Identifying With History In Plot

Identifying With History In Plot 150 150 Circa Historical Screenplay Competition

Any story told in any way, non-linear, not bound by a rule, can have as much impact as any story told linear, vice versa, as long as it has beginning, middle and end. The same can be said with any subject in history with exceptions to the rule given for history as subject and its accuracy of facts. The goal is to tell the story of our subject in a way that it will not fall into something that is simply documented, and therefore it is the plot that we need to put emphasis on with help from character characterization. We are telling a story afterall.

To understand the plot of our subject in history, we’ll need to understand our real story plot. Our story plot consists of two things: the main plot and the inner plots of the main plot, where the real story and character characterization lie.

If we think of a tree as our plot, then the trunk is our main story idea; the main branches is our main plot; and the inner branches are our inner plots.

If take into consideration the story of the discovery of Pennicilin as our story plot, then our main plot will be the advancements of science during the period or the advancements in biology and medicine to be exact along with the figures and events of its period; and the story of Alexander Fleming, the bacteriologist, and his discovery of Pennicilin as our inner plots.

The question is how do we tell our story so that it doesn’t fall into something that is simply told or documented. The answer is to begin with our inner plots and use our main character, Alexander Fleming, the bacteriologist, as our driving element, weaving both our main plot and inner plots together into a story that’s historically accurate, true and compelling. Here, we identify with history in our plot.