Pop quiz. What is the catalyst in this story?
Day in and day out, you live a routine (yawn) life. Monday thru Friday you go to work at the flip-flop factory. Through clinched teeth, you spend endless weekends with step kids from your fifth marriage. If you’re lucky, you’ll earn enough moola to trade in that Pacer to buy that ’87 Camaro you’ve been dreaming about. Ah, the stale bliss of a rut.
But you secretly long to be a circus clown.
This particular Tuesday you and the Camaro you’ve named Lilly Belle are cruising down the freeway. You’re jamming to “Sexy Back”, when all of a suddenly you have a blowout. You careen into a Paris Hilton billboard and are knocked into a coma.
You wake up six years later. Your spouse is remarried to a guy named Junebug. Your step kids are grown and suing you for past due child support, and Lilly Belle has gone to Chevrolet heaven.
You’re released back into society with no money or place to stay. As you pitifully make your way to the soup line, Ray drives up. He is the owner of a fledgling carnival on the verge of bankruptcy. Ray feels sorry for you and takes you in - for a price. You have to shovel horse…well… you know. No problem. You gleefully deal with nature’s fertilizer, as you intensely study the carnival’s “stars” while they practice routines.
One day, Chuckles, the headliner clown, is injured in a tragic hoola hoop accident. The only one who can fill in is you.
Everyday, you struggle with the same hoola hoop routine that injured Chuckles. You trip over the clown shoes, can’t keep your red nose shiny, and constantly drop the hoola hoop. You don’t think you can do it, but Ray has faith in you.
Opening day comes and you’re on. The performance is going along flawlessly until you reach the dangerous hoola hoop move. The crowd holds its breath, but you execute it perfectly. You are now the most famous clown in the world.
Have you identified the catalyst? If you have, kudos. If not, read on.
The catalyst in a screenplay is a new stimulus to the protagonist’s already existing life. It is an "event" that peaks the interest of the audience and traditionally begins somewhere at the 10-15 page mark of a feature length script. The catalyst starts the action and defines what the story is about.
This event has a significant impact on the protagonist's life, making it substantially better or worse. However, even if this event is positive in nature, the reaction it sets off will cause conflict and antagonism.
The catalyst will always turn the protagonist's present life in different direction.
The catalyst usually comes in one of several forms - dialogue (teenage girl overhears her grandmother plotting to kill her grandfather or important information is relayed to the hero), situation (arrival of a long-forgotten, troubled friend), inciting incident (aliens invade a small town and the citizens have to react to it), or an opportunity.
Usually the protagonist(s) is aware of the catalyst, but this is not always the case. Here, the catalyst will still have a significant effect on the life of the protagonist. Take for instance the catalyst in Friday the 13th. The camp counselors are unaware of the dialogue (the catalyst) that Annie has with the truck driver at approximately ten minutes into the film.
The truck driver peaks the interest of the audience by warning Annie about the dire fate she will encounter at Camp Crystal Lake. At this moment, all of our carefree camp counselors go from an easygoing environment to becoming prey. The spine story is defined and the action starts.
Annie is now aware of the circumstances that await her, but blows it off. She is murdered before she can deliver the warning to the other counselors. However, the audience now has the superior position of knowing that the rest of the counselors are going to die.
Being unaware, the counselors deal with the very minor subplot of trying to get the camp ready for the impending arrival of the children. This subplot last for about two acts before the last two counselors become aware that something evil is going on.
So remember, even if the protagonist is initially unaware of the catalyst, at some point (definitely before the climax) he has to become aware of the total situation ignited by the catalyst.
By the way, the catalyst in our story is the car accident, you famous clown you.
