ABC stories (a good book for screenwriters)

I'm so happy that in two weeks starts my semester break. I have tons of things I plan to do during this month (no exams, total freedom, yay). The course I took at UCLA Extension (Online) was over last Wednesday. The next one will only start on April 9th so I have two weeks of pure free time to work on my beat outline.

A few days ago I got the newsletter from Creative Screenwriting and it mentioned a seminar with Dara Marks. Her name didn't sound familiar so I googled her. Her seminar is based on her book, "Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc". I didn't find it in the Uni's library, so I checked out the Amazon "surprise me!" feature. They usually let you browse quite a good amount of pages. I started to read, bit here, bit there. I loved they way she approached the structure of the script. What Dara Marks says is that you have three main plots: your A, B and C story. So far I knew.

A story is the external goal of the protagonist. B story is her inner conflict. C story is a relational conflict. And guess what? Most of the stories don't put the love story on their A plot. She talks about Casablanca, and says: The A story is about Rick and Lazlow. Will he help him get away? The B story is about Rick's inability to connect to other people's needs. The C story is about Rick and the girl. If Rick solves his inner story (and start thinking about the needs of others), he will solve both stories A and C. Pretty neat, eh? Pretty neat.

This made me thinking a lot. A subplot is not something that is 'less then' the plot. It's actually more of the plot's basis. And guess what? The theme of your film, the one thing you can't pronounce for days? It's right there, in the inner conflict of your character.

What do I tell you, I really must put my hands on this book, they don't sell it anywhere besides Amazon and the official website of Dara Marks (as far as I know). Ah, and in the writer's store (CA). By the way, on the writer's store website you can find an extract from the book, about that inner conflict of your character. It's called "The Fatal Flaw". Have fun!