Back To Screenwriting

Lajos Egri wrote a book way back in 1946 that consistently ranks in the top three of the most influential works on the art of dramatic writing. And that is exactly the title of his book. A sure fire way to rank in the top three is to take a contradictory position to the book placed at number one. And that is exactly what Lajos Egri does. Egri argues contra Aristotle (discussed here) that character is king. He also argues that writing for the theater, and thus the screen, has lacked the spirit of a destination. Sounding like a great praxeologist, he writes: "Everything has a purpose, or premise. Every second of our life has its own premise, whether or not we are conscious of it at the time. That premise may be as simple as breathing or as complex as a vital emotional decision, but it is always there."

Which leads us to what Egri emphasizes and Moses L. Malevinsky states in The Science of Playwrighting:

"Emotion, or the elements in or of an emotion, constitute the basic things in life. Emotion is life. Life is emotion. Therefore emotion is drama. Drama is emotion.

No emotion ever made, or ever will make, a good play if we do not know what kind of forces set emotion going. Emotion, to be sure, is as necessary to a play as barking to a dog."

Eric M. Vonrothkirch, an Amazon reviewer from Garland, TX, gives you a glimpse of what you'll find inside the book:

* Formulate your premise. Premise is a statement, idea, or conviction that your story proves true.

* Choose a pivotal character who will force the conflict.

* Dialogue should come from the voice of the character, not the writer.

* Orchestrate the other characters. The unity of opposites must be binding. Polar opposites must form a dialectic which creates a unified tension.

* Be careful to select the correct point of attack. Every point of attack starts with conflict.

* There are several types of conflict, such as jumping conflict, but you only want rising or foreshadowing conflict.

* No conflict can rise without perpetual exposition, which is transition.

* Rising conflict, the product of exposition and transition, will ensure growth.

* Characters must conflict--there must be some polarity.

* Crisis will lead to climax. Climax will lead to conclusion.

Here is a link to chapter 1.

As for the long lasting debate between character and plot, I'll stick with William Goldman and say "screenwriting is structure, structure, structure." Interestingly, he is not alone in having faith in this insight as others have been known to observe that writing is organization, organization, organization. Vibrant characters should be obviously obligatory from the outset, but without structure you've got nothing. At best, you've got a bunch of interesting people knocking heads with no place to go. And who wants to see that? Nonetheless, Lajos is worth a look.