Rage Against The Page

I need a roadmap.  I'm not disciplined enough to stick to a simple, clean through-line when I'm storycrafting.  I need an unflappable navigation system to steer me true north.  So over the years I've refined a master mindmap charting the gotta-haves and put-it-heres. Storytelling is structure.  Screenwriting is structure.  There's your secret to success.  If you sucked in a breath just now and narrowed your eyes and formed the word "but..." in your mind, you are wrong.  But you can be cured.  Zen with me now: screenwriting is structure.  Take your medicine.  Fight that burning fever driving you to start writing with no outline.  Without even a logline!  Drink deep and drink again and feel the pain and anguish lift and drift away.  You were lost but you are found.  Screenwriting is structure. Dan Harmon is our gen-X Joseph Campbell.  I mean that in a good way — not that it could be construed in a bad w...

This concern with external beauty that you reproach me for is a method for me. When I discover a disagreeable assonance or a repetition in one of my sentences, I can be sure that I'm floundering around in something false. By dint of searching, I find the right expression, which was the only one all along, and at the same time the harmonious one. The word is never lacking when one is in possession of the idea. --Gustave Flaubert, March 1876 That in response to criticism at taking a whole day to produce a single sentence. Like he says, the idea's in no hurry.  Dress it up, dress it down, keep going until you find the right look.  When you see it you'll know.  Then shove that sentence out the door and dress the next one.

It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain. Let's scriptify Hemmingway . Beach - Day RAIN. Dripping from the palm trees. Water stands in pools on the gravel paths. The sea breaks in a long line in the rain and slips back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain. Hell yes. Subject, verb (five strong ones), object. At least three distinct, vivid shots suggested. Look at the lengthening sentences. There's your shot pacing. And a final sentence that unfolds exactly like the action it describes.

So apparently Blogger only allows 4,096 characters in a comment on a post.  Fair enough.  "Nobody will ever need more than 4K for a comment" shall not thwart the ravings of a story guy.  Here's my comment to Go Into The Story's " What Fuels Story " article.  Any comments, please add them to the Go Into The Story article instead of here.  Thanks. @James -- You can have Wants/Needs (goals).  You can know what the obstacles are in your way.  You can have Wounds that fuel those Wants/Needs. I *want* to pass the grueling selection process and be one of the admired few to make it into the city's elite firefighter special unit: the Vapor Squad. I *need* to save people's lives.  Snatch them from the jaws of certain fiery death.  I need this because at the age of eight I watched my six-year-old sister soak herself in petrol and set herself alight.  I didn't know what to do to save her.  My parents say I'm not to blame, but we share...

Michael Arndt Stephen Hoover took notes at the Austin Film Festival when Michael Arndt spoke about cooking up Toy Story 3.  This is manna from story heaven -- not a new recipe for most structuralists out there, I expect, but tasty nonetheless.  Reading once isn't enough.  Rest, digest, then return for seconds.  Thank you, Stephen, and thank you, Michael. The First Ten Pages Establish the protagonist’s expectations for the future. What exactly are they expecting? It doesn’t have to be super positive, but it’s their realistic take on where they are headed. Establish the interactions/relationships between the characters. What is their life in its normal state. The expectations should be concrete with specific details. E.g. TOY STORY 3 (TS3) – Toys expect they will be put in the attic. Not a great expectation for the future but that’s what they think. Clear specific examples – Christmas stuff is up there, won’t be so bad. Central philosophical viewpo...

Archiving. It's still available at archive.org , all but gone from the web otherwise. Field calls it the "pinch". Vogler calls it the "second major threshold". What they both refer to is the middle of the traditional second act of the three-act structure. For God's sake, gentlemen, LET'S CALL A SPADE A SPADE! It's been there all along, yet no story structuralist wants to go against the grain and say that the middle act is in fact TWO ACTS (point C on the diagram). What's the problem with acknowledging that the traditional three-act structure has in fact been a four-act structure all along? It's not going to shake the foundations of Hollywood. But it might help screenwriters fix stories that sag between pages 30 and 90 (in the 120-page paradigm). p.1/120 REALM 1 . . . . A . . . . REALM 4 . * | * . . * | * ...