In the context of story I often speak of EVENTS and ACTIONS.
In essence it’s a very simple and at the same time hugely important concept. Among many other things it can save you from the dreaded ‘passive protagonist’ syndrome.
Simply put, it’s about Action and Re-action. In the context of story however, this will make no sense whatsoever without establishing Point of View first. In other words: WHO witnesses the events and/or performs the actions?
If an action is a meaningful activity performed by a character, let’s look how we can define EVENTS in this context.
It can be:
- an incident or occurrence happening to the hero: e.g. The hero’s car runs out of fuel.
- an action by an other character impacting on the hero: e.g. The neighbour calls for help.
- dialogue by an other character directed to or heard by the hero: e.g. “You’re fired”.
- a (sudden) memory, realization or revelation for by the hero: e.g. “He’s the guy who conned me…”
Summarising, we can say:
“An EVENT is a meaningful occurrence that is witnessed by or revealed to the hero.”
To make the distinction between EVENTS and ACTIONS, it is essential to first establish the POV.
Mostly this will (should) be the POV of the hero.
In a story that works, the number of Events and Actions will be roughly in balance. If your screenplay has an abundance of one and a lack of the other, it will suffer from:
- an unmotivated hero (too many actions, not enough events); or
- a passive hero (too many events, not enough related actions)
A step outline can help you in diagnosing your story with either condition.
Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.
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Can an event also be an action perfomed by the character ?
– Jack killed Paul
This didn’t occured, the character make it happen so can we say it is an event (something that happen) or is it an action (something performed by the character) ? I’m so confused .. Please help : (
It’s not confusing if you take a clear POV, say the MC’s.
From the MC’s perspective, any Action by any other character may be a meaningful Event to which they need to respond.
If Eve is Paul’s lover, and Jack kills Paul, then this Action is a powerful event from the POV of Eve.
But an Event (to Eve) can never by an Action BY Eve.
The whole point is to distinguish what a character does, and what is done to the character, so we can trace the chain of causation and detecting if/where any character becomes passive or non-responsive.
Does this all make sense?
I’m so sorry to only answer right now but i never got the mail notification for your answer and today while i was ” STILL ” trying to make sense of all this i reread your article and see my comment then your answer to it, so sorry for the late response and also thank you to answer me in the first place.
I think that back then i didn’t ask my question properly so hopefully i do a better job (being french doesn’t help lol)
Here is a kid story, can you tell/help me understand what are those ? Actions or events
In a small town in Minnesota, there lived an eight-year-old boy named Lucas. Lucas woke up one cold winter morning. When he looked out the window, he was surprised. The entire back yard was coated in white powdery snow. He thought for a minute, trying to decide if he would rather eat breakfast first or play in the snow first. He chose snow, and quickly dressed in his warmest clothing.
Then he called downstairs,
“Mom, I’m going outside!”
“Don’t forget your hat!” replied his mom.
Lucas ran outside to enjoy the snowy morning. He built a snowman and made six snow angels before his neighbor Kendra came outside. Kendra and Lucas worked together to build the biggest snow fort in the neighborhood.
– Waking up
– Looked outside a window
– He was surprised
– The back yard was coated in snow
– He thought
– He decide snow
– He dressed up
– Run downstairs
– Talk to his mum
– His mum talked back
– He ran outside
– Built a snowman
– Made six angels
– Her neighbor Kendra came outside
– They build a fort
Are those events / happenings / actions ?
Cause every where around the internet even in ” STORIES ” from Robert Mckee everyone is saying that Event = anything that ” happen ‘ in story
I guess my question is, how do you know that something has happen ?
Also i kinda get what you explain to me in the previous comment as ACTION & REACTION or CAUSE & EFFECT ?