Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors II: Story Structure for Pantsers and Plotters (Screenwriting Tricks For Authors (and Screenwriters!) Book 2)

List # 2: The Master List The other list we’ve already talked about: that list of your ten favorite movies and books in the genre that you’re writing, or if you don’t have a premise yet, ten movies and books that you wish you had written.

KEEPING THE HERO/INE AND ANTAGONIST IN CLOSE PROXIMITY. Think of it as a chess game: the players are in a very small, confined space, and always passing within inches of each other, whether or not they’re aware of it. They should cross paths often, even if it’s not until the end until the hero/ine and the audience understand that the antagonist has

A Mistaken Identity story, for example, will almost always have threat of discovery, a confidante who knows the score, numerous tests of the hero/ine’s story, scenes of trapping the hero/ine into the role, scenes of the role starting to backfire, and of course, a big unmasking scene, usually at the climax of Act III. Identifying these expected scen

The essence of a third act is the final showdown between protagonist and antagonist. Sometimes that’s all there is to it: one final battle between the protagonist and antagonist. (And again, in a love story, the antagonist is often the lover.)

ASSIGNMENT: Take a look at the dynamics of your own WIP. Who’s the Lover, and who’s the Loved One? Who’s the Pursuer and who’s the Pursued? Do those roles switch at some point?

ASSIGNMENT: Start being on the lookout for great climaxes (or curtains or cliffhangers) – theatrical, filmic, and novelistic. In a film, you will be looking at your timer or clock at about 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and 90 minutes to find the act breaks and Midpoint climax, then the final climax at about 110 minutes; in a 400-page novel the climaxes w

Entering the Special World is a huge moment and deserves special weight.

Also usually at the climax of Act Two, the CENTRAL QUESTION of the story, that was asked in the first act, is answered. And here’s an interesting structural paradigm to consider. In a lot of stories, the answer is often: No.

The time to know what your book is about is before you start it,