Instant Script Kit - The Basics of Scriptwriting for Video

Stories are often classified by type, such as mystery, romance or adventure. Or, you can gather them under the headings of dramas, comedies or tragedies. Dramas are basic stories about some interesting or exciting events. Comedies are stories that take a humorous or lighthearted approach. Tragedies are stories in which the hero valiantly battles forces too powerful to overcome. Tragedies have an unhappy ending. However you think of them, all are about someone doing something; they are a combination of character and plot.
"Characters" are the someone, the people in the story. They may be the people around you or people that you invent. While there may be other characters, every story has a protagonist and an antagonist. The protagonist, or hero, is whom the story is about. The hero can be a man, a woman, a child or even an animal. The antagonist is the opposing force; usually a villain but it could be a force of nature or even the hero�s internal conflicts.
"Plot" is the something that these people do. If you think of a story as a journey, plot is the road map that keeps you from getting lost along the way. In this article, we will help you develop your road map.

Basic Building Blocks

Every story has three parts: a beginning, a middle and an end. In live theater, these parts are called "acts." Each of these parts has an important function: The beginning serves to introduce the characters and establish the problem the hero must solve.
The middle is the most involved, and usually the longest part. The hero must overcome increasing difficulties. Just when it looks like the antagonist is going to win, we have...
The end in which the hero puts out a supreme effort and reaches his or her goal - usually. Most stories have happy endings. The audience does not want to cheer for a hero through all her trials only to see her go down in flames at the end. If the story has an unhappy ending, the hero (or at least the audience) should gain something, like a better understanding of herself or the world.
You often hear that a story requires conflict. This does not necessarily mean gunfights or fisticuffs. "Conflict" is another name for the difficulties that the hero has to overcome. "Boy meets girl, boy courts girl, boy gets girl" may be the way it usually happens in real life, but audiences don�t watch videos to see the kind of life they are already living. Storytellers learned long ago that "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl" is more interesting.<…