Story Vs. Plot

Being an aspiring filmmaker, I get to learn a lot about stuff like camera angles, exposure, and plot vs. story. When asked for my position on story vs. plot I had my immediate answer, but after doing some research, I realized that it's not black and white.

I always had the preconceived notion that story has to do more with the soul behind the story and plot is the more technical portion. Here's my reasoning.

When someone sees your totally sick scar on your arm, they ask "what's the story behind that?" Or when you are hanging with some friends and a guy walks by and they all look at one girl in your group and you think to yourself what's the story behind that? Never once have you told your friend who just went out and spontaneously adopted five dogs, "yeah, that's got to be a good plot." When someone gets engaged, whats the first thing you ask? "How did it happen? Tell me the whole story" Story is all about the background and all of the emotion and life that went into a happening. Children read storybooks, not plotbooks. Kids don't ask their parents to tell them "just one more plot." Not saying that plots aren't important. Because they are. When your dad tucked you in when you were seven and you asked him to tell you the same story about the princess he told last night, the reason he can't remember how it goes is because it had no plot. 

Plot is the skeleton of the story. It does all of the hard work. It ensures that everything makes sense. It makes sure that there are no holes and every thread is tied at the end. 

A perfect example is that of a love letter I bought at a antique store (long story for another time). In this letter from 1963, Mr. Bill wrote about his life and it's happenings to Mrs. Janice. When I purchased this letter, I was expecting this crazy love story of these helpless romantics but it was just little inside jokes. I'm sure they would make a beautiful movie, but I don't have the story, I just have the plot. "I came to look for you on Sunday but your parents said you had left." "George just got from Vietnam. God Bless him." "Make sure you work hard on those studies." This is the plot of Bill and Janice's story, but since I don't have the story it makes no sense. That why it is essential to have both story and plot.

We all have a story to tell, but we also need a plot, or we will just become a bedtime story.