How to Audio Drama: Your Plot

I’m going to start this edition of How to Audio Drama with, perhaps, a contentious statement: Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat, one of the most taught books on screenwriting, is a horrid, awful thing that nobody should have to read.

When it comes to plot, it is helpful to use guides and analyses written by others to help construct your story in a way that makes sense. The three-act structure, the hero’s journey, and, yes, the Snyder “beat sheet” are all traditional formats that do not always need to be closely followed. They are analyses, not guidelines. However, if you’re making your very first audio drama, they do provide structures that will help you when planning.

So, let’s talk plot. And plots are, really, all about conflict.

What is the conflict?

Even for happy, hopeful, simple, slice-of-life stories, conflict drives the plot. A narrative doesn’t have to focus on the end of the world to have compelling conflict. Let’s break down some different types of conflicts:

• Person vs. Self: A story in which the protagonist must work against their own morals, inner conflicts, etc. to achieve the task at hand.
• Person vs. Person: A story in which the protagonist must work against an antagonist. The protagonist and antagonist have contrasting goals in regards to the task at hand.
• Person vs. Society: A story in which the protagonist must work against cultural norms, the government, traditions, etc. to achieve the task at hand.
• Person vs. Nature: A story in which the protagonist must work against the harshness of nature to achieve the task at hand.
• Person vs. Machine: A story in which the protagonist must work against the efficiency of technology to achieve the task at hand.
• Person vs. Fate: A story in which the protagonist must work against a curse, a prophecy, etc. to achieve the task at hand.

Now, let’s think back to two key factors about your audio drama so far: your concept and your setting. Your setting should make some conflict types clearly irrelevant to your audio drama, especially in regards to Nature and Machine. But what type of conflict is present in your concept? Most concepts will eventually boil down to Person vs. Society in some way, but at a more surface level, who or what is your protagonist working against? Who is in direct conflict with your protagonist?

That relationship, between your protagonist and antagonist, is the beating heart, the ticking clock, of your plot.

Planning your plot beats

Now that you understand your conflict, let’s talk about some story structures you can use to plan out the progression of your plot. Every plot will follow a general story structure like this:

• Exposition: The introduction of the characters, the setting, and the conflict
• Rising action: The events that lead up to the turning point in the conflict
• Climax: The turning point in the conflict, and often the most dramatic scene
• Falling action: The dust settling from that climax
• Resolution: The final state of things now that the conflict has come to a head and been resolved in one way or another

But here are some more detailed plot beat structures that can help you hone the nitty-gritty of what those stages mean.

Gabriel Urbina’s 10-point plot structure

Gabriel Urbina is one of the most respected names in audio fiction, and for good reason. His work on Wolf 359 is lauded as some of the best in the genre, and he’s gone on to create other fiction podcasts like Time:Bombs, Zero Hours, and guest episodes on fiction anthologies.

He’s also created resources for creators, including his 10-point plot structure course. This in-depth structure has a focus on raising the stakes higher and higher, with some built-in failures that will keep your plot realistic.

Dan Harmon’s story circle

Dan Harmon is the creator of Community and one of the creators of Rick and Morty. His “story circle” has become a new favorite among writers regardless of their medium. The story circle focuses on sacrifice and change. The structure can be summed up as such:

The hero is in a zone of comfort, but they want something. They enter an unfamiliar environment, they adapt to it, and they get what they want, but they pay a heavy price for it. They return to their familiar situation, having changed.

Dan Harmon’s story circle

What will the protagonist gain along their journey, and what must they give up, regardless of the cost, to succeed?

And, yes, the plot beats from Save the Cat

Listen, yes, these plot beats are fine and work perfectly well. Luckily, you don’t have to read the book to learn about them, because everyone has already discussed them. Here’s a worksheet on the beats. And here’s a video explaining.

Consider your series, your seasons, your episodes, and your scenes

Your story as a whole isn’t the only thing that should have a plot, though. Your seasons, episodes, and scenes should all have a feeling of conflict and further development. This isn’t to say that your podcast needs to be episodic, or that each episode needs to end on a cliffhanger. Instead, think about why each season, episode, and scene starts and ends where it does. If you find that you’re ending an episode after about 15 pages because that number feels right, try to think more deeply about your structure. Each episode should convey a clear idea, a clear step on your protagonist’s and the conflict’s development. Each season should do the same, and each scene should do the same.

Treat your outline like a suggestion

We’ve focused a lot on structure here, because having structure means you always have a safety net when you stray–and you should stray. A roadtrip to a destination is always better when you stop for local food, or to look at a roadside attraction. The same is true for your plot.

Each moment in your story should have a purpose–but sometimes, maybe even fairly often, those moments shouldn’t just be about raising the stakes or finding clues about the next conspiracy. You can have silly exchanges between characters. You can have moments of quiet, like the technique of “Ma” used in Studio Ghibli films:

Having moments that stray from the plot but add to character or pacing help make your work feel real, and help your listeners steep in the sentiment at the heart of your show. Allow quiet moments so your plot can breathe. Allow moments outside the plot so your listeners an get to know who the characters are when they aren’t engulfed in conflict. If you’re writing and you find yourself compelled to have a character mention their best cookie recipe, let the character speak. If it doesn’t work, you can edit it out. If it does work, your listeners will be dying to know that recipe.