Short Film, Big Story: What You Must Keep—And What You Can Drop

Writing a short film script can feel like trying to squeeze a novel into a sticky note. Can you really fit a full character arc, plot structure, and emotional payoff into just 10 minutes of screen time?

In this episode, Zena answers the question: does the Hollywood Plot Map apply to short films, or is it overkill?

Her answer might surprise you—and give you permission to stop overthinking and start trusting your creative instincts.

What You’ll Learn:
- Which story elements are absolutely essential in a short film—and which ones you can let go.
- Why short films come with more creative freedom… and why that can make them even harder to get right.
- How to think about character transformation when you don’t have the luxury of 90 pages.

Want to ask Zena your own burning story questions?This episode is pulled directly from her exclusive Office Hours—a private, monthly Q&A available to anyone who has ever purchased a class.

If you're ready to deepen your craft and get personal feedback from Zena herself, check out her online courses and unlock lifetime access to Office Hours.


Seven Deadly Plot Points FREE TRAINING VIDEO

#amwriting #authorproblems #shortstory #screenplayformat #writingtips #writersconnection #christianscreenwriter 

Transcript

[00:00:00] David sent me a question, and David, why don't you share your question and then I will address it. My question for Zena was about writing a short film script, since that's my current focus, and in thinking about the Hollywood plot map, does every single point on that fit into a short film script? It's just a few seconds here and there so that the whole thing adds up to seven to 10 minutes.

[00:00:26] It just seems like a tall order to fit all that in there. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around that. Okay. Excellent xquestion, David. I'm glad you brought it up. Hello and welcome to the Storytellers Mission with Xena Del Lo, a podcast for storytellers about changing the world for the better. Through story.

[00:00:45] And the short answer is no. It is impossible to fit the Hollywood plot map and do a short, I mean, this is for a longer form format. That's what the Hollywood plot map is made for longer form projects. A full length feature screenplay is perfect for the plot map or a novel. But even in a novel, a novel is gonna maybe have other things that the plot map doesn't account for.

[00:01:09] I mean, the plot map originally was meant for screenplay. Right, it's perfect structure for a screenplay. So with novelists, even then, they're going to have more than is even in the plot map, especially because they usually have multiple plots. Most novels have more than one protagonist. Not always, but they'll have different storylines happening at the same time.

[00:01:33] And so in a novel, you almost have to have a plot map for each of the storylines. The answer is that the plot map was originally designed for screenplays for a full length feature screenplay. It can be adapted for novels. For long form projects, it's going to be very difficult to use it for a short film or for a short story.

[00:01:57] However, having said that, there are parts of it that you absolutely have to use. So there are parts of the plot map that are going to fit into a short, it's necessary, it's unavoidable. It's just you don't have to worry about all the steps because you won't be able to do it in a short, okay. So here are some of the things that you're looking for in a short, however, before we get there, did you know that there are seven crucial plot points that every story must hit in order to satisfy the audience?

[00:02:29] And if you miss even one of those crucial plot points, you risk losing your audience's attention forever. This is why I've created a free training video for you where I break down exactly. What these seven deadly plot points are, these are the essential plot moments that you need to hit in order to deliver a powerful, compelling page turning story.

[00:02:53] So. Be sure to check out my free training video on the seven Deadly plot points. It's going to transform your writing. Just click on the link provided in the notes, or head over to the storytellers mission.com and you can start watching this free training video right away. 

[00:03:08] if we're looking specifically for you, David, in the differences between a short film and a long form feature project, right? Mm-hmm. It's gonna be short films don't have to follow sort of some of the same rules.

[00:03:22] You know, a screenplay has to have that three act structure where it goes somewhere where the character changes over, you know, where things happen and we see the things happening in progression. But a short film is actually, there's more freedom, but sometimes because there's more freedom, it's harder to make a good one.

[00:03:41] Mm-hmm. You know, sometimes the rules actually allow us. To create something good because you know, necessity is the mother of invention. So when you have certain rules, you have to abide by them, and that's what you do. And then you are able to create. Whereas if you don't have any rules, it can just sometimes be chaos.

[00:03:57] So a short film gives you more freedom. That's why it's important for me to tell you some of the things that you are not free about. Okay, so in a short film, you clearly have to do act one. Now, I don't know how long it will take you to do Act one, and by act one I'm actually talking about the first, you know, the first square of Act one.

[00:04:16] You have to introduce your characters, you have to introduce the world, and you have to, you know, your supporting characters and you have to have an inciting incident. I mean, those are four things that you cannot escape. That's gonna be the same with every story ever. No matter what kind of story. Those four things always have to be there.

