Damon Nomad's Writer's Zone

Hitchcock said that the audience cares about the characters. THe plot, he continued, is there to give the characters something to care about. He disdained his famous plot devices as McGuffins.

Ideally, the plot and character arcs fit snugly together and complement each other. Try tracing the character and plot arcs in "North by Northwest" to see how the several character arcs fit together AND fit with the overall plot. The superficial plot--the "secrets" that the spies chase and the government defends--are never made explicit. None of the tension in the movie derives from the superficial spy-stealing-secrets plot. It's all from the character arcs.

There's much to be learned from studying Hitch.


Max Griffin
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