Learning Structure
Penguin May 7th, 2008
John August has a fantastic post about learning how to write story structure:
My advice for you is to dedicate one day a week to disassembling good movies. Take existing films (and one-hour dramas) and break them down to cards. Think of yourself as an ordinary mechanic given the task of reverse-engineering a spaceship. Figure out what the pieces do, and why they were put together in that way.
Here are the questions you need to ask about each scene or sequence:
- As the audience, what am I expecting will happen next?
- What does the character want to do next?
- Is this a good moment to let the character achieve something, or knock him back?
- How long has it been since we checked in with other character and subplots?
- What would have happened if this scene had been cut? Or moved?
By asking these questions about other people’s movies, you can take some of the pressure off.
[...]
I think you can keep making breakthroughs in your writing, but only by challenging your preconceived limitations.
This is great advice for any novice/intermediate screenwriters. I know I’ve been struggling with the same question. Now to actually get to writing.
-Penguin
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