Weaving Multiple Throughlines Into The Same Scene

[mlucas]

Over in @Gregolas’s RS Illustrations thread I had promised a blog post to follow-up on something:

@mlucas

forgot to mention this thread has inspired me to draft a blog post about how multiple throughlines can end up coming together in the same scene, even when you don’t plan it.

I finally finished this! It ended up really long since the example scene I was using turned out to have piles of story points from all four throughlines, a lot more than I expected.

Weaving Multiple Throughlines Into The Same Scene

Greg, I know you had mentioned a while back that it would be nice to see some examples of how the storyform is working, so I also included a separate post that has some excerpts from the same scene (first draft), and calls out specific story points:

Excerpts From Multi-Throughline Scene

[Greg]

Very good stuff, Mike. Thanks for sharing. And I think the excerpts do help a good bit to see what you’re talking about in the article.

I like your general style (seen on this forum, not just in your posted article) of trying to break down every little event to see how many different points it’s illustrating and in how many different ways. If I can just get the major point it’s going for, i’m pretty happy.

[mlucas]

Thanks Greg. I’m glad it came across okay. I was worried it would be really hard to follow without knowing what’s going on in the story!

I wonder if my process ended up pretty similar to @jhay 's that he mentioned in the other thread:

@jhay

I tend to design scenes specifically for the RS that, when I come to writing them, wind up incorporating at least one other throughline.

That’s sort of what happened to me … I planned an RS “moment” but it ended up coming together with all the other throughlines.

[jhay]

@mlucas

I wonder if my process ended up pretty similar to @jhay 's that he mentioned in the other thread

It’s not dissimilar, Mike! I think the only major difference is that I’m more of a structuralist, so I use the storyform/PSR to outline the ‘moments’. However, I’m never wedded to the outline. I tend to work in a very chaotic, freeform way. I find I get bored if I just follow a roadmap the entire way, so I only use the storyform to loosely outline the ‘moments’ and then write without even thinking about it.

An example from a First Draft I completed:

The initial outline has an OS sequence reading like this - “Alex chooses to hide the truth from the others. Tessa is accused of stealing at a gas station because of the YouTube video, leading Alex’s lie to be uncovered. A rift forms amongst the group, but there’s no other choice but to go on — even if the trust has been eroded.”

The final sequence, which came to around 6 pages, became much more than just the OS elements:

• The opening beat is Tessa (the MC) in the gas station. Some dude keeps saying he knows her. Despite her insistence that it’s not her, he won’t give in. Then comes the OS element – the dude has a YouTube clip that shows Tessa beating up a couple of guys (OS/MC Problem of Cause). After he creates a scene, she pays for her stuff and flees to the car.

• Second beat is where she tells the group about the video. She discovers the IC knew. That brings in the IC’s points – he didn’t want to freak everyone out (IC Counterpoint of Worry). Then the RS kicks up – the IC could have prevented this sooner (RS Issue of Ability), but he just didn’t want to (RS Counterpoint of Desire).

• Third beat (which wasn’t in the outline) is that the dude comes out of the gas station, and Alex loses his temper for the first time (IC Concern of Preconscious). Tessa comes to take him back to the car, unhappy with how he’s acting (RS Concern of Being).

All of that leads into the next sequence, which is primarily RS-based with MC/IC elements and follows on from that argument. Obviously, it’s a first draft and it’s messy as hell. But the process is the same for any first draft I write. It never comes out the same way as I write in the outline because you always find a moment where you think ‘This would be a perfect moment for the IC to do that’ or something. Which is exactly what you found, also.

In fact, the screenplay I’m writing at the moment has a much longer first act than I had anticipated because in the outline, I had prioritised the RS; but in the screenplay, I found much more to work with in the OS and MC throughlines than I had expected, and the IC/RS got pushed back slightly (a lesson learned there: never underestimate the amount of anger I have toward the outdated class system we have here in Britain).

[mlucas]

That’s awesome, Jay, thanks for sharing. I was really hoping to get some experiential discussion like this going by sharing my own stuff, so your post makes me really happy!

I love the example of your sequence, which sounds so objective in your initial outline, but then gets way more involved and interesting with the subjective viewpoints added in.

Not to mention the story sounds really cool. Is it really Tessa in the YouTube clip? How come she doesn’t remember? (Feel free not to answer those, I’m just showing how it piqued my interest…)

[jhay]

I always get very paranoid about sharing my stuff, but I thought it necessary since you so kindly shared your own work and process!

That’s one of the better examples of my outline to execution process. Quite a few of the sequences are COMPLETELY different from what’s outlined. It all just depends on what ‘feels’ right when it comes time to write it.

@mlucas

Not to mention the story sounds really cool. Is it really Tessa in the YouTube clip? How come she doesn’t remember?

Thanks, Mike!

It is indeed Tessa! For context, the group are working on a movie, guerilla-style (so, basically breaking the law multiple times over) and Tessa is an outcast filmmaker that can’t help but provoke arguments. So, a sequence a little earlier sees the group meeting up with some YouTube celebrities to get some intel on a potential location, but the meeting goes bad and the YouTubers provoke her to the point of anger. So she pretty much knocks them out, completely oblivious to the fact that these guys film everything all the time. So they release the footage, basically ruining their plans and making them well-known to the millions of subscribers of those guys.

[mlucas]

Ah, I get it! She was denying the guy in the gas station could know her, not because she didn’t remember beating anyone up, but because she didn’t know about the YouTube clip. Awesome.

Your characters sound like real pieces of work! (as in, I don’t think I’d like to know them in real life but definitely interesting for a story!)

[jhay]

You got it!

@mlucas

Your characters sound like real pieces of work! (as in, I don’t think I’d like to know them in real life but definitely interesting for a story!)

Hahahaha! To be fair, I’m really condensing it down. Personally, I think she was right to punch them out given the context of THAT scenario (they were condescending and sexist), but there are other examples where I think (and so does she, I think) that she was way, way out of line. She’s a good person, just insecure and defensive. But generally, I would agree. Every script I’ve written has a MC that is, shall we say, “complicated”. I tend to gravitate more toward those wounded souls. I feel a great empathy for them.

I could talk about this all day. I love talking to people about the writing process. I could ask you hundreds of questions about all of this, Mike. But that’s a conversation for another topic!

[Khodu]

Excellent work @mlucas. Love that you’re documenting the journey.

[RailwayAdventurer]

I’m sorry I haven’t expressed how insightful this blog post is until now. Seeing Dramatica in practice in a novel is a rare treat. It’s amazing how many story points can be covered in so small a space. I’m looking forward to hearing more about what you learn from writing this book!