Scriptnotes 403: Craig Mazin

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Structure is a total trap
Structure is a symptom of a character’s relationship with a central dramatic argument.
What great writers do is follow their characters as they evolve around a central dramatic argument.
Story is about a change of state:
- Internal: Zigzags all over the place
- Interpersonal: Start, Middle, End.
- External: Narrative of the plot
Scenes – Hegalian Dialectics: Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis
You fire antitheses at the three axes to create scenes.
Theme = Central Dramatic Argument. It doesn’t have to be revelatory. It’s execution around theme that makes a good story. Theme can be simple, as long as you can argue for and against it.
You don’t start with an argument. You start with an idea first.
Pair unusual CDAs against your plot idea.
The purpose of the story is to take a character (protagonist) from ignorance of the truth (true side of the argument) of the theme to embodiment of the theme through action.
Protagonist in Ordinary World. It doesn’t mean “mundane”. It means the protagonist’s life essentially exemplifies their ignorance of the theme. They believe the opposite of the CDA/theme. They’ve achieved stasis. It could go on this way forever. They’ve settled for acceptable imperfection.
Inciting Incident: Specifically disrupt a character’s stasis. Forces a choice. You have a lesson to teach them. Ideally, you want sharp contrast/contradictory elements as well. Genetically engineered to break their soul. You want something that’s designed exclusively for to disrupt this character’s life.
“Get back to what they had” despite you destroying their stasis. Hero has no idea there’s a CDA. Heroes don’t want to change. Underlying that is fear. (Fear is the heart of empathy. We feel for them, their vulnerability. That’s how we connect with them). Characters have lived their life to avoid their fear.
Stop thinking of plot. Plot isn’t something that happens to your characters. It’s something you’re doing to your characters.
First, reinforce the antitheme. Hero is going to do new things. Make them want to go back to the ordinary more. Design moments that force them forward, but put things that makes them want to go backwards.
Introduce an element of doubt. Someone or something lives the life of theme. Hero believes in one side of the CDA. They need to run into someone or something that believes in the other side. It’s attractive to them on one level. A hero is rational, has capacity to see there’s a better way. They get a glimpse – a moment of acting in harmony with the right side of the CDA. They can experience it themselves or witness it.
This moment of doubt is the midpoint. Our hero’s belief system has been challenged. There’s not a willingness to go all the way to the other side, but they’re wondering if their anti-theme is not the be all end all. They’re wondering if their life has been a lie.
But you yank it back. Reversal of theme: The very moment the hero takes the bait to maybe take the bait. You hammer them with the antitheme again. They forget their fear for a moment. Pain and tragedy. Hero retreats again.
Design your characters to NEED to hold on to their current way of life, the antitheme so much that giving it up feels like death.
Where is your character in their journey between antitheme and theme… and what’s the meanest thing you can do to them? Keep doing these things until the hero is left without any beliefs at all. Eventually your hero will realize their limitations aren’t physical, but thematic.
At this point, they conciously and logically accept the CDA, but they don’t really. You give them a chance to take it but they fail. They just lost their belief in the antitheme. They’re trapped between rejection of the old and the acceptance of the new. They are lost. Old ways don’t work. New way seem impossible or insane. Not willing to do what’s required. This is the LOW POINT. Antitheme has been revealed as a sham… but the new way seems so enormous and hard to achieve. It’s scary because their core values are gone, and they’re not ready to replace them with new values.
We connect to another person’s sense of loss.
The defining moment. Character needs to face their worst fear. Brings them to a new staisis balance. Design a moment that will test your protagonists faith in the theme. They have to prove they believe in the new theme. Prove it in a way where they emobody that idea. The relapse. Hold the safety blanket up. Tempt them one last time. But they have to reject that temptation. AND do something extraordinary to embody the theme with action.
It’s not enough to believe or say it. They have to be tempted and forced to act in a way that embodies in accordance with the theme.
One last chance to torture them and test their faith in the theme. Denouement. We need to see the new synthesis. Hero in the first scene emobodies the antitheme. Hero in the denouement lives according to the theme.
Character creation - from antitheme to theme. They have to make the choices.
You should never ask “what happens next”… but “how can I make the next thing better?”