Story Patterns: The BIG LIE
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
It’s still the holidays, and I’m continuing this series on using holiday movies to level up your writing!
One of the best movies we watched this week was The Scapegoat, a 2012 adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s 1957 novel.
You do have to buy into a pretty preposterous setup, but it’s so well acted by a wonderful and beautifully matched cast, with some clever “well, that would kind of work in the moment” moments, that I was in for the ride.
The classic story pattern used in The Scapegoat is what I call THE BIG LIE.
In The Big Lie, the MAIN STORY ACTION is the main character pretending to be someone else to get what they want.
The Big Lie is very common in romance and romantic comedy: Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, and While You Were Sleeping are great examples of this story pattern. But it has much deeper roots in theater, including Shakespeare’s comedies, Molière and French farce, American and English bedroom farce, Italian commedia dell’arte, going all the way back to Golden Age Greek drama.
For paid subscribers — here’s an expanded look at While You Were Sleeping.
There are also lots of variations on the BIG LIE situation, as in The Proposal and The Wedding Date, where a couple has to PRETEND THEY’RE MARRIED (or engaged) —and inevitably, they fall in love. A CON where the hero/ine pretends to be the child or relative of a wealthy person might be a Big Lie story (but a CAPER story is a different pattern). And of course there’s the TWIN-SWITCH pattern, often used, but as a main plot probably most famously in The Parent Trap; and the non-blood related DOPPELGANGER pattern, about which more in a minute.
(SPOILER ALERT for people who want to see Saltburn but haven’t yet…
You might even call Emerald Fennell’s deliciously divisive Saltburn a Big Lie story, although in my personal classification system I would argue that in a Big Lie story, the audience or reader is in on the deception from the beginning, from the point of view of the protagonist. So for me, Saltburn falls more comfortably into the UNRELIABLE NARRATOR trope of the crime genre, as well as being very clearly a TALENTED MR. RIPLEY story pattern, an EAT THE RICH story (kind of literally!), a sort of CUCKOO story (interloper invading someone else’s nest) and a HOUSE OBSESSION STORY, like the excellent Sarah Waters supernatural mystery The Little Stranger.
As I keep saying, there is usually more than one Story Pattern working in a book or script.
And as always, if you want more of a breakdown of any of these movies I mention, let me know!
—END SPOILERS——
The Big Lie is one of my favorite STORY PATTERNS— to watch or read, that is! I’ve never had any particular urge to write one myself. But I love them, done well. And it’s not just about the delicious inherent suspense that puts the pretending protagonist in danger of discovery.
The Big Lie story is deeply thematic, because in those better stories, the lie exposes deeper truths.
And usually, these truths have been suppressed, and would not have surfaced and would not be acted on—if not for the lie. It’s that interplay between lies and truth—and how to sort them out in order to live a much better life—that makes a story like this sing.
Tootsie is one of the best movies to watch for “the lie brings out a deeper truth” thematic element. It’s much more than a romantic comedy—it’s also a farce, a constantly laugh-out loud comedy, and a character study of an unlikable male protagonist undergoing a huge thematic character change.
I’ve been focusing a lot on posts exploring specific STORY PATTERNS, because knowing and consciously working with the story patterns of your own book or script is one of the best ways to elevate your writing. Once you know the KIND(s) of story you’re writing, you can look at examples of those particular story patterns and get a sense of the structural elements and tricks common to that story pattern – the key scenes a reader wants and expects to see in these stories.
A BIG LIE story will almost always have:
threat of discovery,
a confidante or savvy potential opponent who knows the score,
numerous tests of the hero/ine’s story,
scenes of trapping the hero/ine into the role,
scenes of the role starting to backfire and spiral out of control
and of course, a big unmasking scene, usually at the climax of Act III.
So if you’re writing a romantic comedy with a Big Lie, make a Master List of Big Lie stories you love. I always suggest including Tootsie, While You Were Sleeping, and Roman Holiday.
(Tootsie is definitely one you should look at for genius ways of handling the specific elements of this kind of story.)
Then watch several of the movies on your list in a row, and—
Identify common scenes
Pay attention to how other storytellers have handled them
And get inspired to brainstorm unique and fun scenes of your own.
But also think about the possibility of watching stories with that pattern that are outside your own genre. You’ll learn more than you might think!
Which brings us back to the start of my post:
I was delighted to find The Scapegoat, because it’s an excellent movie that for me hits the holiday sweet spot: there are Agatha Christie-like machinations in a stately home full of eccentric characters.
And because it shows the Big Lie pattern in operation in a mystery/suspense story.
So you traditional and cozy mystery writers will definitely want to check it out—but it would be just as valuable for those of you writing Big Lie romances.
This 2012 movie, smartly undated, adapted and directed by Charles Sturridge from Daphne Du Maurier’s novel, is set in 1953 England and stars Matthew Rhys in a double role as a rich heir/foundry owner and a recently fired teacher who switch places, a la The Prince and the Pauper.
So this variation on the Big Lie is a DOPPELGANGER or PRINCE AND THE PAUPER pattern. Are these “official” names? No. Do I often make them up? Yes, and I encourage you to make up your own names for patterns you see! But it’s also important to be aware of more traditional names for classic story patterns in literature, like the Doppelgänger, because they evoke deeper archetypes. The Du Maurier novel definitely leans in to the more supernatural resonance of the Doppelgänger archetype: the idea that we all have a mystical double, and meeting that double can be a gift or a curse. (The novel is also much darker, as you’d expect from Du Maurier—the adaptation, while not exactly wholesome, takes a much more optimistic and moral point of view.)
I think The Scapegoat really shows how The Big Lie can paradoxically draw out a whole lot of deeper truths, and in the case of this modernized adaptation— heal a whole lot of damaged people. (Now I want to get my hands on the earlier 1959 movie, with Alec Guinness, to compare and contrast!]
The Scapegoat is also a good example of how the Big Lie pattern tends to be structured with the Hero/ine mostly WINNING in Act II: Part 1, and then starting to LOSE in Act II: Part 2. In The Scapegoat, the THREAT and STAKES are much higher than in romantic comedy, and that’s partly because one of the characters has murderous intent, but more because the movie very quickly made me care about the people whose lives are being invaded by the protagonist. In Act II:2, when things got darker, I was very invested in the protagonist doing the right thing for everyone’s sake.
It all comes to a very, very satisfying ending, with a nice thematic use of a historical event from the year 1953.
So again, while it’s incredibly important to know the general, Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure, and it’s important to know the patterns of the particular Genre and Subgenres you’re writing in— it’s sometimes even more inspiring and useful to identify the KIND of story you’re writing within that genre.
Think about it:
What story patterns are you using in your own book or script?
With most stories, there are probably more than one pattern. Can you find some you weren’t aware of that you can bring out in your next draft?
Check out more of the hundreds of story patterns:
Writing Love, Chapter 4 and throughout the book
Stealing Hollywood, Chapter 4 and throughout the book
All material © Alexandra Sokoloff, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
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I loved lots of things about Saltburn, which I watched yesterday, but felt that the Big Lie needed more exposition somehow and that it didn't actually connect enough to the rest of the movie post-birthday party. In terms of when that reveal happened though, I'd be curious to know if you think it was mid-point or end of Act 2:II
I'm writing the big lie in a romance and this is very helpful. I was thinking of revealing the lie as the climax of Act 2 Part 2, but it's tempting to drag it out until the end of Act 3 as well.