Rage Against The Page

Characters must struggle then suffer as a result. Update 1: (27 February, 2006) Perhaps better written as: Characters must struggle, suffer, and finally change . _____ The 'signpost' entries are meant to be mercifully short -- it's not a fault with your browser leaving stuff out! These occasional and brief posts will be a welcome relief for those who, er, struggle through my customary long-winded posts and, um, suffer because of it.

Seriously, right now, stop work on that screenplay until you answer this question: Why are you writing this? Money? That better be your Number Two reason, buckeroo. I'll give you a pass if your Numero Uno reason is in order. Is it? (Return to the top of this post and start again.) New Year's Resolution? It's February already. Let it go. Everybody else already did. Nobody cares if you stick to your promise to finally finish your killer screenplay. I'm one of those people. There are a lot of us. So slide your twenty pages back into the bottom drawer. You can dust it off again next January 1. To win back your girl? Move along. This one's taken. Ahem. Guilt? Yeah, funny how that 'paint yourself into a corner' philosophy thing works. You know, you go around telling everybody you'll write a screenplay and make it big time. That way you set up a tangible motivation to achieve your goal. There is real risk and real reward. You've already told everybody ...

This is a new blog. So I really should save this topic for later. I don't want to 'jump the shark' this early in the game. I feel like I'm about to act out the money shot before the cameras are up to speed. Ah well. Once we are done, here in this post, you may not want to return. Ever . Some will run screaming because of the two brief but stenchiferous sentences I am about to utter. Yes, I had to invent a whole new word to describe how disgusted these folk will be a few short paragraphs from now. Others won't return because they will soon have an essential piece ( the essential piece) of the storytelling puzzle they didn't have before. They'll walk away from this post bearing a firebrand that will spark heat and light and life into their stories. Once you have that, the rest is a technicality. A third group will read what follows and curse me for being the masked magician who gives away the mechanism behind the mystery. But, know what? I don't give ...

Update: new version of the 4-Act Story Diamond graphic here . Update 2  (2023): Even more 4-act structure , courtesy of Stan Williams. I don't believe in the three-act screenplay story structure. It's four acts, plain and simple. I said so ten years ago on Jack Stanley's Scrnwrit list, and nothing has changed since. Four acts, no more, no less. I'm sorry those screenwriting gurus sold you on three acts and then five acts and then seven acts or -- what are we up to now? Nine? Twelve? Look, we're all grasping for the magic template that will reign in the chaos and tame our wild stories, so I don't blame you for listening to those guys. The four acts were there all along and the screenwriting gurus knew it, or at least sensed it. Certainly Syd Field knew it, although he failed to make a clean break from the dogmatic Aristotle three-act structure . I swear, if I hear once more that line about "Get your hero up a tree, throw rocks at him, then get him ...

"Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around." -- Herman J. Mankiewicz to friend Ben Hecht, urging him to come to Hollywood, circa 1928 (Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia) Before you dust off your screenplay and hot-foot it to Hollywood after reading that quote, remember, this was almost 80 years ago, when Hollywood was starting to get comfortable with the idea of 'the talkies'. Title cards were no more. The technical marvel of recorded dialogue had arrived, and it radically redefined the job of writing for the screen. But for smart former news reporters like Mankiewicz and Hecht, adapting to the new medium was never going to be a problem. In 2006 some things have changed. Screenwriting is a mature craft, we have global real-time connectivity, and moviemaking is a billion-dollar industry. Still there are idiots competing for your screenplay sale -- there's just a lot more of them. A planet full. Ahe...

Update: see this post for a Wikipedia history of Alien 5 rumours. I want to write the next Alien screenplay. I want to pull the franchise out of the toilet and make it potent again. But, alas, people like Paul W. S. Anderson, writer of Alien vs. Predator , conspire to keep the lid down and the toilet door barricaded shut. The Aliens franchise is not escaping the sewers any time soon, if those people have their way. Aliens in the sewers. Wasn't that the plot for Alien 3? Or 4? Now and then I press my ear to the toilet door, and for a second I think I hear splashing and a faint gurgle, like there might still be life in there -- a claw reaching out from the S-bend, perhaps. No. I've pretty much given up hope. Probably Ms Weaver is the sole force that can return the franchise to the screen (but read on for my idea about how to restart the franchise without her). So it's unlikely we'll see another Alien film anytime soon. Unless Ridley Scott tosses his hat back in the ring...

Hi, Folks. Thirteen years ago I wrote the following article. I just googled, and the three hits on "andrew ferguson megaplotter" are dead -- nothing in google cache, either. Those three amigos will surely disappear soon, so I'm blogging it now for posterity. I've learned a lot about story crafting in those 13 years since, and I was tempted to completely overhaul this thing, but I decided to go so far as fixing the spelling errors and leave it there. Raw as it may be, looking upon it now, it does hit the major beats of the Hero's Journey, and it still offers a good starting point for novice writers and screenwriters. Over the coming months I plan to dump in here a plethora of writing research and knowledge, accumulated over decades, in the hope that other writers will find it useful. ----- Version 280293 Compiled by Andrew Ferguson (For clarity, I use a male hero throughout this text. However, reference to one gender is intended to encompass both genders.) ACT ...