Space – the final front ear

Screenwriters near the beginning of their epic screenwriting journey may struggle to understand the difference between plot and story. They are synonymous, right? Not quite.

Screenwriting gurus will explain that story is story, but plot is the sequence of events that narrate that story. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water is the story. Why they did so and what not doing so might cause and what’s going on between them is the story.

The film plot version of their story might look like this:

In a post-apocalyptic world, drought forces estranged, passionate lovers Jack and Jill to climb a mountain that can’t be climbed to find water for themselves and their desperate families, or die of thirst. Their quest forces them apart and makes them fight for their lives, but when faced with the ultimate test, brings them together as they never have been before.

In this, you understand much of what is going on inside Jack and Jill. This short synopsis reaches deep inside them, and far out into non-local space and time. It tells you why they do what they do, and the effect it has on them. It also tells you the consequences of failure.

Stories can be told in screenplay loglines. Plots are better told in screenplay synopses.

Film stories create overarching screenplay structure. Film plots create more detailed screenplay structure. Plots occupy more space and time than stories, which only hint at the plots they can stimulate by way of your story design, and the genre that flows from that.

Plots exist in external space and time. Stories ‘exist’ in internal space and time.

Star Trek exists in spacetime. Einstein would have loved it.

Happy screenwriting.