[00:04:34] But then you might almost immediately go to the act one turning point. Or you might not even have an act one turning point. You might not need the act one turning point in a short film, you might from the inciting incident. This is where you have to rely on your intuition. Okay? This is where you have to feel your way through.

[00:04:57] I can't tell you exactly what's going to work because it just depends on what's needed for the story. Sometimes you will still need the act one turning point, and sometimes you won't. But I will tell you this, where you're going, you will have to have a climax. It all has to come together to the climax, and then of course you'll have your denu mom or your.

[00:05:20] Your get out fast moment. And by the way, the other thing that has to happen, I think for it to be a really good short film is your character has to change over the course of the telling. That's really the arc you're following. That's the structure you're following for a short film is how your character changes.

[00:05:37] And so you're not as concerned with these story beat moments as much as you are with the incremental change of the character. So let me use for an example, I'm gonna use a couple of different short films that I've written. They're all different lengths. And I wanna illustrate this. So ragdoll, which is the story, the true story of me being married to a gay man and how that was destructive.

[00:05:58] And the theme was that the woman is complicit in her own destruction because of the lies that she's believed for whatever reason, in my case, because of unresolved childhood trauma in ragdoll, I. Set up the characters. You know, we see the relationship. I establish the relationship between the husband and wife.

[00:06:16] I show how loving and there's a little dance at the beginning. She's very feminine, you know, in her being, and then immediately there at the sex therapist. And so that's sort of the inciting incident that tells us. Okay. Something is terribly wrong in this marriage. And then we see the misses with intimacy, the actual, the thing that defines marriage, right?

[00:06:40] It just, they keep missing, they can't connect. And then finally it culminates with, you know, she's trying to fix it. She keeps trying to give him her femininity and it keeps being rejected. Even things like. Cooking, you know, making cookies for him. And he's like, it's just not an intimate moment. And she sees the neighbors and how they're intimate and why can't her husband be into her, you know?

[00:07:03] So finally it culminates with the man going outside of the marriage to get his sexual gratification. And by the end, the woman is no longer wearing her dresses. She is no longer feminine. She's got no makeup on. She looks horrible and they're eating a Chinese dinner and they're not even looking at each other.

[00:07:23] There's no intimacy in this relationship. And she's drinking like crazy. She's drinking wine like crazy, and you just hear the click clack. There's no conversation. Just the click clack of the silverware. That's the arc. They're damned by the end. I mean they, you know, staying in that marriage has caused a death for them.

[00:07:40] Now, how did I write that and hit those moments? I didn't think about it. I woke Intuitive process. Yeah. I woke up one day and I wrote it and it maybe went through two rewrites, minor rewrites. Essentially everything I wrote in my first draft was how it had to be told. I mean, it went through two rewrites.

[00:08:02] But it just, I felt it. It's what had to happen in the story. I didn't think about it, but I will say this, the stuff that had to be fixed, I went back to looking at the goal of the plot map and they were like, okay, this is sort of missing. What could I do here? So I used the plot map to help fix it, not because of the specific points of the plot map, but because of the basic goal of the plot map, which is to help.

[00:08:30] Show character transformation and change. And so that gave me ideas of how to enhance that visually. So it was really just an intuitive process and I could probably go down, go through it and show you how these key moments probably are in the short film. But I didn't write the short film using it. I only used it to help fix problems.

[00:08:55] Gotcha. Yes, yes. And so what I'm going to encourage you to do is instead of thinking about the plot map, first of all, trust that you know it. You've been through the course, you've learned it. It's in you. So trust that, that it's in you Now. Forget about it. Don't have the editor be working. Forget about it.

[00:09:13] And now your sole job, David. Is to focus on your character and making him as real in every single moment as possible. Because when I read your short film, part of what was happening is it wasn't real. I didn't buy it. Mm-hmm. You know, I didn't buy that. It was real, you know, I didn't buy his emotion. And so your job in the short film is to make every moment.

[00:09:40] Honest and to let the character be driving what happens next, because the choices that they make to get what they want, that is why it's so important in every kind of story that you write, that you give your character a goal to pursue. Yeah. As long as you have the goal, that's how you're going to flesh it out.

[00:09:59] You're not gonna think about the plot map. You are going to absolutely flesh it out based on what steps the character takes to get what they want. Does that help? Yes, very much so. Okay, good. Because I was thinking, wow, to try to condense all that and you can't, two seconds here and a minute there is like, woo, ignore it.

[00:10:18] Forget about it. You'll go back to the plot map when you're ready to do a feature. Perfect. Okay. Thank you so much. That's very helpful. Thank you for listening to the Storyteller's mission with Zena Del Lo. May you go forth inspired to change the world for the better. Your story.