An issue I would often run into when providing coverage was a script not feeling full. The characters, story, and plot would all be engaging but the overall product would feel lacking. I’ve discussed a separate yet similar issue with some writer friends recently. Everyone that has tried to write a script has at least once gotten to page 23 and felt that the story was finished, but somehow you are still missing about ⅓ of the script. What can be a good remedy for both of these issues? The inclusion of a C plot!
C plots can be an incredibly helpful tool in beefing up the story and page count in your film or television script. It can be a great way to hammer in a theme or maybe even provide depth or contrast to the struggles of the main character. Oftentimes the C plot follows a more lighthearted or comedic tone because, at least in television, it is utilized to work in moments for less central characters. This is a great opportunity to form recurring bits or inside jokes between characters like in How I Met Your Mother.
Any given episode of Modern Family works as a perfect example of including a C plot in your script. The format of the show almost requires this as the narrative is split between the three sections of the family (the Dunphys, the Pritchetts, and the Pritchett-Tuckers). Since it is available for free online, I’m going to be talking about the pilot specifically.
Similar to a rhyme scheme in a poem, the A, B, and C plots are layered evenly throughout the script. Doing this creates a seamless flow between the antics of the different character groupings and provides a spot for each of the eleven (later twelve) family members to shine. The layering of this pilot goes as follows (dashes in place of act breaks): ABC-ABCA-BCA-C. The last scene of the episode falls under C, but it is more of a combination of all the stories. This is because the writers conclude every plot point in one meeting between all the characters at the very end of the episode. As you can tell, each of the plots are evenly spread out. This allows the reader (or viewer if you’re lucky!) to get some distance between each plot line instead of loading all of one into either the first or second half of the episode.
Though I have mainly discussed C plots in television, this absolutely applies to film scripts as well! In fact, due to the length of a film script, many include D or (less often) E plots. I would warn writers not to overcrowd the script, though. Like all scenes in a script, these moving parts should in some way work off of each other to create a more perfect overall product. Allowing your characters to spread out and encounter their own separate situations will not only make your script feel more full but will also help the narrative flow better – if done correctly!
-Cody
How We Write 
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