Trying to better understand reveals and plot reversals

D

Dan_ETP

Active member
Hello,

Rather new to writing, and I'd like to better understand concepts and use of reveals and plot reversals.

My current understanding is that reveals are moments when new information is presented to the protagonist, forcing them to take further action. Also my understanding is that these reveals become more frequent as the story progresses.

I'd like to know, do these reveals always align with the major plot points? What are some examples of reveals and why is it that they work?

As far as reversals go, my understanding is that they send the characters in a different direction because they change the information we previously understood.

If anyone could help me better understand these concepts/correct me if I'm completely off I'd be quite grateful.

Thanks a lot!
 
Dan, In my view everything that happens in your script should either be a reveal or set one up. Everything your main character does should reveal something about him/her. And yes, things are revealed to him and usually us vicariously so that we anticipate his response. But a thing may be revealed to us and not him so that we know what he doesn't - someone has lied to him, or an assassin has been hired to kill him. These are all reveals.

Increasing the frequency of reveals is one way to build excitement. But what if you're writing an action film that already starts off high octane, where do you go from there? You can't just keep upping the number of reveals - lets call them story beats - so you have to build intensity by raising the stakes. Cameron did this well in ALIENS by bonding Ripley with an orphan girl. Now something more is at stake: MOTHERHOOD - which Ripley becomes an archetype for.

Reversals are also reveals and (by most definitions as far as I know) are act endings. As you said, they tend to move the character in a different direction. A spy gets captured and has to flip - or else. We watch him operate as a double agent for a while and then he returns to his people and says, "I was captured according to plan and they think I've flipped just as we hoped". Then he goes back and a few scenes later says, "Look, I've been working for the wrong side. we set up the ruse so that you'd capture me. But now I'm a true ally because if I'm not, thousands will die.

But...

Some writers have done a masterful job of putting several reversals on one scene. The Lion in Winter does this with great effect.

I hope that's helpful.
 
Dan_ETP said:
... My current understanding is that reveals are moments when new information is presented to the protagonist, forcing them to take further action. Also my understanding is that these reveals become more frequent as the story progresses.

I'd like to know, do these reveals always align with the major plot points? What are some examples of reveals and why is it that they work?

As far as reversals go, my understanding is that they send the characters in a different direction because they change the information we previously understood...
Click to expand...

"But I didn't know, until this day, that it was Barzini all along."
 
I'll give you advice you most likely won't take (since it doesn't answer your question directly), but nonetheless it's what I believe to be true. Ignore all the questions you have. Unless you are looking for a career in film studies, these questions have no practical value. The answers - inssofar as they can even be gleaned - won't make you a better writer. You are much better off just watching a ton of movies and reading a ton of scripts. When you already have a great deal of experience as a writer, then perhaps you might have answers to these questions, but they still would have little utility to you as a writer. They are of academic interest at best - and I've chosen that word in a literal sense ("literal" itself taken here as the original meaning). A great professor of literature might have a million things to say about the structure of a poem, but it won't help him write a single line of poetry, and indeed, most such professors are not poets. A poet might, or might not know all the theoretical ins and outs of the theory behind the writing, but it's largely divorced from the creative writing as such. You cannot use the answers to those questions as guides in your writing - even if you could, the result would be a disappointment. You know how to walk, and you know how to run. Imagine that someone asks you about the physics behind every step - "you shif the weight from the left leg and accellerate, blah, blah, blah" and add a ton of physics equations - odds are it won't help one bit in running. The best way to practice running is to run. Don't worry about the equations - unless you intend to teach the physics of mass accelaration.

Not only will answering those questions not help you, in fact, putting any time into that would actually hinder you. A different part of the brain is engaged. Think of it as learning a language. There is the immersion method of learning that mimics how a child learns a language, and then there is the way of learning a language by breaking it down into grammar and rules. Science has found, that you use different parts of the brain when speaking a language that you've learned in the "child-like" way, versus speaking when keeping grammar rules in mind.

Watch movies and read scripts - all the good answers to relevant questions are to be found there. Not in abstract "rules" of screenwriting derived from some textbook.
 
I'm going to respectfully disagree with OldCorpse on a couple of points - though there's no argument about the value of reading lots of scripts and watching lots of movies.

You're limited to your own observations if you don't arrive at questions and ask others for their insights. If it were not so, script consultants would not have caused the rewriting of so many successful films. It's a craft. Study it. Read books on it. Sure, some of them do damage. A talented writer will work through that. And I think your questions are good ones for a starting writer to ask. You no doubt arrived at them by making your own observations.

A word about the the brain and writing. Yes, if you have structure at the the front of your mind your writing is likely to be stilted. But if you have a certain 'form' at the front of your mind it will read authentic. Structure is good. Familiarity with the toolbox is good.

Learning to walk has immediate feedback. You know when you've fallen or walked into an obstacle. Writers need feedback. Every writer I know admits to thinking his script is fantastic until others give their honest feedback. Above all, write, write, write. Then Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
 
Thank you all for your thoughts. All good points being made. I am trying to become 'familiar with the toolbox.'
 
Dan_ETP said:
Hello,

Rather new to writing, and I'd like to better understand concepts and use of reveals and plot reversals.

My current understanding is that reveals are moments when new information is presented to the protagonist, forcing them to take further action. Also my understanding is that these reveals become more frequent as the story progresses.

I'd like to know, do these reveals always align with the major plot points? What are some examples of reveals and why is it that they work?

As far as reversals go, my understanding is that they send the characters in a different direction because they change the information we previously understood.

If anyone could help me better understand these concepts/correct me if I'm completely off I'd be quite grateful.

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...

These are great questions. Kudos to you for putting yourself out there and asking them. Here are a couple tools that have proved useful in my screenwriting career:

Learn to recognize Anagnorisis in the films you watch and read:
http://johnaugust.com/2016/aaron-sorkin-vs-aristotle.

Listening to actual working professionals and repeating what they do can be a very useful way to learn. In that regard, Scriptnotes podcast is a gold mine.

Study Peripeteia as elucidated by this most excellent teacher:
https://www.amazon.com/Film-making-...&qid=1484074658&sr=8-1&keywords=on+filmmaking

There is deep, adroit, and effective craft to be acquired by applying and practicing what Mr Mackendrick offers. His influence on the Coen Brothers, for example, is enormous.

Also, the single thing I wished I'd done many years ago is learned to edit. Screenwriting became more limpid after editing my first film.

Hope that this proves useful on your journey.
 
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