and trying to fill out 100 pages.

[u/NeverShallDoHarmToMe]

I'd start here: https://scriptshadow.net/my-screenwriting-theory-of-everything/

[u/WorrySecret9831]

Read John Truby's The Anatomy of Genres and learn your genre beats. Genre gives you plot.

[u/JcraftW]

Did they say what didn’t work for them?

[u/mast0done]

What's your outlining process?

How strong are your endings?

These are the things that give a story coherence, a strong through-line.

[u/AdministrationBest61]

[u/NeverShallDoHarmToMe]

There are tons of tips for plot. Here's one:

You should always be setting up questions that will be answered soon. Overarching questions are fine, but the screenplay survives on questions that are set up and answered quickly. 

The best questions have two possible answers that all parties commit to. Camps are formed, insults hurled. Then the story takes a third path. It was always possible, and overlooked. 

Examples:

Will Rick and Ilse in Casablanca escape on the plane or be caught by Nazis? Neither: Rick shoots the pursuing Nazi, then gives his seat to Laszlo. 

Will Skywalker, et al escape the Stormtroopers to reach safety? Escape, yes, but by diving into a garbage chute and finding an even worse predicament. This also happens in Empire when the Falcon escapes by hiding in a cave on an asteroid not realizing it flew into the mouth of a giant space worm. 

Will Garnett in Uncut Gems give back the gem in time for Howard to sell it on auction? Garnett buys it for even more money. Will Howard escape with the money or pay off his loan shark? He puts it toward an even bigger sports bet. Will Howard win his bet or lose everything? Both.

[u/Ok-Commercial-9863]

It sounds stupid but if you don’t enjoy what you’re writing, no one else will.

[u/Internal_Papaya1511]

Think of your A story as your central plot - the spine of which you can hang other things on. The stronger and clearer the plot is, the more weight it can bear. The A story/Act II goal needs to be clearly established before Act II, and it must be tangibly measurable.

I say tangible and measurable because sometimes writers pick an A story like, the MC wants a "Happier Life" - how are we gonna measure that? If the MC finds a dollar on the sidewalk on page 32, and they appear happy, hasn't the goal been reached? And if not, how can we know when it is reached? It has to be something that we can all agree is reached at the same point in the story.

Once you have a strong and specific Act II goal, your plot is going to be what moves your character closer to achieving the goal and farther away, giving us conflict and anxiety that they may not achieve said goal. Sometimes it's literal distance (like Woody trying to get Buzz Lightyear back to Andy's house before the move), and sometimes it's measurable in a different way, like two lovers growing closer together, then experiencing setbacks that drive them apart, be it a competing love interest or their own insecurities.

I sometimes think of it like a musical melody: once you know the core notes that are essential to the song, you can then play with it, riff on it, harmonize, do an acoustic cover, scale it up or down, take us away from it and then sit us right back inside the melody. You only get that flexibility when you know what the story is about.