Sublime

Or: What’s the best possible thing that could happen to my protagonist? How could it become the worst possible thing?

the wise writer redesigns the story to preserve what’s vital.

create a story design in which every scene is a minor, moderate, or major Turning Point.

Secure writers don’t sell first drafts.

Set-up (including mini inciting incident) Confrontation (conflict ending in crisis point) (Climax and) Resolution.

everything,

In treatment the writer indicates what characters talk about—“he wants her to do this, but she refuses,” for example—but never writes dialogue.

we give the audience the experience we’ve promised, but not in the way it expects. This is what separates artist from amateur. In Aristotle’s words, an ending must be both “inevitable and unexpected.