Arts & Entertainment, Writing
Structuring the Plot
Lesson time 13:48 min
David shares with you the methods he uses to structure a plot and teaches you how to connect plot points.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Plotting the Journey
Teaches Dramatic Writing
The Pulitzer Prize winner teaches you everything he's learned across 26 video lessons on dramatic writing.
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Can I say something about my outfit? Because I love this outfit. I showed up this morning in my usual street clothes. I got a wife beater T-shirt, OK, cutoff jeans, all I've worn for 70 years, flip-flops and a motorcycle jacket. And I thought that would be cool to let you into how I actually look, because also if I take off the motorcycle-- I'm covered in tats. And my left arm is Admiral Dewey at the Battle of Manila, 1895. And my right arm, and I think I'm the only guy who has this, you tell me, is the final scene from Kramer vs. Kramer. And on my chest I got the first chapter of Fifty Shades of Grey but it's reversed so I can read it when I'm shaving. And my back is Goodnight Moon. So when I go to the gym, I do a lot of weightlifting, I can bench press [? 1,000 ?] pounds. And I get all sweaty, and the people in the gym, they can read Goodnight Moon while they're working out. So this outfit, it's wicked cool, I'm dressed up like a professor. You see, I've got the prop and everything. But I realized, you can't wear it on the street, because if you do, a bunch of people are going to descend on you and try to sell you a Volvo. And there's nothing wrong with the Volvo, by the way. The only thing wrong with them is they never wear out. They got the original Volvo were pulled by horses. The horses died, so those guys are immobile. Everything after that is still on the streets. It's a great car. It's the national car of either Sweden or Denmark. And their national pastime of course, as we know, is suicide, is jumping off of cliffs like lemmings, so how wrong can they be? Having issued that disclaimer, I'd just like to say how glad I am to be back with you today. I want to talk about plot. And we'll talk about a couple of plays of mine and how I structure a plot, and I like to use a board like this. I'm always surrounded by a bunch of corkboards in my offices that either put up a sheet of butcher paper or else index cards, that all say scene one, blah blah, scene two, blah blah, scene three, so I can look and see if the progression makes sense. Because sometimes it's much easier to see if the progression makes sense than to see if the scenes make sense. Because you get involved in the scenes and the scenes might be wonderful and you work so hard and them, they say such cool stuff. You have to reduce the scene to an incident-- I get out of the stuck elevator. And put that-- at least, I do, on the board. When the progression makes sense, then the play makes sense. And I'd also like to say about plotting, that we all know about plotting. We all do it naturally. Plotting to get Sally and Susie together. Plotting to get Aunt Mabel to leave me the silverware. Plotting to get my bad coworker kicked off. Plotting a surprise party. It's all plotting. We say OK, I know where I want to get. What do I have to do...
About the Instructor
David Mamet sat in on a poker game full of thieves and left with the inspiration for American Buffalo. Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Glengarry Glen Ross takes you through his process for turning life’s strangest moments into dramatic art. In his writing class, he’ll teach you the rules of drama, the nuances of dialogue, and the skills to develop your own voice and create your masterpiece.
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David Mamet
The Pulitzer Prize winner teaches you everything he's learned across 26 video lessons on dramatic writing.
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