When you’re thinking about your story’s structure—the way a story unfolds and why it’s so compelling —it can help to watch movies, not only because it takes less time to watch a movie than to read a book, but because sometimes you can see a story’s structure, the bones of the plot, more clearly on the screen than on the page.
Over the past few weeks I’ve searched for something to watch after finishing Season 6 of All Creatures Great and Small (which I highly recommend), and found myself watching four films that turned out to have unexpectedly similar structural elements.
The four films are: 1) Sea of Love with Al Pacino, a murder mystery written by Richard Price set in NYC; 2) Ghosts of Mississippi with Alec Baldwin and Whoopi Goldberg, a courtroom drama produced by Rob Reiner about justice pursued for the murder of Medgar Evers; 3) Harriet Tubman with Cynthia Erivo, a story of the heroic slave who manages to escape slavery in the South and who then returns to help others escape slavery; and 4) The Marksman with Liam Neeson, a story of a decorated Marine sharpshooter who vows to help a Mexican boy seeking safety in the US.
What do each of these films have in common?
Although each film is set in different time periods and different locations, and follows a different plot, each film’s main character must overcome challenges that life has thrust upon him or her due to circumstances beyond their control.
Pacino plays a NYC homicide detective who needs to solve a murder before he or anyone else becomes the next victim.
Baldwin plays a prosecuting attorney in Mississippi who, despite disapproval from his wife, family, community, and colleagues, needs to right a wrong done thirty years before when civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered.
Erivo plays a slave who needs to escape slavery in Maryland and then wants to return to rescue all those she loves who are still enslaved.
And Neeson, a decorated Marine corp marksman, needs to take a boy who is wanted by the Mexican drug cartel to safety despite the threats to his own life.
And the question that I kept asking myself as I watched each film was how do these characters succeed at the seemingly impossible task they’re committed to performing?
Each film’s plot builds tension in similar ways. The higher the stakes, the more to be risked. Or, put another way, the more to lose, the higher the tension. You couldn’t help notice that the greater the possibility of failure, the greater the relief and sense of completion when success was achieved.
The basic structure of each story (at least as I saw it), regardless of the setting, whether NYC, Mississippi, Maryland, or Arizona, and regardless of the gender, age, or race of the main character, was built on the premise that the main character faced a problem.
What was the problem? And how could the character obtain what he or she wanted or needed?
The plot showed, step by step, how he or she overcame obstacle after obstacle to solve the problem and get what he or she wanted or needed.
(Warning: Spoiler alerts)
Pacino’s character finds the murderer, but not before almost being killed himself. By uncovering the murderer, who turns out to be the ex-husband of the woman who Pacino suspects of the murders (the woman who he is falling in love with), he not only solves the crime, but clears the way for possible romance.
Baldwin’s character is willing to pursue justice despite risking his legal career and losing his wife (due to her inability to understand what he’s doing). He is relentless in his efforts to overcome the lack of evidence, and ultimately he is able to discover more evidence, enough in the end to take his case to trial and win a long-sought verdict of guilty for the murderer.
Erivo’s character is willing to risk dying in order to live as a free woman. Once she escapes to the north (Philadelphia), she returns south again and again to help others escape, even as the risks grow greater and more dangerous with each return as the reward for her capture increases and as the enslavers seek more and ways to capture her.
And Neeson’s character has vowed to a dying mother to help her son after she’s gunned down on his land along the Mexican border by members of the Cartel gang seeking revenge for her cousin’s theft of money. In defending her and her son, Neeson inadvertently kills one of the gang members’ brothers and ends up with a target on his back, too. He has a choice to make. Hand over the boy to border patrol, who will send him back to Mexico where the Cartel will likely kill him, or else help him reach his family in Chicago. Neeson decides to drive him north to safety while being chased by the cartel gang members wanting to kill them both.
Each of the main characters in these four films shows courage, determination, and a fierce loyalty to solving their unique problems.
Each is willing to risk physical harm, loss of friends, home, family, all for the sake of truth and justice.
The next time you’re thinking about your story's structure, you might consider these questions:
1) What does your main character want or need?
2) What are the obstacles preventing her from getting what she wants?
3) What does she risk losing?
4) How does she overcome these obstacles?
5) How is she changed as a result of her journey?
Let us know the way you think about your story’s structure. Is there any advice you’d like to share with other writers struggling to understand their own story’s structure and plot? Please feel free to send us your suggestions.
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