Elena, do you want to understand how screenplays are put
together better or do you mean you want to better understand how screenplays are
put together? I'm going to assume that you are referring to the latter
meaning. To help you with this requested understanding, I shall provide
you an allegory (not a "gory alley;" that would be for the thriller
genre only).
An Allegorical Screenplay
We start with a pro tagonist. (he used to be an amateur
tagonist, but he went pro to reap the benefits of a higher tax bracket).
Now this pro tagonist (a tagonist is one who excels in tagging on things.
Maybe he's the one to blame for all those itchy collars and mattresses that
don't let you remove anything from them.), this pro tagonist comes across an ant
tagonist (ant tagonists are amateur people who tag things on to ants -- which is
definitely a difficult operation that takes a steady hand and specialized
tagging-on skills). The ant tagonist causes the pro tagonist a great deal
of trouble (a natural tension and animosity is present, especially since they're
both tagonists and there could jealousy, envy, and competition between
them. I mean, how many tagonist jobs could there be?) There's an
inciting incident, a hook. The pro tagonist is hooked. Maybe the ant
tagonist, while trying to put tags on ants, and uses hooks to do so,
accidentally or purposefully (depending on whether this is a comedy or drama)
hooked the pro tagonist. Steaks are raised (possibly a barbeque is going
on and, to check to make sure the steaks are done, somebody raises them).
As the pro tagonist confronts the ant tagonist, he rides in a big boat with many
characters; that's his character arc, which he steers towards the shores of
Final Confront Nation, passing plots of land that are all pointy (plot points),
sometimes hitting some that are all twisty (plot twists). Usually,
finally, the pro tagonist overcomes the ant tagonist (professionals often beat
amateurs so this understandable. And people who are overly involved with
ants usually don't win that much. Unless they're pro antagonists
(professional ant tag-oners). Which would be a different story, all
together (and much better for the ants).
But there's nothing wrong with writing a different story.
Especially this one.
DcH
