The mythological approach to story boils down to using metaphors or comparisons to get across your feelings about life.
Vogler, C. (2007). The writer’s journey: mythic structure for writers (3rd ed.). Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions. Page 84.
At the heart of every story is a confrontation with death. If the Hero doesn’t face actual death, then there is the threat of death or symbolic death in the form of a high-stakes game, love affair, or adventure in which the Hero may succeed (live) or fail (die).
Heroes show us how to deal with death.
Vogler, C. (2007). The writer’s journey: mythic structure for writers (3rd ed.). Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions. Page 32.
Continues Finding crisis (Structure part 2).
One relationship in which contrast is applied is the one between the crisis and the ultimate story end. Whether it is a good or a bad ending, the crisis must be the opposite. A story that ends positively contains a crisis, and in the same way, a story with a negative ending has a state of ecstasy at the end of act 2.
Attempting to do the alternative would lead to a badly-told story. Continue reading Finding contrast (Structure part 3)
The real world is far more complex and ambiguous than most story universes created by an author. Take the controversial topic of cannabis, for example. So many conflicting opinions exist, and scientific findings are not absolute. Continue reading Real-World Ambiguity
There is no single way to tell a story, no right way, because the choice of form is a creative decision. The scriptwriter’s choice of form communicates a basic feel and a point of view that fundamentally determines how we understand the story.
Dancyger, K., & Rush, J. (2013). Alternative Scriptwriting: beyond the Hollywood formula (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Focal Press. Page 32.
ScreenwritingU has published a long list of screenplays that feature in Oscar nominations in some way. As usual, they are mostly shooting scripts. However, if you want to read up on successful scripts from the last few years, this is a very welcome list indeed.
Continues Finding Plot Point 2 (Structure part 1).
The crisis is the culmination of all the hero has tried so far. After a marathon of conflict, the hero seems beaten. It was too much for them. The foreign world got the better of them. The crisis can be very dramatic – and as we are close to the film’s end, it has to be.
Recently I was struggling to find the Plot Point 2 (as used by Syd Field) in a story of mine. Which is the scene that takes the story from act 2 to act 3? Interestingly, David Trottier in The Screenwriter’s Bible defines a Big Event (the equivalent to Syd’s Plot Point 1) but no corresponding point at the end of act 2. For him, the end of act 2 would be the crisis – but that’s not one distinct moment or scene, rather a sequence.
To be a screenwriter is to deal with an ongoing tug of war between breathtaking megalomania and insecurity so deep it takes years of therapy just to be able to say “I’m a writer” out loud. This is especially so among the spec screenwriting crowd I like to hang with.
Snyder, B. (2005). Save the cat! : the last book on screenwriting you’ll ever need. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions. Page 11.
The scene is an important building block when creating a screenplay. It is used to beat out a script before sitting down for the first draft. Every scene has a certain purpose, it has a protagonist with a goal, it ideally has a three-act-structure of its own. This is all very fine when put on index cards, but when you’re actually putting the scenes to paper, suddenly different rules apply: A new scene starts when the place or the time change.