Film Courage: How do we know if the plot progression in a screenplay makes sense?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: I think that it’s just common sense. You’re going to follow the logic of your story. Is that what you mean?
Film Courage: Yes…well…maybe a better question is what if the plot progression is taking too long? Maybe that’s a better question. My question is taking too long, sorry.
Naomi: No…that’s a good question. So I think that is subjective right? And it depends on what you’re going for, it depends on the story you are telling, the pace that you sort of expect from the story in that genre and that style. There is no black and white answer but I do think when you’re reading a script right one of the big red flags is boredom. So this might be something that you can only figured out your entire plot and you get fresh eyes on it you might think that it moves like a runaway train and then you might have somebody else look at it and they say Oh gosh, when is it going to get going? When is it going to start?
I think that the sort of natural approach is to get your story moving as quickly as possible and…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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